Interview

I was interviewed by All About Austin.
If you would like for me to interview you, just leave a comment and I will e-mail you the questions! Here are the directions (don't forget to leave your e-mail!!)

1) leave new a comment saying, "interview me."

2) I will respond by e-mailing you 5 questions (I get to pick the questions)

3) You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4) You will include the explanation , a link back to me, and offer to interview someone else in the post

5) When others comment asking to be interviewed you will ask 5 questions.

Here are the questions I was asked and my answers.

1. How long did you try and get pregnant with your twins? We were really lucky. We made the decision to try in April '97, but had no idea where to start. I called customer service for Kaiser (my insurance) and they didn't know either, but suggested we start with an appointment at an OB/GYN. We saw that Dr. on 4/30 and he referred us to the Reproductive Endocrinology department. We had to wait until 6/11 for our appointment with them. Our consultation was awesome and we had blood drawn at that time with the instruction to pick a donor so when my next period started we'd be ready to go. Unfortunately, the blood tests revealed that I had no Rubella antibodies and would need to get the vaccination before moving forward. And then we would have to wait 3 months after the vaccination before inseminating. The good part was that during those 3 months, we went through all the motions. I took Clomid and had all the blood drawn to track everything so we were in a great position to start for real. On 10/19 I had my first IUI and got my period 2 days before the test date. We did our second IUI on 11/18. Two weeks and one day later (12/3), I was too afraid to call for the test. I was SURE that I would get my blood drawn and my period would come. The next day came with no blood, so I called. Did the blood draw, went home and waited. Then I got the call that I was pregnant. It took two tries. We were very lucky. I had my first ultrasound on 12/17 and that's when we found out that there were two babies on the way.

2. How did you pick their names out? We bought a baby name book and read every name aloud to each other to see if we liked it. We both kept a list of names we liked and then would compare to see which ones we had in common, then we made a list of those and eliminated them until we finally had 1 for each sex. Our girl is named after Shell's sister who died when she was young and her middle name is Michele which is both Shell's name and my middle name. Our son's first name is a variation on a name we both liked but hated the nickname for. So we chose a very close variation instead. His middle name is Dean, after James Dean who Shell has always been a bit obsessed with.

3. Since you have both... do you think girls or boys are easier to parent? I don't think I'll be able to really answer that until we are out of the teen years. As of right now, they are equally as challenging in completely different ways. My boy is very determined, strong-willed and all-boy. He is full of energy and frequently "forgets" the rules because he is so involved in what he's doing. He can be loud and confrontational at times. Our girl is pretty much the opposite of him in all ways. And up until about a year and a half ago, I would have said that girls are easier, no contest. But she is very sensitive and emotional and her feelings get hurt easily. She's starting to feel the importance of friends and the pain of mean comments by them. She is very introspective and observant, so not much gets missed. We are starting to get the feeling that parenting her for the next 6 or 7 years is going to keep us on our toes. So I guess my answer is that girls are easier for the first 8 or 9 years, but I think that boys will be the easier one for the next 8 or 9.

4. If you won a million dollars, what would you do with it? Pay off debt including the house. Decorate and landscape our house. Buy new cars. Put the rest in savings toward college for the kids. I'd love to go on a R Family Cruise, but it would need to be soon so the kids would still enjoy it. And take my wife to Paris, her dream destination.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? That's a hard one. I think I'd like to try out living in many places first and see what I like the best. I love it in Colorado, but Shell dreams of moving back to California someday. I'd love to be one of those couples who "lives" to travel. That would be such a great way to live.