Author: Karie Herring

Karie Herring rambles of a former life in Phoenix, AZ while raising a teen and tween twins in their new home in Orlando, FL. She has been featured in AOL Money & Finance, Betty Confidential and Career School Now. She's a full-time technical writer, functional fitness athlete, overachieving wife and mom. She loves talking about maneuvering motherhood, womanhood, and her passion for essential oils and natural living.
Posted on

Mommy Free Time

I have some Mommy Free Time all day today and probably some of tomorrow or could be all day tomorrow…..Film at Eleven. (Happy Dance!)

My boys (DH and G) are in Albuquerque for the next few days. Chad has some business there so he is visiting customers and staying with his folks. Yesterday he decided that maybe he should take Grant so that he could see his cousins and have a mini-vacation from me. Though I think the mini-vacation (mini-stay-cation) is for me. Don’t get me wrong….I love my G dearly, he is my oldest, but man…..sometimes you need a break from your kids. So they headed off onto the open road and made it to Albuquerque late last night.

I, on the other hand enjoyed a night with just the twins. Not total free time….but guess what? THE TWINS CAN’T TALK!!! Or change channels, or bitch, or moan, or tell me to shut-up, or tell me no, just cry and whine because they are babies. So refreshing! The squids and I got dinner last night, watched the debates which were pathetic…..like watching a couple of teenage girls fight about gossip, did a few little projects, got all the laundry done, all the dishes are DONE, did some mending of clothes and odds and ends. Needless to say I had a quiet, productive evening! Not to mention I have NO laundry to do except the clothes on my back and the squids and the only dirty dish in the house is my coffee mug. PLUS!!!! I have a hair appointment today and my wonderful Mommy is coming to spend time with the Squids and I get girly pamper time. Loving my day! But tomorrow I am sure I will miss the boys terribly and hope they come home…..but for now…..I can take a nice deep relaxing breath!!

Posted on

Technological Lust!!

Okay…..so here is my NEW object that I am totally in lust with and for the ladies…..it vibrates!!

I have to say I just think that this thing is the coolest and I have been playing with it since the Fed Ex man left me with it. Now I can tell Chad…yes, the Fed Ex man has given me love….my phone! By the way…this cool new phone has unlimited text for my text happy family, and it was part of my 2yr upgrade so I paid a whopping……..are you ready for it????
$29.99
I know you are jealous right? LOL Anyway, just had to share my love of my new phone that I can text to my heart’s desire now too!
Posted on

I blame Brittany

So my beautiful and goober sister did this and I am so addicted to these little things so here goes:

Place to Visit (Tokyo)


Favorite Place

Past Pet

My Age (yikes)

Maiden Name

Bad Habit



Where I was born (Scottsdale, AZ)



Favorite Color

Favorite Food
Favorite Object
My Name
Favorite Animal
My Degree
My First Job
My Favorite Smells (I have to smell everything)
What I am doing right now
Posted on

Why I love AZ

Yesterday was so awesome. I woke up to my husband and three beautiful kids and to top the whole day off…….I got to open all my windows in the house and my back door. I think the high for yesterday was in the 70s and the day was absolutely fabulous! We went on our evening walk and I had to bundle up all the kids in sweaters and hoodies and Chad and I put light sweaters on because the wind was blowing and the night air was a bit chilly. However, you know you live in AZ when you are wearing a sweater, shorts and flip flops.

Then this morning I woke up to a bit of a chill in my house. I figured because the AC had just run not too long ago. WRONG! The thermostat said 68* and the thermometer outside my kitchen window said 50*. FABULOUS!!! I actually had to put a robe on this morning. More beautiful days to come as we head into the AZ winter. I love it here because 1) NO SNOW (Love the snow, very pretty…..but hate living where there is snow and bitter cold) and 2) 70* November and December’s rock.

Posted on

All about a bargain and some comedy

Shopping is always an adventure for me. Not only because I have three kids….that is a task I tell you. But because I have twins and for some awful reason I have tattooed on my head:

INVADE HER PRIVACY! ASK ANY AND ALL QUESTIONS AND BE RUDE ABOUT IT!

Yes I get all the dumb twins questions along with the questions that make me ask….”Do I also have I am a dumb and or retarded Mom?” tattooed on my head. I mean I know I had kids…but come on now. So after many stops of “Oh! Are they twins?” I finally have resorted to answering, “No….I liked the little girl so much I stole her since I was sick of this many boys” Thank goodness no one hears what I say since the majority that ask this question need the assistance of a hearing device. So I kindly nod my head like that bobble toy on your dash.
Okay so back to shopping. The kids and I visited Goodwill as I love Goodwill. I think thrift and secondhand stores are awesome for all the treasures, the baby clothes that are awesome and the jeans! I mean come on….jeans should never be donated they are timeless. So there we are shopping and finding all sorts of FABULOUS bargains when this woman approaches me. I am not one to judge, but she screamed DUMB ASS! Here is what fell out of her mouth to me:

(bad accent of some sorts, southern in nature) Oh look……a baby. Oh look, two babies….hmmmm….they ain’t twins are they? They sure as much do not look like each other….they can’t be twins….well….. I guess since one is a boy and one is a girl. Are they yours? Hmmm…..so these are your only children huh? Amazing what technology can do?

I smiled. If you know me you know I had to refrain from slapping the old hag. So I said ever so politely, “Yes they are twins, they do look like each other even for being opposite sex. And, if your curiosity is killing you that much twins run in my family.”
All I could do was smile and laugh…YIKES!

So then while Grant and I were together looking at some items he makes this utterly random comment to me:

“Mama, I don’t want a shiny pee pee.”

Yup just like that. I about wet my pants and then looked at him like WTF are you talking about? Who is shining your wanker that we need to be worrying about it. So I asked my boy so lovingly:

“Grant-baby what do you mean you don’t want a shiny pee pee?”

“You know Mama….shiny boots, shiny chest, helmet with a feather….I don’t want the shiny pee pee and everything else is shiny.”

Okay….so the knight costumer he has hounded me about has gained more detail. No shiny pee pee. Alrighty. But everything else in the knight costume must be shiny. Got it.

Posted on

The Twin Side of Life

So we all know twins are tough:

Double feedings
Double Diaper Changes
Double the Crying
Double the Trouble

DOUBLE EVERYTHING!!

But on top of that is getting to the double everything. What everyone, including myself, seems to forget is how fragile a pregnancy can be, let alone a twin pregnancy. A twin pregnancy is double the eating, double the worrying, double the “take it easy”. Some things however are even more double. Twins are like this: di-zygotic and mono-zygotic….I know I lost you. But to a MOM (Mother of Multiples) you know exactly what I am talking about and the difference this makes to your twins. My kids were di-zygotic in that they each had their own pod and their own placenta, where my previous twins that Chad and I lost in 2005 were mono-zygotic where they shared the same pod and probably the same placenta and they were transfusing blood to one another. This sucks!
So on the other side of twin life, when we heard our friends Mr. and Mrs. Jason Palmer were having twins we both laughed in joy (since they told us we were screwed and we laughed at their karma). But our joy has now turned to concern and unstoppable and unending prayer for these two folks who told us that their twins are mono-zygotic (and probably 99% identical). On Tuesday, Jason (a dear friend of Chad’s who he worked with @ Smith) told us that Baby B isn’t looking so good by the ultrasound and that they had two options:
1. Take it week by week to see how he does and then take them out at Week 28 to save them
2. Clamp off Baby B to save Baby A.

As a parent you know that you cannot choose one child over another and that you would gladly take their place. For these folks, they are in an awful waiting game and told Chad:

“There is really nothing we can do.”

I beg to differ! I am asking any and all of you who read this blog to please say a prayer for Jason and his wife, that their twins beat the doctors prognosis and that they get to enjoy these two beautiful gifts that they have been given, that all will be alright, and then they get to complain to us all that Chad and I know as parents of multiples.

Posted on

Graduation

So I checked out how many weeks I have left after I finish all my retarded elective classes…..as taking them online is so much easier than visiting the campus with 3 kids and no time for anything….not even sleep!

I will officially BE DONE with school and my Bachelor of Science in Business Finance in roughly September of 2009!! ONE YEAR LEFT!!! Hooray!!! Then I can do commencement ceremonies the following spring at the new stadium! HOORAY!!!

Then I sit around and do nothing. Yup, I will be an over educated stay at home Mom until the twins go to school. From there….I go back to work…use my expensive ass degree to pay off my student loans and then…..maybe…… conquer the LSAT’s and apply to the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law…..but…..we’ll see. I will just be happy to have my degree’s all finished up…and a JD would be nice….since that has always been my goal….to argue and get paid for it.

Posted on

Gadget Girl

Here is Gadget Girl again on the move here at home……we found she loves these things:

1. Fleece blankets
2. Her BFF Seth
3. Organic Apple Sweet Potatoes
4. The Cable remote
5. Mommy’s cell phone

Beware of Gadget Girl coming soon to a home near you! Be sure to lock up your fleece and electronics!

Posted on

Dental Darlings

My boys are enjoying the wonderful times of teeth. Ah, yes….riveting….not so much. Seth boy has been teething for oh say…..the last 5 months and just the other day…..a breakthrough.

I mean it….a real breakthrough….right through those tough gums I can feel his bottom, front left tooth! HOORAY!!! So he and I have been enjoying long nights and early mornings together rocking, gelling up his mouth with Orajel, and medicating…..he gets Motrin….I get Motrin for the headaches and coffee for lack of total and utter sleep.

My oldest boy Grant….well last night the tooth fairy came to see him! He finally, after a MONTH!!! lost his two front, bottom teeth! At the same time, same day! He was so excited that he finally lost them. I was just glad to get the damn things out of there since his adult teeth are half-way in and every time he talked he slobbered like my Bulldog and spoke with the worst lisp. So now we have the joy of visiting the dentist more often…..which reminds me….have to add that to my list of things to do today! Ugh….the never ending list!