At least we always have Hope

A long time ago I mentioned that we have a Penn State student living with us to help with the babies and then have periodically dropped her name, but I haven't really explained the situation. Hope is a junior at PSU majoring in education. She lives in our basement in exchange for about ten hours a week of helping out with the babies. I've been meaning to write a post about Hope for a while but it just hasn't happened so now it's time. With a two week visitor hiatus we have said more than once "at least we have Hope!"  (And yes, we do crack ourselves up saying that.)

Hope is an amazing person with an incredibly kind heart and fun loving personality. She is awesome with the babies and misses them when she's away from them too long. Hope is a rockstar with diapers and helping out with the never ending stream of laundry. She sings silly songs to the babies, reads them books, and is generally great with them.  Hope isn't a big dog person, but Humphrey has won her over and she'll take him out to play frisbee sometimes which is also a big help.  She now says "I'm not a dog person, I'm a Humprey person!" =)  And she has a funny relationship with Bailey.  She lets him snuggle with her in bed, but also likes to torment him just a little. =)  We've told her that's taking her life in her hands and she has gotten a couple of good scratches. (All deserved I have to say in Bailey's defense!)

Hope & a surprised looking Ellie

I met Hope when I was helping coach the PSU women's rugby team. Not only is Hope a good student but she's an incredible athlete who at just 21 years old, is on the short list to represent the US on the Women's National Team at the Rugby World Cup this summer in France.

Two PSU girls showing off their USA jerseys
(Hope is on the right)

The only bad thing is that Hope is such a superstar that she's going to be traveling a lot for rugby this summer so we are going to need more baby coverage. But we are already working on getting someone else in to help with the babies because Hope's school schedule is packed Monday and Wednesday and starting in February she has student teaching on Tuesday & Thursday.  Since I can't just work Monday mornings and all day Friday, we're going to have to hire someone else to help with the babies. We are always thankful to have Hope around though because she'll happily snuggle with a crabby baby even when she's not officially "on baby duty."  It's going to be tough to find someone we're as comfortable with as Hope!

Michelle also started spring semester classes this week and has two three hour classes so we will need help then too.  We are lucky that Hope is home more until student teaching starts so we have a little time to find the right person.  We are using the next couple of weeks to figure out how much help we need. On Tuesdays I'm trying to schedule my clients so I can make it home in between for all the feedings and we are hoping that Michelle feels like doing the rest is the day solo is reasonable so we don't have to pay for help that day but we'll see.  Three babies is a lot to manage on your own even during non-feeding times. We've read triplet blogs where the mom is on her own a lot and honestly have no idea how they do that!  So any good "find the right person for the babies" vibes you could send our way would be great!