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!