"Douglas." I mouthed back. Destiny looked confused.
I put my hand over the receiver. "Douglas is the husband of Simon's ex-wife, Myra." I'm not sure if that cleared it up for her but she nodded.
"Douglas? Sorry, er, got distracted for a moment. I'm calling for Simon. DO you know where he is?" I turned around. I feel awkward. Simon hadn't answered his home phone (and I didn't want to call his cell because I knew he would pick up and I really didn't want to be doing this, unknown to Destiny) so I was able to convince Destiny that there was a small chance Douglas or Myra might know. Destiny suggested I call my sister but I made up the excuse that she probably wouldn't tell me the truth without knowing why I was calling and fortunately Destiny agreed.
Douglas replied, "Sorry Calista, last I heard he's on a business trip in New York."
WHAT????? My face must have portrayed my confusion because Destiny looked at me suspiciously.
"What?" she mouthed.
I held my finger up. "1 minute," I replied. She gave me a thumbs up.
"I'm not sure, he didn't exactly say and at the time Myra wasn't too happy about him calling me...."
"Well, can you give me an estimate?" I said a little too snappy.
"I really can't but he did mention that he was packing a few bags so I'm thinking he's planning on staying for a... a few years. Possibly. I really don't know. I wish I could tell you more."
"YEARS!?!" I mimicked.
"I think so. Have you tried his cell phone?" Douglas asked meekly, trying to help.
I took a deep breath, that was another thing I hadn't wanted to do. "Uh, no, I haven't. I'll try that. Thank you Douglas, say hi to Apollo and Ashley (baby 26 and his wife) for me."
"Will do. Bye Calista. I hope you can contact him." I had a feeling he was glad that this conversation was over.
"Thanks, bye."
"Apparently he's in New York and Douglas said that he'd be staying there for a while. But no worries, I'm just going to call his cell. I don't know why I didn't do that first." Even though I did know.
"Okay, sounds good."
I dialed Simon's cell phone number and hit "call." I was secretly begging that he wouldn't pick up and luckily after four rings he didn't. I left a quick message, short and simple. "Simon, can you call me back?"
"No answer, huh?"
"No, but I'm sure he'll call in a few days." I said, nonchalantly while the butterflies whirled in my stomach.
"Let's hope."
Right after birthdays, my cell rang. I took it out to look at the caller ID hoping it wasn't Simon. It said "unknown," so I ignored it but was secretly happy that it wasn't him.
I went to check my mailbox and lo and behold, the sperm I had ordered was finally here. I had gotten it at the sperm bank in Bridgeport. These little cells were from a handsome guy named Andrew Miller.
He had a very interesting hair color, like a watermelon with red, green, white, and strands of black. I really, really hoped that the babies would get his hair or at least his beautiful eyes!
This is just a random picture of the gnomes in my backyard. The regular gnomes are all old but there's one baby!
"Maphew, Maphew!" Jason shrieked as we approached the sandbox. I let he and his sister into the soft sand (notice that my phone is ringing AGAIN! Luckily not Simon).
I sat down next to the kids as Matthew started wrecking the 'sandman' he had made.
Then she crawled away.
Jason had gotten bored and started picking his nose. I took that as a sign to go back inside for a bath.
"Matt, what's that?" I said, pointing to the big insects.
"Hmm, let's see...." He took a closer look. Once he saw what they were he started freaking out which I had not expected. He never minded bugs when he was little.
"Ahh! Get them off!!! I don't want them crawling up me leg!!!"
I felt bad for scaring him like that, but I hadn't expected him to be so scared of the bugs. I quickly called an exterminator to get rid of the bugs.
"Mom, I think there's a bug in the shower!" He called for me to come.
"I don't see anything, the bus is going to come in a few minutes. I'm going to take a shower, do you think you can walk out to the bus stop on your own?"
He just started snickering. "Yeah, I can."
I took a quick shower and when I got out I jumped. My hair was PINK!
My phone rang again.
Mason came home while Matthew was at school. We took the tots to the beach. They were so excited (I don't know if you notice anything different in this picture. YES! Levona's hair finally started growing in. It was long, thick, and a beautiful shade of red brown!).
Matthew spent the entire time playing in the sand. The little ones "helped" a little bit but Levona lost interest and started picking her nose. What was it with those toddlers and picking their noses? At 7, we packed up and left.
Having Mason back home was great. He was always helping around the house to assist me as much as possible.
"...And we got to see real handcuffs and lay on those really uncomfy bunks in the jail cells. It was awesome. Then we...." He told me what he did the entire day. "... and the police chief gave everyone a real police badge. Can we hang it up mom?" He handed me the framed badge and I stuck it on a hook in the wall.
"Wow, that's really cool Matt, did you say thank you."
"Yes, of course I did, mom. I can't wait to show Mason when he gets home from whatever he's doing."
"You mean football?"
"Yeah, whatever." Mason said, absent-mindedly.
I think he looks so cute in his "Geek is the new sexy" shirt and it's totally true!
I was a bit annoyed. Why couldn't these telemarketers (or this person) just leave me alone.
The due date was coming up.
"Jason, are you excited to get a new brother or sister?"
"I want a brother!"
"I'm sure you do." I secretly wanted a girl since I had had so many more boys than girls in this challenge.
A few days later and the labor had started. I focused on the mobile hanging in the nursery in order to cope with the pain.
Another baby was born, a boy I named Bartlett Pear. Bartlett is a type of pear which can be light green to yellow in color.
The night of the twins' birth I heard a car door slam and I peeked out the window to investigate. Who would be visiting this late at night? I was shocked to see who it was.
"LUKE?!? Erm, what are you doing here? If you don't mind me asking." I added.
"I'm sorry about that, I didn't know your number."
"Nah, that's alright."
"So, you were saying...." I prompted.
"There was someone I just couldn't leave."
"Shhh..." he said. He was already inches away. I could feel his breath across my nose, his gaze soft and gentle. Any thoughts of Simon I may have had were gone.
"You." He whispered.
Then he tightly pulled me to him and kissed me right on the lips, even more passionately (if that's even possible) than he had back at his place those many months before.
"Yes I think it does."
"Hey, I'm a multimillionaire, I think I can retire early or at least take a break. If that's alright with you."
Luke helped me out with the family photo. Jason and Levona were happy to have their father around and I was glad that these kids and hopefully the future kids would have a father-figure to look up to. I just wasn't quite sure how this relationship was going to work with the challenge and all....
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NOTE
I don't know about you but I'm super excited to get this relationship (between Luke and Calista) started and I know this whole thing is so cliche but I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff!!!
Also, I'll try to post the family update on the next post. I just wanted to get this post out quickly so I didn't have time. Plus, I've almost exceeded the monthly bandwidth (10 GB) on Photobucket.
I really really hope I can get one more post out after this one before school starts! After that, I probably won't be able to get my posts out as frequently but we'll see. :D
I just want to let you guys know, I've set up a poll on the right side of my blog. Please let me know if you think Calista should go with Simon, Luke, someone else, or nobody! I probably won't base my final decision fully on your opinions but I'm curious to know what you think. It's quite a hard decision so choose wisely!
Comments are appreciated!