You Have Been Warned

The next person to send me a picture of Oreos will cause me to eat the remaining White Fudge Oreos and drink Dr Pepper!

35 Weeks

We took this picture this morning before turkey dinner. It is now post dinner and the boys are enjoying their post dinner food coma. I've only had sporadic contractions since the Oreo incident on Monday. I've also been sitting on my butt pretty much exclusively since then.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

This year I am most thankful for:

Striker for helping me through another year filled with things neither of us ever planned on...and overcoming his phobias to be super supportive and not strangling me even though I tried his patience on far too many occasions to count. I am incredibly privileged to be married to such a wonderful, loving, caring, fun, and supportive man.

Being given the opportunity to grow 2 humans and experience the joy of pregnancy...even all of the scary and uncomfortable stuff too! The added bonus was getting to experience it at the same time as so many of the women that I'm closest to!

My family for supporting us, and particularly me, through acts of service, time, or financial means, so that I could make growing 2 healthy boys my priority. Ok, at times it was basically slave labor, and I'll never be able to repay you, but I will be eternally grateful!

Friends that are only a BBM, text message, or phone call away...even if I rarely answer my phone. :)

Finding more good doctors that helped to change my life forever. Let's hope this is the last year that I need to list this one!

Learning which people are there for me no matter what, and removing those that aren't from my life.

Striker's coworkers for making it a great place to work...happy work life + happy home life = a very happy Striker = a happy wife.

The furries even though they drive me crazy sometimes and create messes and disasters that would otherwise not happen. Without them I would have gone completely insane sitting at home by myself for 5 months.

All the little things that make me happy: BlackBerries, Blogging, Facebook, Farmville ;), Grocery Delivery, Starbucks Christmas Cups, Massages, Pedicures, Rule Breaking, HCBC Gatherings, Countdowns, Fake Thanksgiving in October, Seasonal Treats (I WANT MY OREOS), Headless Weekly Maternity Photos, Quality Time with the Hubby, Good Books, and lately Rule Breaking ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble Day

Just in case you forgot, Thanksgiving Eve is the official Gobble Gobble Day. At least for the Queen and I. Gobble gobble.

Birth Plan - FFSU and Blogging

I was asked by the Queen today what my birth plan was as it pertains to FFSU and Blogging. Rest assured, all bases are covered.

Both Striker and I will have our BlackBerries (assuming that the boys hold out until my transfer from Pearl & AT&T to Tour & Verizon is complete...should be up and running no later than Friday unless AT&T holds my cell number hostage), this will connect us to both Facebook and mobiley posting. Chargers are on the list of things we must grab when en route to the hospital. I am much more likely to forget my vitamins and iron supplements (and Striker's meds) than my BlackBerry charger ;)

Should reception be an issue in LDR (that's Labor, Delivery, & Recovery) or should I require an emergency c-section (and we're hoping NOT), both my sistor and aunt are equipped for mobiley FFSUing...though my sistor will likely be the more reliable one, since my aunt NEVER updates her status.

KFuj will also be standing by to FFSU and mobiley post and will be in charge of the list of due date predictions.

I aspire to live up to the high standards set by both KT and Bianka while in labor. It does help that I have a crew of BlackBerry enabled family members who will be at the hospital with me...just in case. All of the postpartum rooms are private, on the top floor, and have large windows, so I'm anticipating decent cell reception...hopefully this is the case since the Queen is already taking an average of my BBM response times pre-boys so that she can mock me once my hands are full. My frequent napping might actually lead to a situation where my response time improves once I'm no longer sleeping half the day. :)

And please, no one point out that cell phone usage is generally frowned upon in hospitals...as the Queen also pointed out...we're paying them. :)

All I Want...

...Is a few more Oreos. See, when my mom was pregnant with me, she ate Oreos and Dr. Pepper right before her water broke. It's been a joke that when I wanted to evict the boys I just needed to do the same.

It's Christmas time (yes, I am aware that it is not yet Thanksgiving...I broke my own rule and started celebrating 9 days early this year), and that means White Fudge Oreos are here! I'm very big on seasonal treats...See's chocolate balls at Christmas, chocolate eggs and a bunny at Easter, candy corn before Halloween, you get the idea. I commented last weekend that I hadn't been able to find White Fudge Oreos on my limited outings and really wanted to find them. My sister found them and bought me a box yesterday. I ate two around 4:30 despite her warning that I'd better not go into labor. I argued that since I wasn't eating them with Dr. Pepper, I was safe. So tasty!!! I immediately put 6 into a bag and labeled it 12/3, intending to eat 3 for each of the boys on what I've decided is eviction day. I'll be getting the Dr. Pepper later.

Fast forward to just before 9:00...I'm watching Dancing With The Stars and feel what is clearly a contraction. This continues for half an hour with contractions every 5-6 minutes before I alert Striker and consult my experienced mother friends...they are generally polar opposites on the medical front, so they make drawing conclusions pretty easy by finding the middle. I decide to try control alt deleting because I refuse to believe that the boys would violate my post-turkey dinner rule. A half hour goes by and the contractions are farther apart. Convinced they will be going away, I decide to go to sleep. Other than a few random ones felt when waking up 45 times to go to the bathroom, it was definitely not real labor.

Another scheduled non-stress test this morning and I was sent home. YAY! I was told by the nurse that they are no longer worrying if I have contractions since I'm 35 weeks on Thursday. She did however tell me to come in if there was decreased fetal movement, my water broke, or if the contractions started to bother me.

I really want to eat a few more of the White Fudge Oreos, but Queen B won't let me. :(

Coincidentally, Diane posted this today. Oh how I want to try those too!!!

Tired Striker

This is what 55 games of bowling in 9 days will do to you....at least his arm hasn't fallen off yet or his hip dislocated.

In addition to winning some money, he also beat Vince Wood in their match today. On a side note: I learned that Vince Wood went to CSUF, where Striker and I met...who knew?

Oh and while Striker did not bowl another 300 this week, he did bowl a 279 (stupid 10 pin) and picked up the 7-10 split for the first time! (For all you non-bowlers, that's the 2 pins on the opposite sides of the lane in the very back.)

My Sistor Did This

And he looks thrilled doesn't he?

Happy Unbirthday Uncle!

So, this is going to be one of the boys's role models....
Birthday gifts (which he LOVED) included:
Ruffles
Ding Dongs
Ding Dong Birthday Cake
In N Out Gift Card
Snickers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and Butterfingers
A kid picking his nose on the bag
And a gorilla card that blows kisses from my Aunt

Karma

Yes, I finally put the picture in the frame. And the one downstairs too. I hear the Queen has some pictures that need to be hung...

34 Weeks

Not sure if you can tell from this picture, but the belly has dropped. Like when I sit in bed, it touches the mattress (no, I can't sit with my thighs touching, at least not comfortably). I am continually amused at how the aliens have completely taken over my body.

Still waiting on the pictures from Striker's Surprise Shower. Something about people having to work. I was busy napping most of the day today and playing with B who I swear was trying to turn himself head down. There was also a period of time where I think they were taking turns kicking each other.

I've had 2 non-stress tests now, with a third tomorrow. Striker gets to chauffeur me there since it's his Friday off. Yay! Both have been uneventful so far, with the exception of B getting zapped for sleeping. I told Striker that I had to be sure to eat later to avoid a repeat performance. Orange juice and some protein make him do a happy dance.

We plan to finish the last minute stuff this weekend and pack my bag for the hospital, not that they are allowed to be born before December 1, but because then we can do a little Christmas decorating next weekend. Yippee!

The Best Laid Plans

We found out last night that they would finally be paving the streets around our house...YAY! Of course it was sort of short notice...they'd be doing so today and tomorrow. I was initially quite thankful that this was transpiring now instead of in a few weeks when I'd likely go into labor while trapped in my house. According to the schedule, they'd be paving the street right in front of our house on Thursday which was good since I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for today and planned to drop Oskar off at the groomers on my way there and back.

I spent the morning monitoring the progress and everything appeared to be going according to schedule... I took Oskar to the groomers, came home after my appointment because he wasn't ready, and left to pick him up without issue. When I was turning onto my street I saw this:
















Oh oh, Houston we had a problem! You see, not only did I have Oskar with me (with only his collar which he can pull himself out of since he's a dachshund and his chest is so strong - walking him on a leash requires a harness) but I was operating on a fairly tight schedule in order to shower and get ready to go to Will's Surprise Shower at his work. I couldn't park my car any closer than approximately a quarter mile from my house. I could drive down the middle of my street, but couldn't park or get into the streets that lead to my garage. I circled trying to figure out the best place to park that would require the shortest distance and the most time spent walking in the shade. While it was only in the 70s today, I have not walked a quarter mile (much less a half mile round trip) in over 4 months. I was not prepared for a walk of that magnitude and was in need of a bathroom since it had been almost an hour since my last visit. (Go ahead and laugh...have 10 pounds of baby sit on your bladder and see how often you think it needs to be emptied).

I found a spot that I considered best case scenario, left my purse in the car and took only my cell phone and keys, crossed my fingers that Oskar would behave himself on the leash and set off with the following mantra in my head "Please don't go into labor. It's only November 18th, Will's surprise shower is happening in an hour and a half and your being there is part of the surprise." (Repeat)

Oskar was already tired from his trip to the groomers, but thankfully made it about halfway back before he started dragging and slipped out of his collar. Unable to afford slowing down, and being quite tempted to start knocking on doors, I picked Oskar up and carried him the rest of the way. (BTW, bending over to pick him up is something that I find rather comical...I'm surprised I haven't toppled over and crushed him yet!)

















I finally made it to our house half an hour behind schedule and considered having my sister drive 10 miles to my house to drive me the quarter of a mile back to my car, and bless her, she was going to, but I realized that it would take her too long to get there. I still needed to shower (and boy was I sweaty after all that physical activity!) but knew that in order for the mantra to be effective I need to drink a glass of water and lay down for at least 10 minutes...it's amazing how doing that is the pregnancy equivalent of ctrl+alt+delete. Anyhow, I showered and left the house in record time and made it back to my car just in time to make it to the hubby's work on time (well a few minutes late because of construction detours and then several cop cars blocking the detour street).

The highlight of my walk was the construction guy apologizing to me as I waddled past. I told him it wasn't his fault that I had stuff to do today, but he said he felt bad given my condition...I really should have asked him to give me a ride to my car...Hindsight.

Going Rogue

Also known as Rule Breaking: Christmas Edition.

I usually have a strict no Christmas before Thanksgiving policy. Except that I'm not decorating for Christmas this year and decide to cheat my own rule and listen to Manheim Steamroller's 25th Anniversary Collection of Christmas songs today while driving around. It's not entirely my fault....I went to Target to buy Sarah Palin's book on the way to my non-stress test and walked right by Christmas CDs after deciding that I wanted to load my ipod with Christmas music for the hospital last night. Just call me CPL :)

33 Weeks & 3 Days PG Today

Striker bowled a 300 yesterday. He placed 3rd in the sweeper and had the third highest in qualifying in both regionals. He was 3 for 3 in softball today. He hit a 3 run home run.

As Ruth pointed out, there were a lot of 3's this weekend...My delivery date prediction is officially 12/3. They are my boys after all :)

XXXXXXXXXXXX

What's that? Why a 300 for Striker of course! He was celebrating both Maddie's and the Queen's Father's birthdays today. ;) I believe that it's his 9th adult sanctioned 300. Woo hoo!

Good Luck & High Scoring

Striker is in Las Vegas bowling this weekend. He bowled one tournament today and one tomorrow. Today he bowled 8 games of qualifying, followed by 4 games of match play, a semifinal game, and then the finals. Yep, 14 games in a row with only about a half hour break for lunch in between the 8 games and match play.

He bowled very consistently averaging roughly 230 for the 8 games. My math skills are sort of lazy, so that's close enough for me...Mr CPA Striker on the other hand....well I'll let him share that funny story in the comments if he wants. He ended up in 2nd place and winning $1000!!! Woo Hoo! It's been a very profitable few months for Striker in the bowling department.

I'm not quite sure how his arm hasn't fallen off, but he's hoping to do it all again tomorrow...at least it's only 8 games of qualifying tomorrow. Match play and finals will be on Sunday if he makes cut. We're hoping for a repeat performance, though I think there is more money in tomorrow's tournament. ;)

Everyone be sure to wish him "Good luck and high scoring". I've been doing this before he goes bowling for awhile now, and it seems to be doing the trick...or at least making Striker happy. :)

33 Weeks

This is a BlackBerry picture of the display on my digital camera after I took the 33 Week picture myself with the aid of my tripod and auto timer setting on my camera. Striker is in Vegas this weekend hopefully bowling lots of strikes and winning some money. I promise to upload the real picture just as soon as I upload it to my laptop.

Let's see, highlights for this week:
At my 32 1/2 week appointment, the belly measured a whopping 42 weeks. My doctor laughed with me, because really, if I go until 36 weeks I'll be 46 weeks belly size or more, and that's just so ridiculous, you have to laugh. Or cry. I choose to laugh.

Right after last week's post, the super uncomfortable belly took effect. It's like a timer went off or something. Back started to hurt, hips are just miserable, moving or changing position on a frequent basis is a necessity (or else I get stuck) but doing so is comical and pathetic all at the same time. My massage therapist mentioned that he felt a lot more tension in my back last Friday compared to the prior week, so that comforted me that at least this wasn't all in my head. The belly button is so ridiculously stretched out that I'm worried it may never be the same again! There will be no naked belly pictures taken or at least shared publicly for the remainder of this pregnancy. Sorry Jane!

Striker has pretty much taken over all household activities and I've resumed couch sitting/laying on an almost permanent basis. I can tell time by my sausage toes. If I stand for 30 minutes, I get sausage toes. If I am sitting upright with my feet down, I get cankles and sausage toes in 3 hours. It's seriously like clockwork.
My sister is staying with me for the rest of the weekend and my mom and aunt are coming to help with a few things so I can just continue to lay around and grow babies. I'm not on official bed rest, but I'm on self imposed do-nothing-but-rest. I think the boys had a growth spurt one day this week because I swear I did nothing but sleep all day! I'm trying to eat a little more, even though I'm not hungry, just to be sure that B is getting enough food.

I want both to be at least 5 pounds at birth, stay out of the NICU, and preferably be December babies (by strict requests of both Mr and Mrs KFuj who will be in Vegas Thanksgiving weekend and Auntie and Uncle who will be getting new carpet that weekend). I want December babies so that we all have blue birthstones. ;) However, Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away-holy crap!

Proof that Striker and My Sistor Love Me

I really wanted to take maternity photos with Striker because 90% of the pictures I've taken while pregnant have been of just me, or me and other people without Striker in them. Since the boys are just as much his as they are mine, I really wanted good pictures of us together. I just had a problem with paying a photographer hundreds of dollars when I had all of the ideas and a perfectly good camera to do the job....it's just really hard to take pictures of yourself. The other option was some studio, but that wasn't the look I was going for. And so, I talked my sister into playing photographer for us...she did a great job, and was cheap! We only had to buy her dinner. :)

I still have some editing and playing to do, but here's a preview. I've uploaded several to Facebook already as well. I just might get pictures into all the frames I have around the house ;)

For Queen B

The appropriate way to hold twins ;)

Happy Birthday Oma to Be!

Have a great day at the house of the mouse!

Diaper Challenge

During Striker's birthday extravaganza the grandmas to be decided it be fun to have Opa diaper a stuffed animal...

Tada!

Why I Shouldn't Make Fun of Queen B

Nope, I didn't cut myself with a knife, I took a big chunk out of my thumb with a plastic hanger for BABY clothes. I was removing one of the giraffe outfits that KT and Jane got for the boys and somehow managed to make a huge divit in my thumb...which then bled profusely while I frantically instructed the hubby to get blood soaking materials that were not baby clothes (I was sitting under a pile of outfits and was trying to balance the puddle of blood on top of my thumb). Thankfully, all outfits remained unstained after they were washed...my thumb on the other hand is going to take FOREVER to heal...something about my body's resources being allocated to grow two humans. I need to get cute bandaids for my thumb.

Striker's 29 Years and 333 Days Birthday

Also known as Striker's 30th Birthday, 32 days early. :)

In an effort to not completely miss Striker's big milestone birthday on his actual birthday in December, we celebrated it yesterday. I really wanted it to be somewhat special since it'll likely be his last birthday that isn't completely shared with the boys.

We went to Wabi Sabi for dinner and then had cake and presents at our house.
Striker with his green tea ice cream...














Striker's parents...














Mr. and Mrs. KFuj...














My mom and sistor...














Auntie and Uncle...















If you've never had Almost Better than, ahem, Anything Cake, you should try it!













Luckily the smoke alarm did not go off ;)

Twin's Names

Ok, I must confess, the boys' names are NOT Beau and Cole. Reverse them: Cole and Beau. Say them together. ColeBeau...Kolbow. No, I will not be that mean to my children!!! But it was fun to get all the phone calls and texts from everyone :)

32 Weeks

Another milestone week! All that's left is 35 weeks (Thanksgiving) and then every day after that is just gravy. Maybe we'll start calling them butterballs since A weighed a whopping 4 lbs 15 oz at today's ultrasound and B weighed 3 lbs 11 oz. I'm not sure how accurate the measurements were, because the tech didn't spend a lot of time on them like she usually does, and I sort of got the "good enough" vibe. Either way I can safely say that they are both about 4+ pounds, which puts them on pace for 5 pounds each by turkey day and will hopefully keep them out of the NICU. YAY!

Because I was concerned about the suddenly large difference in weight, we're beginning their non-stress tests a week early next Friday at 33 weeks, instead of the standard at 34 weeks for twins. Let's just ignore the fact that it's Friday the 13th.

B continues to be stretched across the top and hugging my ribs...if only it felt like hugging!

I took my bonus picture with KFuj (courtesy of Mr KFuj) because she's halfway to 32 weeks with half as many babies on board, and I like the math in that! By the way, I have no idea why it looks like I have a huge stain of some sort on my shirt...we inspected said shirt immediately following the picture and found nothing. As for the expression on my face, well that's part of the reason I take headless shots ;)

And finally, Striker and I have decided that we've tortured you all enough. The boys names are Beau(A) and Cole (B)!

Persistence?

Dear HOA and gardeners,

Despite fertilizing these plants twice in the last month, they are pretty much dead and aren't going to be making a come back. They used to be big and pretty, but ever since last winter's freeze, they've looked like this. I don't think they are planted in the appropriate conditions. I'm not sure since I am without a green thumb, but even I can kill plants like this, I don't need to pay you to.

And the fertilizer? It makes me gag whenever the front door is opened. And let's just forget about the windows. It actually smells worse than the aroma wafting over from the dairy farm.

Just add more bushes like the ones growing nicely in the background.

Thank you!

New Favorite Product!

Available at Walmart...at least that's the only place I've found it. There's also a high traffic foam carpet cleaner. They made quick work of the pet puke that we came home to on the couch and rug. Just spraying the Pet Stain remover on the carpet made it disappear. We'll see how it dries tomorrow, but as of right now, I'm completely sold!

My Mom Rocks!

So as if her weekly laundry service, regular chili delivery, and house cleaning/organizing services weren't enough, she also took our comforter to the laundromat last week while she was on vacation (it's a Cal King and doesn't fit in our washer/dryer well enough to actually get clean/dry).

She seemed to have a good time at the laundromat based on the picture my sister sent me, and she was equally happy to receive her 3 shelf spice rack like the one I have in my cabinet. She really liked mine when she was assisting with the Great Kitchen Organization Project of 2009, so I picked one up on my trip to WalMart (what was I thinking going to WalMart?!) At least she has a rack for her chili powder ;)