Couple’s Bundles of Joy Arrive in Two’s and Three’s

--”Wow!” It was a shock, really,” Douglas Ebding said, adding that he was present during the births of the triplets--all girls. “It was neat.” “Oh, it really hasn’t hit me yet,” Susan Ebding, 19, said, and no fertility drugs were used. She gave birth to twins in March and now, triplets. She recalled how once she and her husband, 20, were so concerned that they might not be able to have children. “We thought we wouldn’t have any, and then, all of a sudden, two, then three,” she said. Her twin sons, Justin and Jeffrey, are 10 months old. Her husband of nearly three years, a fast-food cook, has plans to try to expand his earning power. “He’s got to look for another job,” she said. “He’s going to have to do something. I’ll be staying home a lot.” Originally, the couple just wanted two children, a boy and a girl, she said at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio) Hospital. And then came--all in good health--Laura Lynn, 5 pounds, 1 ounce; Lisa Marie, 4 pounds, 3 ounces, and Leslie, 3 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces.

--Former President Jimmy Carter is belatedly getting his White House china, thanks to friends. The china, which features a green border encircled by a gold band and a gold presidential seal in the center, is scheduled to be used for the first time at an Emory University dinner in Atlanta for the Carters. White House china has been a presidential custom since the days of George Washington. An aide said that friends had picked up the bill for the 35 place settings. The dishes will go in the Carter Library after their debut.

--Rep. Dick Armey (R-Tex.) keeps regular office hours--24 hours a day--when he’s in Washington. But he spends only two days a week in the nation’s capital. To save money, He didn’t buy a house, or rent a room. The first-term congressman had been sleeping on beds at the House gymnasium but recently was told the Committee on the Gym disapproved of the practice. “Now he’s sleeping on his office sofa,” said aide Ed Gillespie. “He says it’s not too bad.” With the House often not meeting on Monday and Friday, Armey usually spends only Tuesday and Wednesday nights in Washington before returning to his Denton, Tex., home. “He’s basically a commuting congressman,” Gillespie explained.