That’s what Eric called it last night.  It made me laugh.

Actually, Eric makes me laugh.  That is a good thing at this point.  He makes these random observations that are hilarious.  I’m so thankful for him!

I think we have names finally decided on (no we’re not telling yet).  A couple of times before, we’ve thought we’d settled on names only to realize that one or the other of us didn’t like one or the other of them.  But we’ve been using the same pair of names for a while, “trying them on” so to speak, and I think we may have the winners. 

Tonight, Eric is going to take some pictures of Karen and her family for Christmas cards.  He practiced on me some last night.  He kept needing me to sit on the floor.  Um…that’s not so easy anymore.

Yesterday was an unexpectedly busy day, and my body was pretty mad at me by the evening.

• I went to bible study at church.  (Is it a rule that church chairs have to be uncomfortable?) 
• Stopped at the grocery on the way home from bible study.
• Had lunch, worked on Christmas decorations, chatted with Karen
• Eric got home (at 2:30 or so – he was bored at work), so we hung out for the rest of the day.
• I made some cookies (okay, actually, I just plopped pre-made dough on a sheet and baked them, but Eric enjoyed them!) and cleaned up the kitchen.
• I made dinner and then we watched TV for the rest of the night.   Good times!

Best of all, I seem to have turned a corner, attitude-wise.  Yesterday was a very good day.  I’m hoping it lasts more than a day or two…I’m tired of being cranky all the time!  Thanks for your prayers yesterday…

And that, I think, is about all I have to write about today.  I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving holiday.  I am certainly thankful for each and every one of you!  Happy Turkey Day!

That, it seems, is where we are.  According to my doctor, there’s been no real change.  So these babies seem to have no intention of coming.  I realize this could change in a heartbeat, but still, it was pretty discouraging.  After all, I’ve got at least 12 lbs. of babies (plus extras) to lug around, and I’m ready to be done.  

So I’ve decided that I just have to stop focusing on it, rehearsing my woes on a regular basis.  This is, of course, difficult since everyone, in the most well-meaning of ways, wants to know how I’m feeling.  And sadly, all their, also well-meaning, reminders that “it’s almost over” and “once they come, it’ll all be worth it” just don’t really have the encouraging effect they’re intended to have.  While absolutely true, those lines just don’t mean anything to a first-time mom who’s frustrated/uncomfortable enough to be told them.  After all, for me, two weeks until the scheduled section just means 6 meals, 4 blood tests, an itching belly and a whole lot of physical discomfort for 14 more days.  And once I start thinking that way, not surprisingly, my attitude takes a major nose-dive.

Yesterday, I was trying to figure out what my real issue was.  The best I came up with was that my expectations are not matching reality at this moment.  I’ve noticed this pattern before.  Expectations can be a dangerous thing, especially subconscious ones.  See, I never figured I’d go this far.  My doctor mentioned 38 weeks as term way back at the beginning, but that number didn’t mean anything to me.  And besides, “nobody” actually carries twins to 38 weeks, right?  So I just didn’t expect to be still pregnant at this point.  Yet I am.  And I’m having trouble re-adjusting my radar to be okay with that.  I definitely need to work on my expectations…

So, anyway, that’s my baby update.  I’m at least starting today in a much better frame of mind than I’ve had for a few days.  And as it’s Thanksgiving week, I’m trying to keep a thankful heart about all the blessings I have been given instead of letting the one fact of “still pregnant” ruin any thankfulness I could have.  And who knows, these babies may decide to make an appearance long before Dec. 8 (I hope).   Anything’s possible, right?

I pointed out to Eric that today was Wednesday already, but he disagreed.  He said today was still Monday, and he’d be working a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule this week.  But then it’s a four-day weekend for him, so…whatever!

As for the weekend recap…
Friday was pretty good.  I did get most of the laundry done.  And I went to the mall with my sister and nephew for a bit.  I can’t walk very long, though, so it was a short trip.  Eric called me on my way home to say he’d be home earlier than I expected, so that was nice, too.  He’d met his brother to watch the Bond movie (which he really liked) early and then went to dinner.  The original plan was the reverse.  So he was home by 9:00.  Lovely!

Saturday Eric had men’s bible study early and then went back to work.  So I finished laundry, cleaned floors and prepared for Kelly’s party.  And I watched OSU win.   My parents got to my house before Eric got home.  I think my mom wanted to make sure she was there to help me finish getting ready if needed.  She’s so great! 

The party was a lot of fun.  Jason was in a very good mood, and the two girls are very cute, I must say!  And Kelly really liked her presents.  I got her the game Perfection, and Eric showed the girls how to play it after dessert.  They seemed to have fun with it! 

Sunday was a little more low-key.  I was in a really crabby mood for the morning.  Despite my efforts to the contrary, I really struggled during church, but my attitude did get better as the day went on. 

Eric and I got to just hang out.  He put up the Christmas tree for me.  I usually do this the weekend after Thanksgiving, but we decided to get a head-start on it this year.  And since ladders are a bad idea these days for me, he did the tree.  Of course, I still have boxes of stuff to put out, but I can probably handle most of those decorations.  And I must say, it is a silly little tradition to hang lights and ornaments on tree branches, but it makes me happy!

Sunday evening we had a dinner party for our small group, which turned out to be fun, too.  We had a number of children/babies there, but they played pretty well together for the most part.  And the conversation was good, too. We got home and read for a while…then to bed!

And that was the weekend.  Today it’s raining outside, but at least that means it’s a little warmer than it’s been!  We shall see what I find to accomplish today…

I never post on Saturdays, but today I’ve got the time.  Of course I don’t have much to say, but since when has that stopped me from posting!  Ha!

Eric left for men’s bible study about 7:00 this morning.  He went straight from there to work (he called me on the way to say “Good morning”) where he’ll be for most of the day.  So I’m on my own again until he gets home or the family arrives for Kelly’s party, whichever comes first.

At least I have some things to do.  I need to clean up the floors a bit, work on the laundry some more, clear the kitchen counters, and make a quick grocery run.  It’s amazing how fast I go through vegetables these days!

Oh, and I also plan to watch the OSU game, too.  That will be my entertainment while I fold socks and such. 

And that’s it.  Happy Saturday!  Go Bucks!

It’s been a kind of long week, so I’m glad it’s almost the weekend.  I realize that sounds odd coming from someone who’s not working right now, but it’s still true!

Eric is going out with his brother tonight after work for a “last” hurrah…at least before the babies come. They’re having dinner at Easton and watching the Bond movie.  But it means I won’t see him again until late.  So it’s a long day alone for me.  Still, I’m glad they can do this since it may be a while before they can do it again.  At least I hope so!

I love words.  Having gone back to my personal Bible study in Romans, my favorite part is doing word studies.  For example, in Romans 1:25, where it says “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie,” the word exchanged actually means that they thought they were getting an equal trade.  They thought it was an equivalent swap (Strongs).  How sad for them (and us, sometimes), and how cool that a single word can tell us so much!

I think today is a laundry day.  I need to get some things washed so I can finally pack a hospital bag.  It’s probably important to get on with that!  But since I’ve got a lot more hours to fill than normal, maybe I’ll try to get out and do some Christmas shopping or something.  We shall see…

And, finally, last night, we picked up our new glider from Babies R Us.  Eric set it up, and that pretty much means the nursery is as ready as it’s going to get.  And here is a picture for you…

Happy Friday!

I’ll warn you all right now…this will probably be pretty boring.  I’ve been sitting here for almost 10 minutes trying to think of something interesting to blog about.  I’ve come up with nothing.  So that leaves me with boring stuff…sorry!

Our new glider is in, but we haven’t picked it up yet.  I did get the nursery cleaned up so it can be put up once we get it.

I also cleaned the guest room so I could make the bed.  I thought I had a set of full-sized sheets, but apparently, I do not.  So I bought a cheap set at WalMart yesterday.  I will wash them today, I think.  Then the guest room will be mostly ready to hold mothers and MILs who will be helping with babies when they come.

Eric did clean the shower for me…yesterday while he was in the shower!  It looked so nice!

I bought Kelly’s birthday present yesterday.  I thought I could just pick it up at Walmart, but the store was out.  Go figure.  So I drove over to Meijer where I found it, after some searching, for about $6 cheaper on sale!  Fantastic!

Last night I did some reading.  I’m less than 100 pages from the end of the book I’m reading.  It’s an 800 page paperback, so I’m pretty excited to be almost done!  Then we watched TV.  Wednesday nights are Knight Rider (8 pm) and MythBusters (at 9).  And then it was bedtime!

I think today will be spent mostly at home, doing laundry and cleaning up for Kelly’s party on Saturday, which will be here, assuming the babies don’t come by then. 

And that’s all I’ve got.  See…very boring.  Oh well.  Have a happy Thursday, anyway!

Yesterday ended up being a day of catching up…

Long time, no cleaning!
    I actually cleaned my bathrooms yesterday.  After whining about them for a month, I finally buckled down and did it.  Lovely!  I even took out the trash! The only part I couldn’t get to was our master shower.  It’s just a shower, and I couldn’t get that low and reach across to clean anything.  Oh well…Eric agreed to do that part for me!

Long time, no shaving!
    Sorry if this is gross (and it was!), but with the PUPPS rash so bad, I couldn’t shave my legs for two weeks.  And it’s so much better these days that I managed to shave last night.  WooHoo!!!!

Long time, no itching!
     Last night, I slept the whole night and only woke up for bathroom trips.  No itching!  And none of the meds/creams that have been making the nights more bearable.  Yippee!  Although it was weird to wake up specifically to pee again.  It’s been weeks since that happened!

Long time, no bible study!
     I’ve been part of a ladies’ bible study at church for the last few months which kept me from my personal study in Romans.  But it was really a prayer “study” – heavy on the prayer (very good for me), light on the bible study (not so good).  So yesterday I returned to my individual study and was glad to be back to it!

In other news, I did get groceries yesterday and a cheap, easy-access nightgown to take to the hospital.  I guess I should get a bag packed sometime soon, huh?   I also wrote checks for doctors’ bills and washed the sheets on our bed.  So all in all, I felt very productive.  Of course, this morning, I felt very sore.  But I’ll do less today…

Last night, Eric and I watched Expelled online through Netflix.  Marla is right…it’s really worth watching.  He thinks very well and asks really good questions – two things I tried desperately to get out of my students.  But wow is it hard not to take personally the insults spoken by the science establishment…they really think I’m stupid because I have faith.  Oh…and I just found a website to disprove/discredit Expelled…created and run by one of the organizations which is wholeheartedly against Intelligent Design in the film.  Nothing like being unbiased…Ha!

Okay, I think that’s all I’ve got today.  Happy Wednesday!  And happy birthday to my neice, Kelly…she’s six today!

I just deleted a very whiny, depressing post.  I’m frustrated and tired of waiting.  It feels like the end of a semester: I’m running out of stamina with a couple of weeks left to go.  It was good to get the ideas out of my head, but I decided you all wouldn’t really benefit from reading it.  So it’s gone.

Instead, I need to make a plan for getting over my bad attitude, my frustrations, and myself.   So here’s what I’ve got so far…

• Spend some really quality time with Jesus today (it’s been a few days, and it’s hurting me. I can tell.)
• Get myself back into our “normal” schedule today
• Choose to do creative, productive things instead of focusing on myself. 
• Find things to be thankful about and then be thankful for them when I’m tempted to focus on my frustrations.

Of course, all these things should be pretty obvious, but apparently, they’ve eluded me for a few days.  And it’s time to get back to them.  On purpose.  So here goes…

As for the rest of my life…

• I had an OB appointment yesterday afternoon.  I’m 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  So at least my “cervix of steel” (that’s what the high risk nurse said when she saw it on the ultrasound) is starting to give.  Anyone want to start guessing how much longer the babies will actually wait?
• I should mention, too, that my itching is SO much better these days.  Thanks for all the prayers.  I still need my arsenal at night (imagine being awakened by the bottoms of your feet itching), but during the day, I use almost nothing to fight the itch.  Thank you, Jesus!
• I must get groceries today.  It’s getting important. 
• It’s really cold out today, and there’s a light covering of snow on everything.  It’s quite pretty…through the window!
• I don’t have any real winter clothes for these last weeks of pregnancy.  But there’s hardly any use buying them now.  I guess lots of layers will have to suffice, even if I look silly wearing two sweaters!
• Someone that Eric works with gave us a little gift yesterday.  It was the quintessential boy/girl gifts: princess for her, sports for him.  The funny thing is that neither of those things apply to me and Eric.  I’m so not the “princess” type, and he hates sports.  But the gifts are cute, so though we chuckled about it, we will happily use them!

Okay, that’s a much less painful post.  I’m glad I deleted the first one.  Happy Tuesday!

I’m not in the mood to post today.  How weird is that?!?  But here’s the basic update, and I’ll fill in more later (maybe tomorrow if my mood doesn’t change…).

1. I am officially 35 weeks pregnant tomorrow.  I’m ready to be done now.

2. This morning’s ultrasound was a quickie because they’re so big now.  They’re still breech.  They move A LOT.  They weigh 6 lbs., 5 oz., and 6 lbs. even (give or take 15 oz.) according to the computer.  I’m really ready to be done now.

3. I bought the first Christmas gift of the season today. 

4.  On Friday, I was a “fly on the wall” at a Guys’ Night for our small group.  It was…uh…interesting.

5.  On Saturday, Eric spent his birthday gift cards to buy the makings of his first in-home photography studio.  It’s a trial run, really, but we should get some cute pics of the babies with it!  And he did take one of my belly last night, too.  Check out this link.  Hope it works.

Okay, that’s what I’ve got for now.  Happy Monday!

So I went from having only a couple of things planned today to being very busy.  It’s sort of crazy, but in my pregnancy-induced mental stupor, it’s the best way for me to accomplish things.  Planning no longer works!

This morning I had to have some blood drawn, so I did that first thing (8:30) because it required fasting.  But then I woke up with really low blood sugar, which is unusual.  It was still in the appropriate range, but not by much.  And I couldn’t figure out why.  As I was leaving the house for the blood draw, I realized that I had not had a bedtime snack last night.  It just totally slipped my mind!  Oops!  No wonder I was hungry and my blood sugar was low.  So I made it home really fast after giving them my  blood so I could get breakfast!  The babies were very happy with that!

Today I’m going to watch Jason for Karen since the babysitter’s son seems to have strep.  Should be fun!

I also need to do some errands and work on my house a bit.  There is a guy’s night scheduled for tonight, and Eric is hosting.  So I’ll need to make sure everything is ready so that he seems the perfect host. 

I have no idea what I’ll be doing while they do manly stuff in my house.  I may just hide upstairs.  We shall see…

Happy Friday!