By the way... What happened to my Happy Happy Blog??

Whooops a daisy!

A nice peaceful photo not describing my last few days of busy busy and drama today. It was taken at Surfers Paradise in Australia. Lovely, lovely, lovely. I now know why so many Assie's go there for domestic vacations. Like California and Florida but a lot cleaner with less people.

The last few days have been very busy. Today takes the cake in all ways! At work I am one of three people who must answer the phone and answer the front door. One was away and the other on the phone when someone rang out front bell. No one else was close so I got up. 1/2 through my first step I realized my foot/leg was completely asleep. The step was completed successfully. The next one was not. Let me explain. My foot points strait down when fully asleep so my toe was under me and not the flat of my foot. It twisted knocking me into the wall then I crumpled down onto my left leg and turned my upper body to take the rest of the fall with my hands. It felt like a rubber band was being stretched on the outer right foot with a pop at the end of the stretch. The pain was immediate and very strong. Normally when hurt I jump right up and walk it off. Nope. Just laid there not letting anyone touch me. And yes, for all you pregnancy worriers I really did do a mental pain check of the belly area. None noted. However, even with no pressure put on my foot at all, after 45 minutes the pain had not lessened and there was no swelling. Yep, totally kept on my bitty ankle sock and the sensible tennis shoe I had on. There were also some weird cell outages in our area so it took about 15-20 minutes to actually speak with Guy. We do have a home phone... But the number is unknown to me (story for another time). Guy tried to call the new doctors office he loves but they didn't have any openings. I tried my normal primary care doc. No service, at all. The soonest I can get in is January and they have no x-ray anyway. So poor Guy came to pick me up even though he should have been resting before going to work tonight on the first of four 5 pm to 5 am shifts not to mention he also worked yesterday 8-5. We went to Urgent Care. My work refused to put this under workers comp stating I knew my foot was asleep when I tried to step. That got my blood pressure going. So after 3 hours at urgent care and a claim filed against my personal health insurance I have an avulsion. This is caused by my ligament tearing away a very small chunk of bone from the rest of the bone. These generally heal themselves, but require a followup visit and x-ray. They draped the crap out of me with the lead drapes and the ankle is pretty far from the babies. I have a hard splint which is the cast material on the backside of my calf down to my toes in the foot flat position with ace bandages wrapped around from top to bottom. The healing time for an average healer is 2-3 weeks to be able to walk on it (yep - stinky crutches with under arm bruises and hard to carry anything) and in 2-3 months feel good again with mild pain up til then. Sounds like a ton of fun. There is some minor pain in my right wrist from the impact. The urgent care did not have either an ultrasound nor a lab capable of testing if there was any trauma to the babies. I called my OB's office and was told by the receptionist that since there are no symptoms of baby stress there was no need to come in today, but to call if any show up suddenly as they can appear later.

I tried to bum some ice cream off the neighbors since Guy had to go to work, I need to gain weight, and it would be an easy meal. No go. They are all out.

My friend, Alesha, is going to be a super champ and help me with the photo session I have booked tomorrow. She has taken some sessions on her own and has assisted her dad for years. So this will be a big favor I owe her.

It only took me about 3 minutes to get the 10 feet from the kitchen with a big protein shake to the couch. Not bad, though I did try and put pressure on my foot a few times. Getting some food later will probably be a lovely issue though. I could crawl with a bowl or plate in one hand, but Moose will take this as an invitation.

And the other depressing thing from this morning is one of those two pounds I gained is gone again.... How much do I seriously have to eat to gain anything? Maybe I'm not meant to. Though I'm sure it will be traumatic for me when it actually happens. All that weight. Can't we just grow em & pop them out with just their weight. Then I could count my chub taken to grow babies already as it!

Last night we went over to Armondo and Alesha's house after dinner. Mondo has taken a job with the Gilbert Police department. Guy is going to help him drive his car out there when we go in January (I get to fly both ways!). Alesha is stuck here until the house sells. The market is definitely in a holiday slow down. They have made a lot of improvements to the home which should hopefully help it sell. Anyway, we played Ono. Loads of fun. My belly always hurts when we leave from laughing so much. One of their two boys (age 4 & 2) got in trouble when all the boys were playing. He pulled down his pants. Whooops. LOL Of course, it is funny, but no laughing so he doesn't learn it is OK to do again.

The night before that I went to finish the baby registry. Man that two hours wiped me out. And I totally want to remove 1/2 the clothes. Only 6 more days until the little ones cooperate and show us what they are! Then I can take most of pure neutral stuff off and put on the sex specific stuff. Though really I just want to put on the essentials and if anyone wants to pick something they like as a gift it is just fine! All but one of the addresses for the Phx shower are into the appropriate peeps. The one elusive one is my very oldest friends mom who really was like a second mom growing up. Misty and I were friends from our first year of 1st grade until now. We were really close (saw each other all the time) until the end of high school. Now we pick up and talk to each other every 6 months to a year and it's like no time has passed, but tons of new news to share.

Holiday news

This first photo is a photo of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic from the airplane as we left. Almost everything there was perfect, except for the food. It was mostly edible, but warmer then it should have been. Guy got the old issue people get in some countries. He still refers to it as Poopa Cana. lol We went there the summer before last for a long weekend. It was one of the cheapest trips ever! If we had gone to a bit more pricey of a place the food would probably have been better and still been a really cheap trip so we recommend it to everyone. And the country could certainly use the money. It has inspired me to do two things in life. I'm now over my fear of scuba diving after getting on one of those underwater scooters with a big bubble over your head. The other is to get some great upper body strength and learn how to (uggg the name is escaping me, but the other photo is of me trying) ride one of those surf boards with a sail things. It was the most frustrating experience ever. My upper body strength was not enough to lift the sale out of the water with all the water on it. But I'm determined to try again and still would love to learn to surf. Not sure how that will work with contacts and all. I can't see without them. And with them in the seawater makes them blurry for a second causing me to rub them and sometimes the impact with seawater will cause them to roll or pop out. lol. It all sounds like impossible dreams to me. Laser surgery is certainly appealing. Both my aunts had it and loved it. The last Optometrist I saw said there really is no need for me to get the surgery as even being the worst contact wearer he ever saw my eyes are in fantastic shape. How's that for a back handed compliment. I'm the worst because I wear the 1 week contacts that can be left in for about 3-6 months without ever removing them. Well, sometimes once if they get a bit dry on me for a day. He actually switched me to a new brand. These are the best yet. They have been in for a full 6 months with no break.

Well, now onto the holidays on off the weird ramblings. Tawni and Sam came to stay with us for the four days. It was very nice to have them. I certainly don't envy them the working out of the first year of marriage kinks and a pregnant lady on top of it. Tawni is doing well except for her diet. When someones only vegetables are french fries (not even mashed or baked potatoes) and breakfast cereal there are definitely some vitamins & minerals missing in the body. No wonder she is soooooo tired and pooped all the time. We had roast with mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, rolls and some delicious gravy. Sam was giving me a hard time about how I was planning on cooking the roast (when there was 3 hours till eating he asked why I didn't cook it all day) so I invited him to cook it. He declined. And it was my first roast so I was probably more prickly then I should have been considering I wasn't even sure how it would be cooked. Well, even with the silly roast still partially frozen it came out wonderfully tasty if a tad overdone for me. Guy was in hog heaven with a well done roast and the young marrieds just ate it. Of course, they said it was good when asked.

Tawni and I both pre registered at Babies R Us on Black Friday. We had a great time shopping with no crowds and a nice sit down lunch at Olive Garden. I was able to get quite a bit of prego clothes for only $70. Yeah, more choices now and enough to last thru a week. Tawni purchased a few smelly things at Bath and Body Works. Tomorrow my friend Melissa and I will go finish out the registry except for the majority of the clothes. December 6th is coming quickly! Hopefully those little chickens cooperate and show the goods so we can know what to expect and pick out the rest of the non neutral registry.

I have finally gained a pound! And my tummy seems to have grown a full inch over the long weekend. Only 20-30more to gain, and that's with counting my little bit of chub weight before getting pg being transitioned to belly(10-15 lbs). lol It doesn't even seem possible to gain that much. Believe me. I have been eating a lot for the last two months and it still isn't packing on. Today I had the most yummy pizza for lunch. My buddy Melissa B. and an old work buddy Michael met up at an Italian Restaurant.

For the super sad news. Both uncle Lance and uncle Clifford are not in good shape. Lance has been in the hospital and had some more scans done. They said the cancer is spreading and the time left is very short. Especially after having been estimated at a year and it is only 2 months later we are all very devastated! Clifford was more recently diagnosed and the final tests are in. They are only going to treat for pain management and the cancer is in a lot of his body making it impossible to treat. We went from having time and hope to imminent loss. I think about them often and hope and pray the time left is as pain free and meaningful as possible for them especially. Uncle Lance has no belief in God or an afterlife so I'm hoping he feels the love and guidance of the Holy Ghost as he gets closer to passing. And that he will not feel despair and hopelessness.

More news!

Richard & Allison (fed us dinner last night) had a little baby boy today!!! Wow, she went into labor and when it got time to get him out it took only 15 minutes of pushing. What a rock star!

Guy is officially predicting two boys for us. He told me that gem a little while ago.

Jamie (Guy's brother) let me know he will be coming down for our baby shower in PHX!!! And he will either bring the sisters or his family or everyone when he comes down! YEAH! How exciting.

I think that's it.

Food is lovely

No, this photo is not of food as the title implies. lol It was taken on some random trip outside our hotel. Most likely in CA since those are popular there.

This week was very interesting in the food department. My issues with food are going away. I'm feeling more normal in my timing of food. It is no longer a necessity to have food every single 1-2 hours depending on how big the last meal was. Now I'm getting back to my 'normal' 3-4 hours between meals. Very nice. The second trimester is definitely bringing me up to feeling more normal and not like a total wuss.

We were invited to our friends house on Sunday night. David & Nicole Sweeney. David stayed with us while they were separated due to his job relocation. Then the whole family came to stay with us the two weeks we were in Australia. It worked out perfectly for all of us. They had sold the old house the day we left and the new one would be ready the same day we were expected back. They needed a place to stay and we needed a Moose sitter. So they saved us $400 in boarding charges and we lent them a comfy place instead of a weekly motel. We had pot roast and played a great game called Catch Phrase. Never played it before and will definitely be buying it sometime. The boys won 2-1 rounds. They will gloat forever, I'm sure.

Monday my friend Melissa B. (since I also have Melissa A. in AZ) invited me over for dinner. Yummy! We always have interesting conversations. Her husband is very opinionated like me. She also made pot roast, but on the rotisserie cooker. The conversation at one point turned to who we thought would end up president of the US. Hmmmm. No consensus about who our countries people will vote for. It is in no way a clear cut race for either party or candidate.

Yesterday we were invited to Richard & Allison's house. Rich works with Guy at the police department. Allison is the cutest pregnant person I have ever seen. She does not look like she is 3 days form her full term 40 week mark! No swelling, just a baby bump, no waddle. We had lasagna. They showed us the 3D video they had done of the baby 10 weeks ago. It was really cool. They are waiting to find out the sex. She is going to be induced on Saturday so they will find out soon enough. I loved their house. Very pretty.

Today we had a big ham dinner at work with everyone bringing in something. There was tons of food, and we are all waddling around the office trying to stay awake till it's time to go home. I even ate a couple bites of pecan pie. For not being a desert person it was quite tasty. I have the late shift today and get off at 5:30 pm. Hopefully Tawni and Sam have left and are on their way. Sam got off work at 1pm and they were hoping to leave at 2pm. That would get them here about 6pm when I get home. Tomorrow we will have a roast for Thanksgiving. Do you think I'll be roasted out after tomorrow? lol

Oh, and you may have noticed. I finally figured out how to create seperate paragraphs in HTML. Not as easy as hitting the 'enter' button.

Friday Funky

Good and bad news today.

The photo is in Virginia Beach, VA. My aunt Karen, cousin Corey, me and Guy. My two aunties were in town visiting Corey where he is stationed in the army. Aunt Madelynn was in a conference most of the time. I think almost everyone in the whole family has tagged along with aunt Mady to all her conferences. The yearly national Game and Fish conference is the favorite as they have lots of activities for the tag alongs and go cool places. Anyway, we decided to go at the same time. Virginia Beach is so wonderful! We had a lot of fun. The aunties were teaching Guy how to play poker. He is a big fan of Blackjack, but we were playing the regular poker card games with some spare change. Aunt Karen had loads of change with her just for a poker occasion. Corey is living in the barracks so the aunties were kind enough to let us share their hotel room. We'd travel with them anytime! And we're looking forward to the next time we can.

My mom emailed me today to let me know that uncle Lance isn't doing so well. Aunt Karen was very worried about him the last time we talked a couple of weeks ago. My mom's comments were very grim. He has lost 30 pounds, has more trouble with his walking/motor skills, and is also thinking he is speaking clearly but the words are coming out garbled sometimes. I'm wishing right now I had tried harder to actually talk to them both over the last few weeks. Several times I have called both the home and her work but not left a voice mail when they were not available.

The OB coordinator called from my doctors office. She said the doctor is referring me to a perinatologist (better then an OB for prenatal care) for my 18 week u/s because it is twins! Wooo hooo! They are known to have much better u/s equipment and sometimes will use a 3D machine which is really really cool. Guy has reiterated it is ok for us to find out the sex because I really really want to. So hopefully we'll know in about 3 weeks. We also have a set date for our trip to Phoenix. My mom and good friend Melissa are going to throw a babies shower on 1/12/07. So for any Phoenix peeps put that date down in your calendar. Lock it it! Because it is coming up so quickly I have started to register already. But the whole not sure of the sex is holding me back. I'm so not a fan of yellow stuff and you can only handle so much green. Blue is OK for girls and boys, but if we get a girl then I want some girly stuff too. What a whiner huh? lol

Yesterday the 15th was our 5th anniversary. I forgot as usual and Guy remembered. He is such a great husband! We ended up going to Cracker Barrel for dinner because it was close. We generally do not do much for our birthdays and anniversaries. Some people ask us all the time how we have travelled so much the first years of our marriage. Well, not giving each other gifts for birthdays and anniversaries is one way we cut corners to travel. Since we both love to travel so much it suits us perfectly.

We saw the babies by ultra sound

Here are the u/s pictures from today. If you click on the picture it will make it nice and big for you. Baby A are the first two on the left. A is head and torso on the first one with a very clear hand with the thumb clear on the hand. The other on is facing us right below it. Baby B are on the right side. Both are a full body profile and the hand is barely showing by the mouth. The bottom two shots are both babies together. B is on the left upside down showing a full body profile. A is on the right with its head closest to B and torso showing. I don't know about you, but unless I see an u/s in motion I can't see anything in a still shot! Hopefully you have better luck if you are interested... If you aren't interested it is sooooo OK with me. Seeing them clearly not looking like aliens is really cool. It is amazing to me those little babies are just growing away inside me. No matter how much I eat still no weight gain. Just getting skinny everywhere except my belly which is growing slowly. My next OB appointment is on 12/6/07. We'll either schedule the big u/s to see how they are doing and sex or have it that day. Guy really doesn't want to know what they are, but I do for planning purposes. He said today it is my body so if I have to find out it is my choice. He is so great, but then it makes me feel guilty he doesn't really want to know. I'm still pretty set on finding out anyway though! We found out today the overall cysts have gone down, but the fibroid's are a little bigger. Yeah for the cysts going down! And hopefully the fibroid's don't grow anymore.

My baby sister

Here is a photo of my sister Tawni & her new hubby Sam. They were married about two months ago. And they just found out they are going to be parents! She is 7 weeks pregnant, and I am 13 weeks. We are going to have babies the same age! It's pretty surreal when I remember all the details of her being a little baby! She is 13 years younger then me. Her nausea has kicked in by showing up every afternoon/evening. She also just got a job at Target. The schedule they gave her is mostly afternoons and evenings. Hopefully the nausea will start to go away pretty quickly for her. Our mom is going to be swimming in babies soon!

Updates on the family and my doctor's appointment

Guy's sister, Melia, came out of surgery on Monday. The doc had some trouble determining exactly what the mass was so they took out the entire area of the gland. She was feeling much better after the surgery emotionally. She had a big problem with pain management in recovery, but said she felt better when I talked to her which was right when she arrived home. Now it is wait and see on the pathology report, and an update on how she is feeling now.


Here is the update on my Uncle Clifford from my mom in her words: They have given him a hormone shot and will be giving him radiation therapy. Not sure on how many treatments or anything like that. He is in pain all the time and the hope is that the radiation will shrink the bone cancer. Not sure what it will do for the prostrate.


Here's my update... The apt on Monday was with the same OB I didn't like. Still don't really like her. One perk at this office is they use the portable u/s machine to find the babies and then they can make sure they get each h/b. So we got to see them both briefly. They were both practicing to be Aussie Rules Football players kicking and kicking and kicking away. Guy said later he was excited because they finally look like babies and he saw them moving so much making it very real. The OB had a completely different opinion from the OB last week on my general health and tolerance for doing almost nothing. She basically treated me like I'm exaggerating how 'not up to anything' I am and the pain. Then she also said I really have to take it easy because I'm growing two people. Helllooooo, contradiction. Anyway we weren't sure what to think. So I'm just going to keep plugging away and trying to rest as much as my body tells me to. Yesterday I ended up taking a two hour nap at work! My friend brought in a cot for me... So now our conference room is a nap area. tee hee. Today I'm definitely feeling it is Wednesday and can't wait for home and bed tonight.

Monday morning news...

This is a photo from the Tower of London when we were in London 2 years ago over Thanksgiving weekend. Guy obviously loves it when I act goofy in front of the camera! :-)

The weekend of continued modified best rest was, you guessed it, BORING... Today is my follow up appointment to see how the babies are doing and what the doctor wants to do with me. After taking part of the week off last week and really taking it easy I'm feeling better, but still having some issues with pain.

Melia (Guy's sister) is going in for surgery this morning. I talked to her just a bit ago to give her my best. Now that it is almost here she seems more calm. She received a blessing yesterday and a call from Mum and Dad helped a bunch. Hopefully she will be alright and come out of this with the best possible outcome. The surgery is to remove a tumorus growth in her salivatory glands (yes I am making up words today). About 15% of these types of tumors are cancerous.

Our neighbors are all campaigning for us to stay in Raleigh instead of moving back to AZ in May. What a nice compliment. We have really enjoyed living here, and our neighbors are fantastic. I'll miss this house. It's too bad you can't get a nice Southern style home in Arizona. And trees! Love the trees here. Though builders here do tend to clear cut all the trees when building new construction which is so sad! Our house has about 12 full size trees, and 4 young trees. In the spring I decided to prune everything under 8 feet (as tall as the clippers would reach and I could still get leverage). Boy was I tired a couple of hours later. Guy drove our neighbors trailer around the yard cleaning up all the debris a few days later. I secretly think he was impressed at how much I clipped and made pretty.