The fall of 1982 my class reunion committee had meetings at my home. It was fun to see all the gang after 10 years. Driving back from Idaho I could already feel baby bump discomfort. I wasn’t sure I was expecting, but sure enough it was confirmed and what did my husband say . . . “how did that happen?” He was working at the local television station as the anchor man in Grand Junction, Colorado, and I was running a busy home day care. My three little boys loved all the friends every day and it was an easy fit for our home in the country. Sure enough my due date for our baby was on the very same day as our reunion and I said . . . “How did that happen?”

First off that winter all three boys came down with the chicken pox. I know it is the measles that have a negative effect on pregnancy, but it gave me cause for concern. My three year old Preston ran down the road after his dad left to work, and I ran after him and sprained my ankle. Hopping on crutches for a few weeks looked pretty funny with my belly popping out.

As the date got closer I got bigger and bigger. I felt different this time, I was sicker and bigger and it was getting hard to breath. Early on I had to lean back to breath. Every time I visited my doctor I would wait to see if he found two babies, I had always wanted twins, but no sign of two. At a reception my friends came up to my doctor and told him I was having twins, but that didn’t convince him. Every time I went to the doctor he just said eat less. I was eating cottage cheese and canned tomatoes way more than is even palatable and still the scale went up and up. I was so discouraged I would miss my doctor appointments deliberately just so I wouldn't hear “one baby and too much weight.”

I did go into labor the week before Labor Day. The nurse took one look at me and said, “Oh Honey you will have this baby tonight!” I prayed that if I had two babies they would not come yet, and they did not come and I was grateful. One of my friends had twins, but because the doctor did not know and was not prepared one of the babies died. My sister was pregnant with a little baby boy and he died as well, his name was Cory. I was so upset I couldn’t even go to the funeral. I friend saw the baby (Cory) as a grown spirit comforting his mother and father at the graveside.

Finally at Memorial Day with my family my legs started to go purple again, because of lack of circulation.  My family was astonished and suggested I should visit my doctor as soon as possible, because this wasn't normal. Because of an illness, my doctor had an associate check me,  and he sent me to get an ultrasound. What a beautiful picture . . . there where two babies!! Yea! At this point I was exhausted and couldn’t sit up at all without my legs going numb and purple so the doctor said, rest and lay down as much as possible so the babies do not come early.

I farmed out my daycare children, most of them were out for summer from school by then.  I would lie on the couch and work on a large 14x20 hand stitch project I had put off for several years that read “Life Is Fragile Handle with Prayer.” I completed it in plenty of time before the babies arrived. I did not go to any more 10 year class reunion meetings. I was just hoping the babies would come before my dance party reunion, but to my dismay the Saturday evening of the dance I was still here. I borrowed the largest pink jumper my mom had, my husband painted my toes pink, and I wore flip flops because my feet could not fit into any of my shoes.  I deliberately missed the class picture for obvious reasons. My dad took my picture the week before saying, turn sideways this is the biggest you will ever be!” Thanks Dad, but oh no, I was even bigger the next week of my class reunion.

I waddled in not really wanting to be noticed, but three of my guy friends ran up to me and said, Hey, we all decided you should have this baby tonight at the reunion . . . can deliver them. Well I sat down and people came to me most of the night. One moment my husband decided to go to the restroom and Randy came up to me and asked me to dance a western swing! What was I thinking, he dragged me on to the floor and twirled me around, until the shock of my husband returning from the dance floor to find this giant pink muumuu rotating on the dance floor. We did not stay very much longer. I said some goodbyes and finally made it home to my bed.

Sure enough in the middle of the night my water broke and we went to the hospital. They decided to do an x-ray just to see if there were any complications. The doctor listed all the things that could go wrong and I prayed that with all the exposure to childhood virus’, falls and sprains, and dance party twirling they would be perfectly fine.

My labor went quickly and Ross was a beautiful five pounds and six ounces. The doctor said he was perfect! We pushed and waited 10 minutes, and the baby was too high so the nurse pushed hard to drop her down, because she wasn’t coming on her own. She was 10 minutes after Ross and the nurse said, “Yea, you have a girl you can quit now!” She was born with dark hair and a big set of lungs. She was filled out and hungry and Ross was smaller not interested in eating and without eyelashes and fingernails.

Before I knew I was pregnant with Jessica I had tried out my parent’s moon-boot machine that turns you upside down to straighten your back. When I sat right side up I got a huge cramp in my right ovary, which now I believe I dropped another egg and Ross was conceived as a superfecundation or double birth. Jessica saw a talk show on it, but she had called herself a twin so long she didn't want to explain it differently.

I could finally breath literally I had been congested for weeks . . . but now the babies are here and healthy and born on Father Day! A camera crew came and videoed Richard and the babies for the evening news. The beef association donated a quarter of beef to our family. We didn’t make it to the 10 year reunion picnic on Father’s Day, but we had our own reunion and celebrated our two darling babies Ross and Jessica to the Lindsay family.

This picture of Jessica and Ross cooing to each other as infants shows how emotionally close they are. Jessica said she probably asked Ross to be born with her because she wouldn't have wanted to be alone. She likes traveling with a buddy even now.

 As babies they slept together and crawled everywhere and got into lots of trouble; eating rat poison (trip to the emergency room), tossing flour all over the kitchen (they looked like ghosts), and climbing onto everything! Ross climbed onto the gas range and turned it on and caught his pajama on fire and Cameron grabbed him and put the flame out. They were a handful!