Busy Holidays...

So I just realized I haven't really updated in like 3 weeks! I'm such a horrible blogger! I guess there's just not much to post about. Things are staying uneventful, and boring (like any healthy pregnancy should!). The holidays really wore me out though. Even though we didn't really do anything big for Christmas I still spent the next few days on the couch! I definitely physically feel much further along. I already have the bad ligament pain... ya know the one right on your pubic bone that you so desperately just want to grab when the pain strikes, but you can't because it's not appropriate to grab your privates in public. At our 24 week appointment I was measuring 33 weeks, so I'm sure it's only going to get worse from here. I also started producing colostorum over the weekend (big sarcastic YAY). Not looking forward to dealing with the leaking for the next 10-14 weeks, but hopefully that means my supply will be good again. I'd love to pump for these two if my IP's want it... or maybe pump for another baby if they don't. Here's our 26 week pic... sorry it's so dark!



On the home front, Christmas was great. We managed to have an "electronic free" Christmas. Only one gift we bought for the kids requires batteries, and it was electronic battleship for our Family Game Night. So at least it's still a game we can all play. R LOVES her doll house, and P loves his basketball hoop (even though it's not set up yet. S really likes his new bible and football inspired cover that I made for it. He got me a new cross necklace, and a new willow tree figurine (Love it!) We were also able to avoid going to his family's x-mas party for once which was nice. We finished up our Christmas morning with our kids, took P to his mom's house, and then we took a nap until about 11 am when we made the 1/4 block trip to my mom's house. S went to work around 1 and R and I just hung out there all day/evening with my family that came to visit. Not sure what our plans are for New Years. S has New Years Eve off, and I have New Years day off, but we'll have the kids, so I doubt we'll be going to a party or anything. My New Years Resolution (the first one I'm making in YEARS!) is going to be to work on my patience with the kids, and also I want to make it a goal to spend 20 minutes a night reading by myself. I love/miss reading so much, but I just don't seem to make time for it anymore.

Well, I better get some work done around here. Maybe I should also make a resolution to blog more :)

Our temporary Christmas Card...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

23 Weeks...

And still nothing too exciting to report! I feel like I'm getting bigger every day, and the babies are moving around like CRAZY! M is going to come spend the day with me on the 12th, so that will be lots of fun. I can't wait to show her around our little town :) I'm almost done Christmas shopping. I just need to find a gift for our parents, and then make the gifts we're giving out to family & friends. I'm so glad we are scaling down the amount of gifts this year to try and get back to the REAL meaning of Christmas. We also made a rule that none of the kids' gifts could be electronic... that was hard! EVERYTHING seems to be so geared towards video games, TV, or downloading music lately. We bought R a basic dollhouse with furniture, and P is getting a basketball hoop & new ball. For their joint gift from "SANTA" I'm filling a big box with Family Night stuff... new board games, puzzles, a pop-corn maker, and stuff like that. I hope they like it! S and I have a $25 limit on our gifts for each other. I got him a men's devotional Bible, and I'm making a cover for it that will (hopefully) look like it's made out of a football! We'll see how it turns out. I have no clue what he's getting me. I'm secretly hoping that he just gets me a gift certificate for a pedicure or a gift card to Joann's fabric! haha! I don't care if it's not sentimental.

21.5 weeks...

and nothing really exciting to report unfortunately! Of course that's a good thing :) My appointment last Wednesday went well, blood pressure was fine, weight gain has improved, and both babies looked good on the quick ultrasound. Couldn't really ask for more!!

Some friends from church had their baby a little over a week ago. She was born early and has been in the NICU, hopefully she'll be released this week. What an awesome thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving huh? Here's a pic of a Bib I made her over the weekend. I hand-embroidered the little details on the cat's face :) It was my first try... came out a little crooked, but hopefully no one will notice. I also made a onesie and some booties to match.

In other news, M&D are going to be coming down around Dec. 11th!! YAY!! I can't wait to hang out with them and show them around our town. They might choose to do a 3d ultrasound while they are here, so that would be exciting!

20 weeks!!

We made it!! The lovely half-way mark! Here's a pic of my ever-expanding waistline:

And just so we can compare... here is one from right after our first ultrasound confirming we had twins (around 6.5 weeks or so)

Quite the difference huh? I'm excited, but a little nervous to see just how much this belly can expand over the next 20 weeks to come!!

Update and Ramblings...

Well, M & D got some wonderful news last Friday... they have one girl and one boy on the way! Yes, their shopping will be a little tougher since they can't just double up on every outfit, but I think the blessing of a boy and a girl is worth the extra work! Needless to say they are over the moon with excitement. As far as other pregnancy news go, everything is pretty uneventful! I've really begun to notice my belly the last few days, it's starting to get in the way of my keyboard, and anyone who looks at me KNOWS I'm pregnant... there's no "I wonder if I should ask her" moment anymore. I'm enjoying having a baby belly, and of course I love maternity pants!! I wish they made cute non-maternity clothes with such comfortable waistbands! The babies are doing wonderful too. At the ultrasound they looked perfectly healthy and were growing right on target, if not a little on the big side. My weight gain isn't as high as some books say it should be, but my doctor is happy, and says as long as I'm staying active, and not losing weight that he's not worried! So we keep chuggin' along.....

To switch topics, I'm very frustrated with the election this year. I can honestly say I don't agree with either McCain or Obama on some key issues for me... therefore I will be voting for someone else... I know that they don't really have a chance at winning the presidency, but at least I would not be contributing my vote to someone I know I won't be happy with. Then the whole Prop 8 thing. Will a supporter of "Yes on Prop 8" please SHOW me where it says gay marriage will be taught in schools?? Also while you're at it, please tell me why you "as a Christian" (I know it's not true of every prop 8 supporter, but churches seem to be scaring their members into voting Yes) have the right to judge someone else because of their beliefs?? Did Jesus judge anyone?? No, I didn't think so either. First off let me say that I am a Christian, and I believe I'm a "good" one at that. My family goes to church every week, I volunteer in the children's ministry, we tithe, we attend our small group studies, and I do my best to treat EVERYONE with respect. No, I did not grow up in any church, yes I did have a child out of "wedlock" etc etc etc. I am NOT claiming to be perfect, but at the same time, as a Christian, I know that it is my duty to raise my children in God's word, and to teach them to have good morals, and how to be TOLERANT of others who may not have the same beliefs, or follow the same "guidelines" we do.
My mother is in a beautiful homosexual relationship and has been for about 8 years. Do I think it's "right"?... no, I do not. Do I respect her? YES! Do I think she should have every right that I do? YES! And we have taught our kids that even though our Bible and our God says their relationship is "wrong", that still DOES NOT give us the right to judge them, or treat them with any less respect. The Bible gives everyone the right to make their own choices... good or bad... Who am I to stand in the way of that?
On another note... a particular VP candidate has a stance on teaching abstinence in schools that I do not agree with at all. Obviously it's successful... I mean look at her daughter! ha! (Bristol will be my Halloween costume by the way... I will be wearing an "Abstinence works" shirt, a name tag that says "Hi my Name is Bristol" and carrying a hockey stick and a stuffed Moose.) Before you flame me... I think abstinence until marriage is a WONDERFUL thing. I will encourage my daughter to remain abstinent until marriage, but it is also my job to make sure she knows how to have safe-sex if she chooses to do so before marriage. I think teaching safe-sex is vital in bringing teenage pregnancy rates down. No one can stop teens from doing it. It ultimately is their choice... so why not give them access to the information they need to make an educated decision for themselves? I am one who chose to have pre-marital sex, and I do not regret it. You can also bet that my mom made sure that I knew I could ask her for any sort of birth control at any time, and you can bet that I did ask her to buy me more condoms when my boyfriend and I ran out... I had paid attention in my sex-ed classes and I knew that STD's or Teenage Pregnancy was not something I wanted to deal with because I had been EDUCATED on the topic. Lucky for me it was taught in my school, and my mom was willing to answer any other questions I had. The problem comes when parents choose not to talk to their kids about things like safe-sex, or even drugs for that matter. Sheltering our children from the "real-world" will not prepare them to live life in it!

Ok... Off my soap-box and back to work...

Yes I'm a slacker...

It's true, there's no denying it... I am a horrible slacker when it comes to keeping this updated! So here's some quick updates:

- Currently 16 weeks 4 days along, and feeling pretty good! Weight gain isn't as much as we'd like it to be, but my OB isn't concerned at this point, so I'm still eating as much as I can to put the weight on!

-The "BIG" ultrasound is this Friday! WOO HOO!! Very exciting

-I got a 17 month old Colt this weekend! His name is Duke, and he's a grulla pain/QH cross. He's already had some ground work done, and is halter broke. He leads well, ties ok, bathes, and picks up his feet really well. It's so nice having a horse that is a "normal" size for once! The trip to pick him up was a little chaotic dealing with bad trailer lights, an old straight-load trailer, and a one-lane road for most of the way home... people don't like driving 55 mph behind a horse-trailer, and for some reason they tailgate, honk, and as they pass they'll even give you a dirty look... Uh, sorry for obeying the LAW!! They've obviously never pulled a trailer with live cargo before. We spent most of the weekend trying to get him adjusted to "ranch" life as he's never been around cows, chickens, barbed wire fencing, or even just out to pasture. He feels much more comfortable in the little calf-corral, but I can tell he's lonely and wants to be with the other horses too. I'm sure he'll get more comfortable onces he gets used to all the noises, and other animals... then being out in the pasture won't seem so daunting!

-S brought a kitten home from work last night. Another C.O. found 3 kittens in the prison trash compactor, and saved them! My husband is not normally a softy when it comes to saving animals, so imagine my surprise when he shows up with the cuddliest little grey (gray?) kitten! He even stopped on his way home to get some wet cat food, a toy, and a collar :) How cute is that?? He said the kitten wouldn't stop crying when he went to get out of the truck, so he slipped it inside the chest of his jumpsuit and took it inside the store with him!! Now I'm asking myself "who is this man and where is my husband?!"... The whole thing was completely unlike him, but I'm not complaining :) My dog loves it already, but my old grumpy cat could do without... so we'll see how it goes!

-Kids are both doing good in school. R is sounding out lots of words now, and she LOVES rhyming. P is mostly doing better with homework, but still forgets it some days. We've just decided to take away soccer practice on the days he doesn't finish his homework, or forgets to bring it home. We do it without rubbing it in, because I think he likes the negative attention... so this way he's still losing priveleges, but at the same time we aren't giving too much attention to any bad/less-than-ideal behavior.

Well that's about it! I'm off to eat lunch :)

14 Weeks!

WOOO HOOO!! 1st trimester is over, and we're on to the boring (well mostly) trimester. Other than trying to find out the sexes, I sincerely pray that the second tri is very uneventful! My nausea is almost completely gone now, but I still deal with some pretty strong food aversions that can be frustrating... especially when trying to pack something to take for lunch! As far as the fatigue goes... I'm starting to think that it will never let up! My body did not want to wake up this morning!! I am ALWAYS early for work (gotta be to get decent parking around here) and today I barely made it in on time. I think I got dressed, ate, packed lunch, and was out the door in less than 20 minutes! Anyways, we had our first regular OB appointment, and everything looked good. It was so nice to see my regular OB again too :) Our big gender ultrasound is scheduled for later this month (at 17 weeks) and M&D will come out for that one! Hopefully their little babies cooperate and aren't shy!! That evening we're planning a family BBQ at my house so M&D can meet some of our close family and friends. It should be an awesome weekend! The next 3 weeks just aren't going to go by fast enough....

12 weeks...

Wow!! I'm slacking on blogging!! I blame it on the CONSTANT fatigue :) Luckily there isn't really much to update on really... things are going nice and smooth! The queasiness is letting up, but the fatigue is getting worse. I'm hoping things will pick up again in the second trimester before I get sluggish again in the third. My house is looking pretty bad!! We had our NT scan on Tuesday, and it was really neat to get to see the babies looking so much like babies now. Baby "A" was a stinker, and at first refused to get in the proper position to get the measurement. Then once it did, it started kicking Baby "B" in the back! Baby "B" would wave it's arms and stretch out it's legs every time like it was startled by the kick. The scan went good overall, and the babies look happy and healthy! "A" had a heart rate of 160, "B" had a heart rate of 163. Next week is our first OB appointment, and it should be a pretty quick one just to ask a few questions and for him to look at my records. I'm sort of hoping for an ultrasound again, but I'm not going to get my hopes up since I've had so many already! I just love seeing those little babies moving around in there :)

As for stuff at home, we have figured out what part of P's school problems are! (yay!) His Mom is pregnant! Of course we realize that it's going to be a big adjustment for him being the only child at his mom's house, and he is a VERY big "mama's boy". Now just comes the hard part of deciding how much to let slide... we can't let him think it's ok to slack on school work, but at the same time we have to be a little understanding that a big "life change" like this WILL have a big affect on him. So the fun begins...

25% down....

YAY! 10 weeks down, around 30 to go! Of course with two it'll most likely be less than 30, but I'm going to go as long as possible! Weight gain is up almost 2 lbs. now :) I don't know how I haven't gained more with how much I've been eating! I really haven't thrown up that much at all either. Look at my belly!! (excuse the weird look on my face... concentrating on holding the camera still!) I can't hide it anymore. Of course not too many people have asked me if I'm pregnant, I usually get women at church who say something like "So... how are you feeling?" You can tell they want to ask if I'm pregnant, but of course are afraid of offending me if I'm not :) Today I'll be scheduling our Nuchal Translucency ultrasound at a really great hospital here. I'm excited to get so many ultrasounds! I'm hoping with twins that my OB will do a lot more than the 2-3 that I got with R... and we got more than normal with her because they thought we had a problem with low fluid. Also more BIG news! I SWEAR I felt the first little flutters of movement yesterday. If I held really still at my desk and stared at my belly I could even SEE them! Some felt like muscle twitches at first (can your uterus twitch??) but then I felt the distinct "popping" I remember feeling with R! The best way I can describe it is that it feels like a popcorn kernel popping open while under a pillow... weird, I know... but seriously that's the only way I can think of describing it. I'm going to try to catch it on video for M&D. I don't know if I just got lucky and one of the babies was close to the front of my uterus (which is larger than a grapefruit now, babies are about the size of golf balls, in case you were wondering!) and it was easier to feel, or if one was just really active... either way I know no one believes me that I really felt it, but I KNOW I did :)

R LOVES LOVES LOVES preschool! She just acts like it's not even a big deal... she just takes it in stride! I forgot to download the pics of her on her first day, but I will try to tomorrow. P's back to school night went ok. The teacher gave us a better understanding about what to expect as far as homework goes... which is nice, but at the same time we shouldn't need to check on a 9 year old... if he says his homework is done, he's the one responsible for making sure it is.. not us! As far as the talking in class goes, Mr. L said P is not his worst student (doesn't make me feel any better), and that P just needs to learn to stop procrastinating... since he has until the end of the week to turn in late work he thinks he can talk in class during work time and then do the homework later... Mr. L had no advice on how to teach him that though... so basically we aren't any better off. I want to be completely hard on him (ie: take him out of school for a week and let me home school him, no sports, no fun, lots of chores), but S doesn't... it's so hard not to just throw my hands up in defeat.... my 3 yr old knows not to talk in class!! Why can't a 9 yr old do that??? UGH!! Ok...done with my rant now :)

Teaching Kids Club tonight! Last week we had a new little boy (Tommy) who I believe is Autistic, but I don't think the parents have had him officially tested. It was challenging, but even more rewarding when I could tell he enjoyed (and was focusing on) the crafts we did. During song and story time I pretty much spent the whole time trying to physically stop him from pushing or pinching other kids. Luckily the older kids are used to being pushed a little, so it didn't phase them too much, but I still can't let him just run around doing that... Off to go search the Internet on tips for helping him! Hopefully tonight will be a little easier.

School days....

Well, P has been in school for about 3 weeks and it's not going so well. I'm at a complete loss on how to handle this. He's always had a problem with talking in class, and through a couple years of rewards & punishments, he had gotten quite a bit better. Well this year is apparently much worse. I think the teacher (Let's call him Mr. L) isn't strict enough for him. Mr. L doesn't assign "homework" per say... they have numerous weekly assignments that can either be done during work time in class, or completed at home. Apparently P uses this "work time" as "talk time" instead... then when he doesn't finish his work, and we ask him "have you done your homework" he tells us "yes"... at 9 years old he knows better than to lie about it, and he should be responsible enough that we shouldn't have to check. P was at his mom's house all last week, and she asked him every night "Is your homework done?" to which he always answered "yes". Well come Friday morning, she e-mails his teacher a note saying: "I know you normally give out weekly progress reports the following Monday, but is there any way I can get Preston's today before we leave on vacation for Labor Day? I'd like to know if he's earned his privileges." Simple enough, right? Mr. L e-mails her back... P is missing TWELVE assignments!!!! (WTF?!) So needless to say he did nothing but homework while on vacation, but it didn't even seem to bother him! When he got to our house yesterday afternoon, we had him pack up all his video games, to some extra chores (pulling weeds!) and then I went to a local school supply store and bought workbooks for him. To add insult to injury, he did the workbook pages, but I can tell he completely put ABSOLUTELY NO EFFORT into them. For example on one page there was a sample outline of a Nobel Prize-winners life. One of the assignments was to use the outline to Write out a "biography"... basically making complete sentences straight from the outline. Throughout the 3 paragraphs he wrote, there was over 30 words mis-spelled... given they were words he probably hasn't written much before (like: destruction, Oregon, Chemistry), but the words were ALL typed out in the sample outline!!! He obviously had to look at the outline to get the information, but he wasn't paying enough attention to actually look at the SPELLING of the words. UGH!

How do you get a 9 year old to take school seriously?? His mom is a teacher, you'd think she'd know, but obviously whatever she's tried hasn't worked either. He doesn't seem to be bothered by losing privileges, toys, etc.... I can't figure out what WOULD motivate him?!? I've thought about taking a day off work and spending it watching him in class... maybe some good ol' embarrassment in front of these friends he's talking to would do the trick. Or maybe I could make him a shirt that says "IF I'M TALKING PLEASE IGNORE ME" and make him wear that. Maybe I should try making a rule for the rest of the week that if he has anything to say he needs to raise his hand and wait for us to acknowledge him?? Anyone think that would work?? Could I ask the school to send him around with the janitors and make sure he knows that if he doesn't do well in school he will be doing something like that for the rest of his life? Back-to-School night is tonight, so you can bet I'm going to be drilling his teacher on what he thinks we should do with P...

Well, on a much happier note, S just dropped R off at her first day of Pre-school!!! WOOOO HOOO! My baby is getting so big :) He said she was a little nervous at first, but then the teacher got her and another girl to help her fold a blanket and she was fine after that. I can't wait to pick her up today and hear lots of stories about what she did!

9 Weeks!

And hopefully close to 30 left to go! I know I'd probably be miserable carrying twins to 39 weeks, but if it means they'll be healthier, then I'll try my best to keep them in that long!

We had another beautiful ultrasound on Tuesday... at first the doctor scared us and said one was measuring quite a bit smaller than the other, but then he realized he had included what was left of the yolk sac in the measurement of the larger one. So they were really measuring very close in size (YAY!) M & D then took me shopping for some maternity clothes at A Pea in the Pod, and spent WAY too much money on me! I told them I get an allowance for that, but they really wanted me to have some nicer basic pieces that should last me through most of the pregnancy. I'm so spoiled! The pic to the left is of me in the dressing room... no that's not a real belly... just the fake pillow they have in there! I'll take another REAL belly pic and post again soon. None of my pre-preggo pants or shorts fit at all anymore! I'm currently using the rubber band trick to make my work pants last a little longer, and I did buy a pair of black maternity capris that I can wear to work. I'm definitely getting bigger much faster than I did with R... of course I guess that's expected... especially since there's two in there this time!

I'm going to send out an e-mail today, officially announcing the pregnancy to all of our family and friends that aren't close enough to know already. I'm going to set it up sort of like an FAQ thing... so hopefully I can answer most people's questions all at once to avoid repeat questions. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't get any negative feedback from anyone! So far almost everyone I've told has been very supportive... one sister-in-law is nice about it, but will blatantly tell me "I don't know how you can just give a baby that you carried away"... I just tell her, "Well, they aren't mine to keep, and I knew that from the beginning!".

R had her first "practice day" of pre-school on Tuesday. S took her, and she had so much fun! She cried when they had to leave after 45 minutes or so. I think she'll do just fine on her first day :) My little girl is growing up so fast!! Her first real day is next Tuesday... I'm thinking about taking the afternoon off to go with him to drop her off, and then go sit at home and mope until its time to pick her up... I know I'll be an emotional wreck! I'm so sure that I'll take her first day much harder than she will!

So it happened....

8 Weeks on the dot: I had "morning sickness" in the morning! ha! Hopefully that was the first and last time. I think what caused it was I woke up late, and instead of eating breakfast first thing like normal I attempted to shower & get dressed first. BAD IDEA! Half way through my shower I start dry heaving. So I cut my shower short, and continue to gag while attempting to dry off & find something to wear. Finally I just give up and make myself something to eat in my towel, and feel a million times better. Apparently these twins don't feel they should wait an extra 15 minutes before feeding them, and I can tell you one thing... I won't make them wait again... ever! I'm secretly hoping that I will not have any other nausea today, but I'm not going to hold my breath... it usually starts right before lunch and continues throughout the rest of the day off and on. So we'll see how it goes. I keep staring at the little ticker on the side of my blog here... The little guys are changing so fast!! I can't believe my belly is already so big and the babies are each just over half an inch long. I'm going to start telling more people (other than just close family & friends) after our second ultrasound next Tuesday (just 5 days!). I know it's still possible to miscarry 1, or both (heaven forbid!), but every day these little guys stay put just increases our chances! Plus I truly believe in the power of prayer, so when more people know, more people can pray for our healthy pregnancy & babies! Ok... I'm really off to get some work done now :) Teaching at church again tonight! Hopefully the kids won't be as crazy as last week...

Life in the Fishbowl...

I think that's what I'm going to call my new pregnancy blog that I'll be starting for just the pregnancy (since it has definitely taken over this one). M & D are going to have their own for their friends and family to view, and they'd like to be able to link to mine so their family can read my thoughts and how I'm feeling, etc. I would just let them link to this one, but since it's public and I sensor names (and I ramble about things in my "normal" life that would probably just bore them) I figured it would be better to just have a separate one just for the Lil Fishies. I figure "Life in the Fishbowl" is appropriate, because first I plan on my belly being so round that it will look like a fishbowl, second because of the nickname we gave the twins, and third because I sort of feel like I am in a fishbowl sometimes! When you have this many people involved in making a baby, no matter where you turn, someone is looking at you, either they want to feed you, they want to inspect you, or they just find you exciting to watch because they've never seen a "Surrogate" fish before. The attention isn't really getting to me, but I am still looking forward to the point when this is just treated like a "normal" pregnancy... if there is such a thing with a twin pregnancy. I can't wait to go see my OB and have one of those 15 minute appointments... ya know, get weighed, ask the doc a couple questions for which he always has an answer, hear the babies heartbeats on the doppler, then make another appointment for a couple weeks later on my way out the door. Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying I don't want my doc to treat me differently than with a singleton, but I'm just truly hoping and praying for an uneventful, smooth ride of a pregnancy. I don't expect a "textbook" pregnancy, but just uneventful would be great.

On other topics, S is going to be switching jobs at the prison, which is both good and bad. He's going to the transportation team and will have weekends and holidays off (GOOD!). The bad part is there's lots of overtime required, and since he's moving to weekends off, that means that R will still need Nana to watch her at least two days a week... if not more due to S working overtime. We were hoping to almost eliminate Nana's babysitting duties, but she was complaining about that anyways, so maybe this is for the best. I just don't like the idea of her being babysat or in pre-school 5 days a week... with our schedules before his move to transportation, we only needed a sitter 3 half-days per week. Oh well... I guess we're becoming more like the "regular" working family, where both parents work mon-fri. We'll also probably have to find a new Life Group to meet with at our church ::cry:: Our current group meets Monday evenings, and obviously that won't work for S anymore. I might have to go by myself until we can find one that meets on Saturdays (if such a thing exists!).

Anyways, I've been at work for over 30 minutes now, and haven't touched a thing... better get something done!!

7 Weeks!

Yep.... I officially have a Baby Belly... Make that a TWIN baby belly... (please ignore my streaky mirror in the pic... I obviously have been too lazy to clean). I have a feeling I'm going to get huge, but that's fine with me as long as they're big babies!! I'm sort of excited to be showing so soon, but at the same time I was hoping to hide it from co-workers until we're out of the first-tri. Oh well! Maybe I'll just wear baggy shirts and no one will notice for a few more weeks. So far my biggest complaint is being tired all the time. Other than that, the nausea and heartburn are manageable, and I hardly notice that my boobs are sore either... guess I just got used to it! We have another ultrasound scheduled for the 26th of this month, and then our first OB appointment on the 24th of next month! YAY! I can't wait to be back with my OB again. He seriously rocks :) I've been having crazy vivid dreams again like I did when preggo with R. You know the type where you wake up and acutally believe what you dreamed really happened?? Well this morning I apparently dreamed that S was running late for work and asked me to pack him a lunch... so imagine the look on his face when he found me in the kitchen this morning at 3:30 am, making a turkey sandwich... he said, "Are you that hungry?", I said "No, I can't have lunchmeat... you asked me to make your lunch..." he says "Babe, it's 3:30 in the morning... I'm pretty sure I don't need lunch right now." haha!! Sort of embarassing, but he understands :) I don't know why I didn't realize that it was still dark outside and he doesn't leave for work until 1 in the afternoon... so how could he be running late that early in the morning??

Anyways, tonight I'm going to start working on my neice's baby shower gift (yes I'm a Great-aunt... this is her second baby!) and of course I'll be helping at church again tonight. I also need to get a move on reading the book for my book club. Again it's another book that I really just can't get into... maybe I'm just not the type to read books of substance. If I'm going to make time to sit down and read, I want something like a murder mystery or a psychological thriller... something that is pretty mindless and will let me escape reality for awhile. Our current book (The Rape of Nanking) is just a little too depressing for me I think... I know it really happened, and more people should be educated about the horrors that happened to the Chinese at the hands of the Japanese, but I just can't read much at a time before I start getting a little depressed. I'm going to look up some light-hearted funny books to suggest for next month.

Let the excitement begin!!

IT'S TWINS!!

We saw TWO beautiful heartbeats at our appointment yesterday! What an AMAZING way to end a perfect weekend! All I can say is "wow!". I don't think it's really sunk in yet, because I don't really feel that different... just a little distractable today. I guess I had a pretty good feeling it was twins the whole time... so maybe it wasn't such a surprise. I have to say though, seeing those two little hearts beating away, and seeing the looks on M&D's faces was something I won't ever forget! I can't wait to see them in the delivery room when they hold their two little babies for the first time. I gotta get caught up on some work stuff, but I'll try to write more about our FABULOUS weekend later :)

Cruisin...

right along! Tomorrow we will be officially 6 weeks preggo!! YAY! Also only 5 days left until our exciting ultrasound. I've barely made it through this week! Lots of procrastinating at work... I'd much rather read about other surrogates news on my fav. message board than draw subdivision maps. More exciting news too. M&D are BOTH comming for the ultrasound! Double YAY! I'm so looking forward to a fun weekend with them, and (God willing) ending it with a beautiful heartbeat(s) on Monday morning. As far as symptoms go, they come in waves... nausea (I've only gotten sick once though), heartburn, and big time bloating come and go as they please. The only ones that stick around constantly are extreme tiredness, and incredibly sore boobies! UGH! If that's all I can complain about, I'm blessed though! Oh... I guess I could complain a little about the sore areas on my behind that all our injections are leaving. It's not too bad, and it doesn't really hurt while injecting, but even with heat and massage afterwards I seem to be developing some lumps! I'm not sure if it's meds that aren't completely absorbing, or some scar tissue building up, but I'm running out of places to inject! I need a bigger behind!!

Not much to update on the homefront... R is starting preschool the first week in Sept.! I'm so excited for her, but a little emotional all at the same time. My baby is growing up too fast, but I love seeing her learn and discover new things. Other than that, not much news, which I'm not complaining about :) It's nice to be in somewhat of a routine now... we'll see how long that lasts!

I'm finishing up a quilt for the little neighbor girl's birthday present tonight, and then teaching the kids tomorrow night like always. Friday is my day off, so it'll be filled with chores and errands in preparation for the weekend, preschool, and P's birthday party! I have an exciting week coming up!

ANOTHER 2ww....

So originally we were supposed to have our ultrasound this coming monday (Aug. 4th) but our RE is going to be on vacation that week, so he bumped us to the following monday (Aug. 11th)!! UGH!!! So as of today we have 12 days left until the ultrasound. I've been going crazy since this weekend, wondering what's going on in there. I have no clue how I'm going to make it another 12 days.

As far as symptoms go, I'm super bloated, my pants are tight, I'm overly emotional and I should wear a shirt warning people of that. I truly believe I could go to bed by 3 p.m. every day, and I'm already having waves of nausea and heartburn. There better be two in there, or these symptoms better let up when I stop the meds, because I didn't experience this much this early during my pregnancy with R and it was rough enough!

I am getting very excited for the weekend before the ultrasound though! M is flying out Saturday, and R & I will drive down that afternoon. She booked us an adorable (and I'm sure way too expensive) room in Santa Monica . The hotel looks adorable, and I can't wait to have a girls weekend! She wants to take me shopping for maternity clothes, but we decided we don't feel comfortable doing that until after we see a heartbeat (or two). Even though our beta numbers are so strong we just don't want to take them for granted. Once we see that little flicker on the ultrasound screen we'll feel much better! Tomorrow is the 5 week mark! The little heart should be forming, and getting ready to start beating as we speak :)

On the home front, P's birthday is the 12th! We're having a Nintendo theme party for him. Basically pizza, drinks, and the whole family night playing video games. I'm going to attempt to make a Wii shaped cake! Hopefully it turns out alright. I'm going to bake the cakes when I get home after the ultrasound, and then frost & decorate it the morning of his birthday. Other than that, decorations and everything are going to be really simple. I hope it'll be a somewhat relaxing party since everyone will just be eating and playing games. We'll have the Wii set up of course, and I'm trying to get my hands on an old nintendo system with the original Mario and Duck Hunt. I think the adults would love playing that since it's basically what we grew up with!

Well, I'm off to go eat lunch and feed "Lil Fish" or "Lil Fishies" as I've nicknamed the baby/babies! Hope they like spaghetti today!

**317**

So 317 is our Beta on 10dp5dt! Doubling time is about 27 hours at this point! 3/17 is St. Patricks day (M is VERY Irish). 317 is also the area code of the area where D lived while attending Purdue university. And the last wierd coincidence? On 3/17/2009, I would be 37 weeks pregnant, which is around the time Twins usually make their appearance. Wouldn't that be totally cool??

So here is why I'm thinking Twins:
Ok... just pulling info from www.Betabase.info/ For 'day 15' which is equivalent to 10 days past a 5 day transfer:
24% of Singleton Pregnancys had a Beta of 282 and above (76% were lower than 282)
63% of Twin Pregnancys had a Beta between 238 and 588 (16% were higher than 588, 21% were lower than 238)

5% of Singleton Pregnancys had a doubling time of 27 hours or less (with a Beta between 256 & 512, 95% doubled in more than 27 hours)
15% of Twin Pregnancys had a doubling time of 32 hours or less (with a Beta between 256 & 512, 85% doubled in more than 32 hours)

So... we are even doubling fast for twins according to this website !! (I have no clue how accurate the site is though) But, I'm feeling pretty confident that regardless of how many we have in there... they are definitely healthy, and personally, I think that is the most important thing.

Ok ok... enough about pregnancy & analyzing numbers, right??? So last night was very fun! The kids were very good for the most part, but I NEVER EVER want to have that many pre-schoolers to myself EVER again. Today I'm supposed to go to a book club meeting, but I'm ditching it. Yeah, bad me... but I just don't feel like myself today, and my head is in the clouds thinking about having a possible twin pregnancy. I just don't think I could sit there, control my nausea, and talk about a book I didn't read completely... and the parts I did, I didn't really like anyways! Ya know... maybe I should go, just to try to get my mind off of babies!! Anyways... I'm off to take a bath now and relax a little...

The Craziness begins...

SO... my beta came back at 92!!! WOOO HOOO!! Here are comparable beta's from other Surro's at 8dp5dt like mine was taken at:
8dp5dt
Singleton: 10, 18, 21, 31, 33, 50, 58.4, 62, 82, 126
Twins: 52, 63, 64, 80.9, 84, 86, 89, 147, 227, 236, 249, 263, 284

Sooooo.... who knows? It's on the high side for a singleton, but middle of the road for twins... we'll have a better idea tomorrow when we re-draw and see the doubling rate. I'm leaning towards twins though just considering the fact that it should double every 48hours.... Here's my math working backwards:
Singleton: Wed: 92, Mon: 46, Sat: 23, Thurs: 11.5
Twins: Wed: 92, Mon: 23, Sat: 11.5

The reason I'm leaning towards twins is the tests I was taking have shown to pic up levels as low as 20, and I got a negative Sunday morning (which in the singleton scenario by level would have been closer to 30 at that point). The twins scenario matches more closely with the time I got my first BFP. So we'll see what tomorrow's results show! I'm so excited! M&D are over the moon of course, and I couldn't be happier for them.

On the home front, P's sleeping issues are still a mystery. Called and spoke with his Pediatrician per the idea a kind poster gave me on here, and she said to do what I've already tried (exercise). When I told her this, she started asking things like "well is he having bad dreams?" Nope. "Is he sick?" Nope. "Have there been any major changes in his routine?" Nope. "Well just give it time. I bet he'll sleep better when school starts up. That always tires them out." Ugh, great... I have now given the summer of 2008 a name "The Sleepless Summer". My worst pregnancy symptom so far has been restless nights, mainly because I always sweat alot when preggo, which is very uncomfortable when it barely gets below 70 degrees at night here. So between my night-sweats, and P's waking up, I'm in a constant state of half-sleep. I must say though, right when I get frustrated with him, he always does something so innocent and cute (and not on purpose) to make me realize that I am helping to raise a great kid... Saturday he wanted to draw S a picture and mail it to him (yes, we do live in the same house... he just like mailing people things). So I let him, he wrote our address on the envelope and we walked to the mailbox. Well, we got the letter back yesterday after P had already gone back to his mom's house. On one side of the paper he had drawn our family as stick figures. On the back is a letter to his Dad about how he prayed that I could be pregnant, and how he prayed to keep dad safe at work :::tears::: I'll add a picture later, but it was just the sweetest thing! It reminds me that even though I can get frustrated with the minor things he has issues with (food, sleeping, & whining basically) that he really is an awesome kid and his little heart is just so big.

ok... enough from me today... I'm teaching all by myself at Church tonight!! Wish me luck with 18 pre-schoolers!!!

At 1:50 am...

I woke up and HAD to pee... so of course I tested :) I will post again when I get the beta numbers this afternoon!

Faint lines...

Well, more faint lines on 2 different brands today! I wish they were darker, but there are lines consistently showing up on every brand I've tried since yesterday morning, so I'm not complaining!! Our Beta test is tomorrow morning, and we should have the results around lunch time. I'm excited, but nervous all at the same time. Anyways... Here's a pic of two tests I did this morning... can you see the lines??

Barely there huh?? Better than nothing I guess! Tommorrow I will be brave and use a digital before leaving to get my bloodwork done... Hopefully I can put a picture of a test showing "pregnant"!!

2ww hell....

So I know I haven't written since the transfer... things have been crazy!! The whole transfer experience with M&D was amazing. We went to a lovely dinner together Monday night, then of course neither M, nor I could sleep well! We were to nervous/excited/giddy/emotional. We got up around 7, I showered and S went and grabbed me some food. M&D had bought be a super cute Juicy Coture sweat suit to wear to the appointment, so I was stylin! We had to wait for about an hour since the RE was running a little behind. We wound up transferring 2 5-day blasts. The RE said they were a little "slow-growing", but nothing to be too concerned about. Then the whole rest of the day and all day Wednesday I had 3 people pampering me! They brought me as much as I could eat, and whatever I wanted at any time. Wednesday they even called the front desk for a wheel chair so they could wheel me out to relax by the pool. I appreciated that so much! It was so nice to just relax, chit-chat with them, and get caught up on some reading. I hated to leave them on Thursday morning, but I was also ready to get home and see the kids. So now, here I sit in the dreaded 2ww.... it's 11:30 and I can't sleep, but I was so tired earlier I almost fell asleep while on a walk after dinner! I hope this is a good sign... I've also been having lots of cramping since the transfer (which didn't happen last time), and my boobies are soooooooo sore! I'm truly hoping for (and anticipating!) a beautiful BFP when I test tomorrow morning... maybe that's why I can't sleep... my brain must think that if I just stay up a few more hours I can test again!

Anyways, on the home front, things are going good, but P is baffling me... Ever since school got out, he has been complaining "I can't sleep" a million times a night. My first response to that is, "well, getting out of bed to tell me that obviously won't help". He's almost 9, and has never had a problem sleeping before, so I can't figure out what is wrong. I thought maybe he wasn't getting enough physical exercise like he was at school, so we drastically cut his tv/video game time and encourage him to play outside as much as possible, along with not letting him sleep in (which my husband despises, because that means he can't sleep in either when I work during the week). We also started going for long walks after dinner when it starts to cool off. This worked 1 night... the last 2 nights he's been at it again. Last night I finally told him "If you get out of bed one more time, you are losing all your priveleges for tomorrow".... sure enough, he was up 15 minutes later! UGH!! He's not sick, not complaining of bad dreams, not sleep walking, not going to the bathroom, just saying he can't sleep. So he lost his 30 minutes of tv/video/computer time, no candy, no dessert, no friends. He didn't really complain all day, and had actually been a big help around the house, so at dinner time I told him "if you finish everything on your plate, I'll let you have a couple cookies for dessert". I really wasn't expecting him to do it since he's so picky, but he got so close!! The only thing he didn't eat was like 4 grapes (yes, I have an 8-year old who doesn't like grapes!). He had eaten most of them, and said he liked them, but "CHOSE" not to finish. He even said "I just don't want to eat them". So he excused himself from the table, and cleared his plate, and went and pouted in the den. We just ignore his pouting, so then 5 minutes pass, and he comes into the kitchen, grabs his plate with the 4 grapes and goes to sit back at the table! I told him "No way... you know the rules, when you excuse yourself, you're finished." So then he throws a huge fit and goes stomping off to his room. I just let him throw his fit in his room, didn't give him attention for it... and soon he was back to normal, but then the whole "I can't sleep" thing started up again. I heard him open his bedroom door, but he never came down the hall, so I looked in his room, and he's just standing there... I said, "What are you doing?" he says "Nothing. I just got up. I can't sleep", and I replied with, "Well of course you can't... You're standing up!" So he climbs back in bed and I remind him he just lost all his priveleges for tomorrow (now today... I saved this, went to bed, and it's now MONDAY!). So we'll see how tonight goes. I think sometimes he just pulls these stunts to make me take away his priveleges in hopes that someone will feel sorry for him. I make sure to do it in a calm way, no yelling, no dramatics.... just tell him the consequences before he goes to bed, and follow through with what I say when he breaks the rules.

ANYWAYS.... (sorry for the long post... it's spanning 2 days now!) This morning I got 2 very faint BFP's!! I'm sooooooooooooooo excited!! M&D are too of course.... now we just play the waiting game to see if they get darker tomorrow!! I might even have to sneak in another test tonight :) I'm almost in disbelief that I actually saw two lines! They are sooooo super faint, but S could see it, and M could see them on a camera phone pic, so I know I'm not imagining it! I just hope they are true positives... then I get to hope for a positive beta, then a healthy pregnancy, then an easy birth, etc etc etc...

Looking Good....

Well, we've gotten great news the last 2 days!! On Thursday, they retrieved 15 beautiful eggs from the ED and today the RE told my IM that 14 of those fertilized!!! WOOOO HOOOO!!! So we are set for a 5-day transfer on Tuesday! There's no way to describe how incredibly excited I am. My IP's really want to transfer 2 blasts, and the RE is fighting them to only transfer 1, but I'm sure they'll come to an agreement on Tuesday when the have the reports on the grades of the embryos. I'm feeling so great about this transfer, but it still is surprising to think that I'm going to be pregnant in just a few days!! (Because this WILL work!) I'm so looking forward to getting past this crazy part of the meds/travel/transfer stage, and to the part where I'm just completing my IP's family. I'm just trying to keep my eyes on the goal, and leave the rest up to God. I know he won't give us anything we can't handle!

In other news... R left this morning with Grandma & Grammy to go on her first road trip without Mommy or Daddy!! (cry!) They are driving down to Huntington Beach to visit some friends and family down there. She looked so adorable with her little Hello Kitty suitcase. My little girl is growing up too fast!!

On our way...

Well time is flying by now!! I've been poked and prodded too many times by doctors already this week. To sum things up, I had a monitoring appt. monday morning and my regular RE down in LA didn't like the results, so he wanted to see me ASAP to "look at things himself". So 2 sleepy kids, and a 3.5 hour drive later I arrived at his office by 8:30 am yesterday morning. He thinks things look decent, and we are all set for a transfer in a week or less!! WOOO HOOOO!! I just wish my body would start fully cooperating instead of making everyone second-guess what's going on. So we should find out Friday if I need to drive down on Saturday, or Monday! YAY!! I'm really excited, and can't wait to see my IP's and hopefully get pregnant for them. It's almost frustrating knowing that they are only a few hours away, yet I can't see them for at least 3 days or more!! I'm starting the PIO in the morning, and hopefully will avoid the lumps and bumps like I was able to last cycle... I might even have to learn how to give myself shots! I already did the little Lupron ones, but I've never had to give myself the big IM shots in the hiney. I'm sure it can't be that bad though!!

So with everything that has gone on lately, I feel like I have been neglecting my "time with God" that I used to have every night before bed. Lately I've just been staying up so late trying to get things done, and the meds are making me exhausted, that it takes all of my will power to stay awake while sitting at the dinner table! Is it bad that the only time I've made for Him lately has been during my morning showers? I know that sounds wierd, but seriously, that's the only time I've found that I can just tune out everything else (kids, husband, chores, phone, etc) and just have my little "talk" with him. I know I need to make more time for Him, and "it's hard to find the time" isn't a good excuse, but it has been for me lately. I'm going to try to work harder on it, but I guess for now my shower talks are better than no talks, right?!

Happy 4th of July!!

A new development overnight (well it seems that way at least!) R now has some tiny freckles!! Sorry the orientation is goofy... I can't get the uploader to cooperate with me right now... will try to fix it later. Can you see the little tiny freckles around her eye though?? I swear they weren't there yesterday! I knew with her complexion she'd be getting them eventually, but they still caught me by surprise. Just more evidence that my little girl is growing up.

Well the egg donor had her appointment yesterday, her estrogen levels & follicle count were a little on the low side, but the appointment was scheduled a little earlier than it normally would be due to the holiday weekend. They are going to repeat the ultrasound and blood work on Sunday & then we should have a better idea of when the retrieval and transfer will be. I'm getting so excited! I just have this calm, yet nervous feeling that everything is going to work beautifully this time. I've even had 2 dreams about being pregnant with twins!! That would be a cool experience... hard in it's own way, but definitely not something most people can say that they've done. So we're hoping for great news on sunday, and then great news on monday after my appointments! I really want this to go smoothly for M&D, especially since I've already caused them to have a minor set-back... yeah I know it was out of my control, but I don't want to cause anymore!!

R & I are going to go get ready to BBQ at Andrea's house in a bit... hopefully get in the pool for awhile, and maybe watch the neighbors do some fireworks. We didn't buy any this year since S is working and R is scared of them. It would be nice to see some though... Well, off to find my daughter... she just yelled "look at me mom!"... hmm... that usually means she's done something crazy...

It's JULY!!

Yay!! It's finally July... our big transfer is just over a week away. I can't wait to spend tons of time with M & D while on bedrest, and the days are sure flying! Work is busy, and I just had my 1 yr. review, which was good of course! So now they can't fire me so easy in a month or two when I tell them I'm pregnant (heehee!).

So guess I should try to catch up a little. Things have been hectic, but in a good way! My birthday & birthday party were awesome! I can't believe I've lived for a quarter of a century already. I feel much older though, so I don't feel embarrassed admitting I'm no longer in my early 20's. I've been keeping myself busy busy busy sewing baby booties. I'm going to begin to sell them online to try to help raise money for Hailey Kent's family (see link at right). I've also been super tired! It must be a combination of the hormones & hot weather. I could seriously go to bed at like 7 pm if the kids weren't still awake! Oh yeah, and cleaning? Out of the question... no energy to spare for ther :) haha. I've also been doing a lot of stuff with our church group, and teaching on Thursday nights still. Man I LOVE 3 & 4 year olds... so much raw personality. They don't care what you think of how they dress, or if you think their jokes are funny. The innocence of not knowing how to be someone "fake" or put on a front just makes me so happy. I wish they would stay that way forever. On top of it, most of them are just so eager to please. They want to make you happy, they want to help, they love singing (even off-key) louder than everyone else to get your attention. I just wish I could bottle them up and take them with me so I could play with them whenever I'm having a bad day. I don't know what I'm going to do when R gets older... I guess still teach the 3 & 4 year olds and just send her to the older class!!

Anyways, back to work I go... I will try to update tomorrow... the egg donor has her ultrasound to check the follicles, so hopefully we get some WONDERFUL news... and then more wonderful news on Monday after all my appointments... There's no way my body can betray me again, right?? All I can say is with all this extra estrogen I better have some amazingly thick lining!!

Busy Busy....

So I just wanted to post really quick, since I haven't in forever... but since I really don't have time to catch everyone up with everything that's going on, I did this:

You can do it to... Here are the directions:

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
The Questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name.

Pretty good weekend...

Church on Thursday night was fun. We talked to the kids about Creation, and how God made the earth and everything in it. We (the teachers) made a huge batch of playdough before hand, and gave the kids each a piece to color. So it wasn't nearly as messy as last week.

Friday was fun. We took R to gymnastics class, then sent her off to stay the night at my Grandparents ranch. I went and got my hair done, and then ran some errands. I met up with Denise and Andrea, went to a little pub close to our house and mingled (no worries... no alcoholic drinks for me!). I saw one of my best guy friends who I hadn't seen or talked to in like 6 years! It was so nice to catch up with him again. We were talking about how 7 years ago we made a promise that if neither of us were married by the time I turned 25, that we would get married. Just such a coincidence that we see each other again the week of my 25th birthday. He acted dissapointed that I was already married, but I know neither of us really meant it 7 years ago. We're great friends, but there's just no attraction there.

Saturday I hung out by Andrea's pool and got a little tan (ok more of a burn). It was nice to just relax kid-free. I can't wait until we get a pool someday. I know I could lay out on my patio, but it's just not the same. Saturday night I had some family drive down to my grandparents ranch to spend Father's Day with my grandpa. So I went out, visited with them, and then brought R home. Sunday R & I made S breakfast in bed (homemade belgian waffles & fresh fruit). Then we went to church & S went to work after.

Yesterday I started feeling kind of achy, but got a lot done at work. I felt like poop by the time I got home, and I feel even worse today. My glands in my neck are swollen, my sinuses hurt, my eyes burn, and I am running a pretty decent fever. Not to mention my period (finally!) started, so I'm super crampy. The only good thing about that is that we will be getting new dates by te end of the week! I go for more blood work tomorrow morning, and stay on the lupron (joy) until told otherwise. I truly feel like this is the cycle for us. It's going to work this time, no doubt about it :) So I'm thinking it'll be late July sometime... which means I'd be due in mid April if it's a singleton, a little before that if it's twins. That would be nice because the weather is wonderful here in April, so I wouldn't have to be pregnant during the summer! Anyways, I'm done rambling. I'll post some photos of the baby stuff I've been making for my friends shower later tonight if I'm feeling up to it :)

Uneventful few days...

but it's been nice! We had a wonderful dinner with our neighbors on Tuesday night. They have a little girl R's age, and they get along wonderfully (well as wonderful as two 3 yr olds can). Sharing becomes an issue at times, but both girls are very bright kids, and extremely good with words, so they tend to explain exactly what the other girl is doing to upset them. It's so cute to watch them play. We had an exceptional dinner as always with them. They're amazing cooks, and their veggie garden provided all the makings for a wonderful salad.

Last night was somewhat relaxing... R & I walked to my moms house around the corner and visited with her for a bit, and then I came home and worked on some baby shoes & a bib that I'm making for a friends baby shower. They turned out pretty good for my first ones! Tonight I'm helping at church again with the pre-schoolers. I'm looking forward to a few good laughs, and perhaps another lesson or two! Today is my last day at work for the week, so I'm getting antsy for these last few hours to pass. I'm looking forward to spending the morning relaxing, getting my hair cut, and then I'm hosting a BabyCrazy party in the evening... then maybe meet up with some friends for dinner & drinks (non-alcoholic ones for me of course). I still need to figure out what to get S for Father's day. I always have the kids make something, but I'd like to get him something special for himself that he normally wouldn't treat himself to. Off to wrap some things up around here before heading home...

Fertile Myrtle?!

Well the transfer has been postponed for now... SOMEHOW my body managed to ovulate despite being on birth control pills, Lupron injections, and only having one functioning ovary due to the cyst. The nurse who broke the bad news to me over the phone called it "Miraculous", uh ok, like that makes me feel any better? I don't want to be miraculous... I just wanted to have a normal, uneventful cycle. I'm sure God has a plan for me, and a reason behind this set-back, so I'm really not upset... just feeling pretty blah today. Tony better not start in with a nose hair-trimmer or something... I'm likely to snap. I can blame it on my wacky, unsupressed hormones right?!

Hormones?

Ok, so maybe this is the just the hormones talking, but I'm so disgusted with people today. I work in a large office, but we (there's 5 of us "mappers") are stuck back in a small room that's divided up into cubicles. The guy that sits in the cubicle behind me, we'll call him Tony (and I won't tell you if it's his real name or not), is a disgusting pig! No I'm not exaggerating! Case in point: I just heard him clipping his toenails!! UGH! Excuse me while I vomit in my trash can.......... ok, I'm back... Who in their right mind does that though? I don't even do that in front of my husband! I would never EVER even contemplate bringing toe-nail clippers to work, let alone whipping them out, taking off my shoes, and proceeding to chop the dang things! On top of hearing him administer nose-spray, and blowing his nose 1 million and 4 times a day, I just about lost it when I heard the clipping noises.

My prayer for the day: Thank you Lord for letting me sit in this cubicle where I cannot actually see him doing this. Please give me the strength to keep my mouth closed so I don't tell him how rude and disgusting he truly is... better yet... could you make me deaf for the rest of the day? I really wouldn't mind...

LONG weekend...

Not going to go into much detail, but things came to a head Friday evening with Nephew. I kicked him out, and had to call the cops to get him and one of his friends to get off our property. Very scary for a little while, but I guess things are ok now. I can't help but feeling like he's going to come back and do something stupid like vandalize my car or something. Anyways... on to better things....
We had 2 birthday parties to go to on Saturday, so R had no nap, but she actually behaved really well! I was surprised. Afterwards she stayed the night at my mom's house since I had to leave for Westlake Village at 5:45 in the morning for my baseline appointment. The drive there and back was nice and easy. No real traffic to speak of, which is rare when speaking of the 405/101 interchange!! Dr. F found a small cyst on my left ovary, which shouldn't pose a problem as long as it's not affecting my hormone levels. I should have the results from that sometime this afternoon. Hopefully every thing's fine. So far this journey as been so smooth and easy, I'd hate for something to go wrong now. M&D have arranged for a chauffeured car to pick me up on the 27th and drive me down to the hotel I will be staying at for the transfer! I'm so spoiled!! I get a driver, on top of a relaxing few days in a nice hotel with no kids!! I'm not going to want to come home! Nah... I'm sure I'll miss them terribly after a day or two, but it will be a nice break. I need to stock up on some more books! I've already started reading the ones I bought (oops!) I just finished the whole Cross series my James Patterson. I finished Double Cross last night. I haven't liked the last few stories as much as the first couple, but his writing style is just so easy to read, and there are never any boring chapters, which can make it unbelievable, but engrossing all at the same time. Anyways, I'm trying to force myself to not start reading Women's Murder club series until I'm at the hotel. It's hard though!! Anyways, I better get some work done around here... Off to do some mapping!

Lessons learned in less than 24 hours...

Well helping with the church pre-school last night was filled with fun, and a few lessons. We talked about the story of Noah, the ark, the animals, rain, flood, and how a rainbow is God's way of reminding us of his promise to never flood the earth like that again. So that lead directly into our art project of the night... rainbows! We had photocopied a bunch of black-line rainbows onto construction paper, and gave the kids (16 of them, ages 3 to 6, and did I mention there were only 2 teachers?) colorful tissue paper squares, and glue sticks. The idea was that they could "color" their rainbow by coating it with the glue stick then covering it with the little color squares... that part went ok once we explained it was much easier to apply the glue to the rainbow instead of applying the glue to the tissue. Then came the fun part... cotton ball clouds! I won't go into much detail, but this was my 1st lesson:

#1 chubby kids fingers + glue-stick + cotton balls = a line at the sink 16 kids long, and little tufts of cotton everywhere. I even found some on my pants at home 2 hours later.

The kids were an absolute blast though. I love the years between 3 & 6. They're still so eager to please you and be a "big-helper". I wish that feeling never ended... as in the case of my 18 yr. old nephew... long story short he dropped out of high-school, got kicked out of his parents house, has horrible friends, can't get a driver's license (medical reason), and can't hold a job... so my husband and I made the decision about 1 yr. ago to let him stay with us and we'd help him get back on his feet. He took major advantage of us, lied, let his friends steal, etc etc. We kicked him out about 6 months ago. Now he came back 4 days ago begging and pleading for us to take him back. We talked about it for a long time. S & I prayed about it, had lengthy discussions about forgiveness, then we talked to Nephew & set ground rules (NO friends over unless S or myself is there, curfew, etc). Well he did great for 3 days. We had plans to go add a cell phone to our plan for him, and take him down to dmv to get an ID card so he could at least apply for jobs. Yesterday as I was leaving for church I could tell something was up... but I didn't say anything. Sure enough, I come home, he is gone, there is a beer bottle cap on my counter, and a can of budlight in my freezer (why?). All 4 Wii remotes are out on the floor, the tv is on, and the front door is unlocked. UGH!! I'm pissed, and just waiting for him to come back... instead he calls around 9. Says he's at his Dad's (sure I believe THAT!) and he'd be back in the morning. It's almost 11am now and after talking to S, Nephew still hasn't shown up. I didn't act pissed on the phone last night, because I thought if I did he wouldn't ever come back. Well now I'm wishing I would have taken the chance to yell at him since he didn't come back anyways. Another lesson learned!

#2: Forgiving repeat offenders should be left up to God... apparently I am not a good judge.

#2.5: Never hold back in hopes of confronting someone face-to-face. If you have them on the phone Now is as good a time as any.

1st entry...

Look up "Mom" in the dictionary... what do you see?

mom - noun. informal. (see "mother")

hmm... well that doesn't help much, does it? What is a "mom"? It's certainly more than just having a kid or two (or 3 or 4). I'd even say that a woman who gives her child up for adoption is still a "mother", but not a "mom". This is just my opinion on the matter, of course, but to me there is a huge difference... I am not just a mother... I am a wife, a cadastral mapping tech (don't ask more on that later), a chauffeur, a cook, a maid, a nurse, a story-teller, an artist, a crafter, a dancer, an acrobat, a clumsy clown, a gardener, a christian, a sinner, a lover, a self-conscious 24 (soon to be 25) year old that feels like being a "mom" is the best thing in the universe. I wouldn't trade it for anything. This is my blog about anything, and everything, and ultimately what my definition of "mom" is... feel free to disagree, after all, not even the dictionary has a definition for the word.

A little about me: I'm 24, I have a wonderful husband "S" to whom I have been married to for almost 2 yrs, I am the step-mom to a wonderful 8 yr. old boy, "P" and mom to a red-headed, 3 yr. old daughter "R". I am also in the middle of an IVF cycle to become a Surrogate Mother for a wonderful couple "M & D" . Hopefully I'll be pregnant by this time next moth :) I work full time for the local county offices. I'm a cadastral mapping technician, which basically means I draw property maps for tax assessment purposes. Before you flame me, I DO NOT calculate your taxes... I just keep track of the actual property maps... like if a farmer sells off his 20 acres and it gets developed into tiny subdivision lots and streets. Over the last few months my family has started going back to church, and we are loving every minute. I had truly thought my life was great before, but it is just so much more fulfilling now. As far as hobbies go, I enjoy working on our yard, crafting just about anything, sewing, reading (love james patterson), playing with our animals: 1 cat, 1 dog, 1 horse, I've started experimenting with cooking lately, and of course I love anything and everything to do with babies & kids. I even sell BabyCrazy products (www.iambabycrazy.com/335) In fact I almost forgot!! I'm supposed to help with the church daycare tonight... those kids are always entertaining, so I'm sure I'll have a story to tell tomorrow....