Saturday, July 31, 2010

Who makes the crap that I wear?!!

Still alive!

I've been slaving away on my sewing machine! I'm teaching myself, so to say it is a slow process is an understatement.

I think I'm doing pretty well though considering it is...well, ME we are talking about!

I practiced hemming tonight, and it was a breeze! Of course my stitches weren't straight at all....details, details, whatever!!!

Guess What Else got accomplished this weekend???

Guess!

Remember my rant about my den??

Yup, we finally painted it (again, ahem)!!!

We painted it blue, and I have to say it looks so much better than the "Go Army" Green we originally had in there. It feels so much better too, it's amazing how a coat of paint can completely change the dynamic of a room!

Now, I just need to decorate!

Hello, chotchkies (I think I spelled that right?) Here I come!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Oh, Brother

I got my sewing machine today!!!!!

It's a Brother CE-5500 ( If that means nothing to you, then you are EXACTLY like me)!!!

Yes, I've never sewed anything in my life!

Call me crazy, but I think it would be fun to learn how to sew cute little things like bags, and curtains and maybe outfits for the girls; although I am also well aware there is a pretty- good chance this machine will only collect dust!

Although I hope not!

I'm proud to say, I tinkered around with it last night, and eventhough it took me about 2 hours to just get the machine threaded (Hey, I'm a beginner here) I was able to do a few practice stitches, and I'm so excited I'm a sewing machine owner!

I'm a long way from making anything fabulous, but who knows, I may just shock myself!

Anyone else out there sew? Have any advice? Good Books, Patterns, or Websites?

Let me know!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

FOLLOW ME!!!!

So, I've noticed I've gotten about 430 hits on my blog!

As much as I love my blog, I definitely don't have the time to visit it 400 odd times...which means...

PEOPLE REALLY DO READ THE CRAZY STUFF I WRITE!!!!!!

YAY!

I really love my followers, and I LOVE comments :)

So, if you stumble upon my random thoughts, I'd love for you to "follow" me, and/or comment!

My followers are on my right hand sidebar, just click "follow" and type in your info....super easy!

Don't be shy to leave a comment or e-mail me your blog link, if you have one! I love finding new blogs to read!

I'll follow you, if you follow me! haha

So, although my blog is still humble and small as far as my reader-base goes, I'd love to expand it!

So please, please, please ( I am shameless, I will beg)!

Check out my blog AND FOLLOW :)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Miss Crafty

So, I've been "attempting" to make hair bows. Yes, you read that right.

I've bought a million for LO, but with twins coming, I thought it would be cute to make a bunch of matching ones!

Cute, yes.

Easy, no.

I can do the basics...like, line an alligator clip with fabric.

Bows, are hard though. REALLY hard to make.

Who knew, there were a million different types also! I can make a basic bow (kind of) I took a flower class in high school, where we made hundreds of bows for floral arrangements, but it's MUCH harder when your making teeny tiny bows to fit small, little- precious heads!

I'll be posting some pictures of my finished products soon, as of right now, I'm taking a break...I feel like I'm tinkering away in a sweat shop over here!

P.S.

28 weeks, today :)

Friday, July 16, 2010

Weight Update

I forgot to mention....

I'm 27 weeks pregnant...

and I've gained 30 lbs. so far!

GASP!

I keep telling myself, "It's okay, your pregnant with twins....TWINS!"

Then I remember I gained NO weight during my first trimester...in fact, I lost weight, because I was constantly sick.

So, really I've packed on 30 pounds, in like, a matter of 4 months!

WHAT!?!?!?!?

If my calculations are correct, each baby should already weigh about 15 lbs.

At least, that's what I'm going to keep telling myself!




Happy Weekend Everyone!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Spoke Too Soon

So, in my last post, I was writing about how I'm 27 weeks pregnant, and how lucky I am that I've made it this far.

Sure enough, the next day, I'm in the hospital.

Don't worry, everything is FINE.

I started to feel pressure in my chest and abdomen, and then I started to freak out because I hadn't felt the girls move all day long.

We went to my OB around 2:30 and luckily, he said the babies were perfect, and my cervix was still closed and long (apparently that's really good). However, he was concerned about the pressure I was feeling in my chest, and was worried I may have developed a blood clot.

He sent us to the ER, and after hours of blood work, urine samples, EKG's, and CT scans, I was cleared and told I was okay to go home.

Apparently, the girls are growing nicely, but they are putting lots of pressure on my diaphragm, making it hard to breathe at times, especially when I'm toting my 30 lb. toddler on my hip.

So, we had a little scare, but it showed us that I need to slow down. No more lifting LO, and doing strenuous activity. My husband had the day off yesterday, so he handled everything, and today, my mom was over helping me with LO.

It's insane, but even though I've been able to stay off my feet, and keep from heavy-duty lifting and work the past 2 days, I'm still EXHAUSTED.

I guess it just comes with the territory!

Monday, July 12, 2010

27 weeks!!!

We are 27 weeks TODAY!!!!!

Each week, gets harder, but each week is a blessing that BOTH girls are still doing well, and still thriving!

I get e-mail updates about how my baby is growing from Babycenter. They always have interesting information...for example, 27 weeks, it says my babies are about 2 lbs roughly the amount of a head of cauliflower.

Umm....huh?

I always find it hilarious which fruit or vegetable my baby is going to get compared to, each week!

Well, only 3 more weeks til I'm at 30 weeks! 30 weeks has been my make or break number, since we found out about the twins; I told myself from the beginning (when there was a chance that these babies might have to be delivered super, SUPER early), if I can just make it to 30 weeks, these babies can be okay!

Not only is it looking like these babies will be here for 30 weeks, but it's also looking like they'll be in my tummy for much longer than that!

Prayers really are heard. It's been a long road, and we still have quite a bit to travel, but it has been quite a joyous ride :)

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Cousins

My sister-in-law, Emily (my husband's sister) was in town this weekend! She lives in Greensboro, NC and is ALSO pregnant :) She was in town for her "Richmond" Baby Shower, and we were so excited to get the babies (still in-utero) some snuggle-time, in!

This is her first pregnancy, so she is totally glowing! She's not finding out the sex (which drives me crazy) I'm DYING to know!!! Her due date is September 2nd, so the two of us literally may be popping at the same time!



Friday, we had her, her mother-in-law, and her mom (my mother-in-law) over for dinner. It was nice, and of course LO, loved having the opportunity to perform in front of an audience!

This is what I cooked...Baked Rigatoni...yummmmy!

Emily's shower really turned out cute...the food was fabulous ( unfortunately it's not pictured because I was busy stuffing my face). She got all kinds of good things, below is a picture of her bear-shaped cake...it's still wrapped up...but it was super cute, and super delicious!



I absolutely LOVED the centerpiece for the table. These are storage bins, that the hostess actually lined with fabric and decorated! The colors match the nursery colors, and of course there were presents inside each box as well! So creative!



This is the rocking chair for the baby! A local artist painted it, the theme is based on the Children's Book, "Guess How Much I love you"...It turned out so cute! The rocking chair has now become a tradition...



This is my LO's rocking chair, that was a baby shower present, it's painted by the same local artist!

LO's room theme is baby jungle animals, you can see all the different animals painted on the seat below!

We have 2 rocking chairs for each of the twins on the way now! I've been trying to think of a theme to tell the artist, but I've been having a really hard time. LO, had a jungle animal theme, as I've already said, but the twins room really doesn't have a theme. The colors are just purple, white, and green, and the bedding is going to be purple damask. I thought about finding a Children's Book like Emily did for the artist to go off of, but no luck.

So, I think I've got my heart set on the poem "Sugar and Spice," The Mother Goose version is lengthy, but I like this version I found online...

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice,
That's what Little Girls are made of
Sunshine and Rainbows, and Ribbons for Hairbows,
That's what Little Girls are made of
Tea parties, laces and baby doll faces
That's what Little Girls are made of.

I'm sure the artist can come up with a cute-creative way to tie this in to a mural for both chairs. Maybe making one chair more "sugary" and the other more "spicy"? Or even having the poem written out, half on once chair and the other half on the other? She's the artist, so I think I will just give her the poem, and let her know the nursery colors and see what she comes up with!!!

What do you guys think???





















Saturday, July 10, 2010

Heat Relief

We have been battling the mother of all heat waves this summer in Richmond, Virginia.

It's been awful. It actually reached 107 this week....107?!!?!?!

This past week, we never reached temperatures below 100, and we've had those ozone warnings, where they say the air is poor quality to breathe.

So much fun (insert sarcasm here).

As you can imagine, these temperatures are a pregnant woman's worst nightmare! It's been rough, I'm not gonna lie, but it's also been rough on LO. It's too hot for anyone to enjoy being outside, definitely to hot for me and certainly too hot for children.

It's like being snowed-in only it's July. We've been stuck in the house, the most fun LO gets, is a trip to the grocery store or the children's museum. She's itching to get outside and just RUN! Basically, she just wants to be a kid, get dirty, play in the grass, and roll in the dirt, but it's just simply too hot.

Well, all of my bitching about the heat, and praying God for a torrential downpour must have rubbed off on her.

Sure enough, we finally got rain! It was one of those storms that don't last particularly long, but start off like a monsoon. There was a huge rush of sound as the sky opened up, and the rain plummeted on our house.

I immediately got excited and said "OMG! Is that Rain?"

At that very moment, my little girl squealed with delight and literally ran out of our den!

I followed her as fast as I could, and for a second thought she actually evaporated. But then I caught her!


Under the Kitchen Table, staring out the window at the glorious rain, in complete awe of it all! You know it's been HOT in your town, when a 14 month old can grasp the concept of heat-relief!

How cute?


Friday, July 9, 2010

Somewhat Obsessed

I have an obsession, one that tends to get out of hand when pregnancy becomes involved.

I noticed it when I was pregnant with LO, and now, it has really taken a mind of its own.

I'm obsessed with.....

LEMONS.

When I was pregnant with LO, I actually use to crave lemons. I would eat lemons everyday, it drove my family crazy because it literally used to make their faces pucker just being in the same room with me!

Sidenote:

Is it true drinking lemon and water helps you lose weight? A woman told me this, when I was talking about losing my baby weight after the twins are born, and she swore, it helped her lose weight. I think she's lying. Has anyone heard or done this???

Back to the post:

I've always loved lemons, I love their smell, it's addicting, I just can't get enough of it! I'm kind of weird when it comes to my cleaning rituals, and I love cleaning with lemons, and lemon-scented products...to me, lemon is synonomous with clean.

I love to freshen up my garbage disposal with ice cubes and lemon peels, and I've been known to bake lemons so that my house gets that lemony aroma....ahhh, love it!

Of course, now there are so many actual cleaning products that are lemon-scented....I mean, glad even makes lemon-scented trash bags...hello? I'm obviously NOT the only lemon freak out there!



Of course, clorox disinfecting wipes are a staple in any home! I probably go through a canister a week (no, I'm not kidding). I disinfect EVERYTHING in my house, numerous times a day, but I only buy...you guessed it, the lemon-scented ones! They just smell so freaking good. The fresh-scent ones are okay, the orange-scent is just plain gross. I actually get mad, because if you go to Costco, the jumbo pack comes with all three scents. Is it too much to ask for a jumbo pack with JUST the lemon-scented ones??? Are you reading this Clorox?
Pledge, really smells lemony! I dust with this stuff everyday, I also use it on my granite countertops in my kitchen to keep them shiny!
Pine Sol! This stuff is awesome, you can literally use it for anything! You can even add this stuff to your laundry, it's a virtual, anywhere stain-remover! They make all kinds of different scents now, including.....lemon! I use pine-sol everywhere in my house, from my hardwoods, to my toilet bowls :)
To my excitement, I recently discovered lemon yankee candles at our local Homegoods store! They are awesome! I bought all of the ones they had on the shelf....I light them at night, or right before company comes over, and it simply makes me happy! It's much better than when I bake lemons, because the smell is noticeable but not over-powering.
Also, at Homegoods, I found lemon-scented hand soap. I have it in my kitchen and downstairs powder room. I've never gotten so many questions about where I buy my hand soap before! Everyone loves it and wants it!
Dove, has jumped on the bandwagon with their new body wash. It's grapefruit and lemongrass scented. I think they should have just stuck with lemon...but I'm still going to give it a try.

I still don't have my lemon tree :( I wanted one when I was pregnant with LO, but couldn't fine one anywhere in Richmond...It's been too hot to plant anything this summer, so I guess my lemon-plant dreams will have to continue to wait.

How good does this look? It's not summer, without lemonade! So jump on the lemon bandwagon people! Lemons rock!



Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Dear Laundry



Dear Laundry,

you truely are the bane of my existence!

I was so excited when we bought our spankin new LG washer/dryer! I mean, what girl doesn't love shiny new things....especially shiny, new appliances.

I knew you would revolutionize my life, with your capacity to hold extra large loads, and you even came with a "sanitize" option....perfect for any parent.

When we bought our new house, I was excited that our laundry room was on the 2nd floor! Hello? Ingenious Idea! The bedrooms are on the 2nd floor, we get dressed and un-dressed on the 2nd floor, of course it makes perfect sense for our laundry room to be on the 2nd floor. It's like one-stop shopping.

Unfortunately, my dear new and shiny appliances, you did not revolutionize my life.

You have taught me, it does not matter how many fancy buttons or options you may have or how shiny and pretty you are....laundry is still laundry, and laundry, sucks.

As for the revolutionary idea of a 2nd floor laundry room, that sucks too. It's a nice idea, in theory, however, when you're big and fat and pregnant, theory gets thrown out the window!

If laundry is the bane of my existence, then staircases are my arch-nemesis.

I have to limit how many times a day I go up the stairs, and preferably refrain from carrying my 30ish pounder toddler on my hip while I'm going up them....did I mention I was big, fat, and pregnant?

Therefore, running up the stairs when the wash is done, to switch the load to the dryer and re-load more dirty clothes in the washer, has turned in to a major task.

My routine, is wake up, get LO up, before going downstairs I throw clothes in the washing machine. Then me and the munchkin head downstairs for breakfast and playtime. A few hours later, we make our way upstairs for our morning nap ( yes, it has turned into our, not just her morning nap) where I transfer the clothes that have been "done" being washed for sometime, into the dryer. Of course I add the next load to the washer as well. When our nap is done, I throw the dry clothes on my bed to be folded later, switch the washed load to the dryer and add another load to the washer, then LO and I go back downstairs until afternoon nap....you get the idea.

Well, this routine, when it works, works okay. But throw in the days when LO refuses to take a nap, or we are not at home and have to run errands, and then the routine goes to shit.

I can't do laundry at night, because LO is such a light sleeper at night time that the spin-cycle wakes her up! In her defense, the spin-cycle is pretty intense on my high-tech appliances, it can get loud!

The worst, though, is when I forget about a wet load of clothes that has been sitting in the washer, only to find it, and have to re-wash it because the clothes now have that funky "I've-been- wet- in- the- washing- machine- for- too- long- smell". Gross.

And, I seriously never have a day, where laundry doesn't need to be done. Never.

So, laundry, I hate you...I really hate you.

Just thought you should know.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July!


As I'm writing this, a bombardment of fireworks are being set off in my neighborhood, and if they wake up my sleeping child, someone will pay! Oh how priorities change when you're a parent!

We spent part of our holiday, here.....

The River! My parents have a vacation house on the York River, and believe it or not, yesterday was LO's FIRST trip down there! She had a total blast! Our River House is in this great neighborhood, it's very Norman Rockwell-esque. The whole neighborhood is private, all the roads are gravel and all the houses are situated in a huge circle, so it's literally like running a lap around a track if you were to walk from house to house.

Basically, it's perfect for a parade! Everyone uses golf carts to get around (so much fun) and every year the neighborhood has a 4th of July parade, where everyone dresses up, and dresses up their golf cart. Sometimes there are more people in the "parade," than there are spectators, but it's always a lot of fun!



There's me below! I told you I was huge! 25 weeks pregnant with twins, literally I am the size I was a year ago when I was about to give birth to LO.....scary...I can only get bigger from here! sigh.


Here's LO "driving" our decked out golf cart with dad!



This is my mom, and LO, but really the picture is all about LO's dress! How cute??? It's hard to tell, but she had matching red, white, and blue shoes as well (although she only has one on in the picture)! It's all about the accessories :)


This is Olivia, who's grandparents have a house near ours, she happened to have the same dress as LO!!!! What are the odds? At least they're young enough, where it's actually cute, to show up to an event and have someone else wearing the exact same thing!




If you remember from my last post, my main goals for the holiday weekend were to eat lots of seafood and get a good family picture. Well lucky for you guys, I did NOT take a picture of me eating seafood (because really, who wants to see that)?? But rest assured, the seafood was delicious, and I ate plenty. Below, are our attempts at a family picture....


Sigh... I guess, there's always NEXT year!



Happy 4th Everyone!

Friday, July 2, 2010

Who said Christmas can't come early???

So, we've been wanting to get our LO a "play" kitchen set. I originally was going to wait until Christmas, but on a recent trip to Pottery Barn Kids, they had their pink retro kitchen-set, up in the store; LO freaked out! She loved it! So, then my husband and I decided the pink kitchen should be her "I'm the Big Sister" present.

Of course Christmas and the "I'm the Big Sister" present came early!

Now, don't get me wrong...I LOVE Pottery Barn Kids, they have some of the cutest things around, however sometimes their prices are not-so-cute! I just could NOT justify spending almost 700 smackers for their insanely cute retro kitchen.

Luckily we found another pink retro kitchen at a store called Kidkadoo, aaaaand it was a third of the price!


Voila! Still just as cute...don't you think?




Naturally, she dove right in!
And, she knew exactly what to do with her "play" food...put it in the fridge!


If all works according to plan, hopefully this kitchen will buy me mere minutes of freedom during the day! Ha, we will see:)

We are off to the River tomorrow, to celebrate the 4th! My main goals for the holiday weekend are to eat an obnoxious amount of seafood, and get a "good" family pic of the three of us (fingers crossed).

Hope everyone has a safe and relaxing holiday weekend!



Thursday, July 1, 2010

Check her out

I had to feature a post from this amazing blog I found today...


Apparently, she has been getting some flack for being a SAHM and loving it. From what I've read on her blog, she loves being a SAHM, and believes it is something she was always meant to be. This doesn't offend me, but apparently it does offend some momma's out there who choose to work. I always say, it's a personal choice, what's right and what works for one family, simply may not work for another. From what I can see (or read) Mrs. Foreste seems to believe the same way. But either there are women out there, who misinterpret what she writes, or women who simply love to hate on women who choose to stay home as opposed to get a career.

It's 2010 people! Women can do ANYTHING! I have to give major props to the women out there who are Doctors, and CEO's, or who are working multiple jobs perhaps out of necessity and not choice, just as I give props to all the SAHM's out there! As women, and as mothers, we should all be rooting for each other!

Anyways, I loved reading her post, and I think she delivered a brilliant response!


Read her post...what do you think?