New products

So I saw a couple new products on the Today Show this morning that I thought looked like they might be worth trying. I've mentioned before my love for dry shampoos for those who feel they can't go without washing their hair. Well, this one seems a little less weird (the dry shampoos are seriously like spraying deodorant on your head), although it's more expensive (and the others still work great). It's the same idea though, you spray it at your roots and sort of work it around to combat the grease. They said that the other products can sometimes build up on your hair but this one can be used a few times a day if you want.

Then they mentioned this Fiberwig mascara. I really want to try it. They say it's the number one mascara in Japan, and is just coming to the U.S. but it's supposed to have these fibers that cling to your lashes and extend them, and then you can keep adding coats and extending even a little more. I've always wanted celebrity lashes, I'll admit. I even bought fake ones a while ago thinking it would be fun to bust them out once in a while. Yeah, I was apparently not quite dextrous enough - it looked like you would imagine if a 4 year-old was trying to put them on or something. So yeah, they definitely never made it out in public.

Has anyone tried or heard anything about either of these?

By the way, you guys are way too nice, I didn't put that picture of me on here looking for compliments! I didn't even think it was a good picture - I just thought it was more funny than anything. I was just expecting you to all chime in with your pregnancy woes!

Not that my status is changing any time soon, but...

Things I will not miss about this pregnancy:

* Being laughed at when I walk into church looking like this. What?? I even wore black - I thought it would make me look smaller. I guess they say the size, and direction (straight out) of my belly are getting a little absurd.

* Being kept up all night compliments of the rambunctious duo. Oh wait, this probably will continue.

* Being kept up all night by heartburn.

* Being kept up all night because of my suffering ribcage.

* Being kept up all night due to all the lingering illnesses I can't seem to shake so easily during pregnancy.

* Constantly running into things because I underestimate my girth.

* The Great Migration, as I call it - complete displacement of my internal organs, and the subsequent return which I also remember being not so fun.

* Having up to 30 contractions a day - weeks before my due date.

* Having aforementioned contractions cause concern every time I go in for a non-stress test (twice a week), subsequently turning each visit into a multi-hour process while they do more tests, ultrasounds or check my cervix, only to be told everything is fine. I keep trying to tell them for some reason this is just normal.

* Since November, strangers will come up and ask when I'm due - fully expecting me to say, "Any minute now." When I tell them the end of February and their eyes pop out of their heads, I feel the need to justify my size, so I tell them it's twins. Bad idea. Everyone has some story about twins, knows someone with twins, was a twin, blah, blah. Running errands started to be a real drawn-out ordeal. I no longer feel the need to tell strangers I'm having twins. In fact, the next time someone asks when I'm due, I'm going to say May.

* My poop having to get through my squashed intestines, past fluid, a placenta, and two squirming babies to make it's exit. Well, it's true.

Things that actually haven't been so bad about this pregnancy.

* ????????????????

* Ok, I guess I can think of a few. Less leg hair for one. A strange phenomenon I don't remember with the last pregnancy. It's like a little gift from mother nature - heaven knows how hard it is to reach my legs to shave.

* My complexion - after a rough time adjusting to the hormones at the beginning, my skin is actually quite pleasant.

* Eating shamelessly, exercising little, and feeling no guilt about it. With the first pregnancy I was so good - went to the gym all the time, even the day before I delivered, ate really cautiously and tried to be very healthy - all with the assumption that I would pop right back into shape after I had the baby. Well that was a load of crap. It still took me 9 months and a viscious bout of food poisoning to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. So since it doesn't seem to matter with my body anyway, this time I'm taking advantage. Eating whenever the idea pops into your head is actually really fun. Although, getting in nine servings of protein a day like they tell you to with twins I think is really physically impossible for me. I much prefer ice cream or cold cereal. As one lady in a twin book I read put it, "I rely heavily on the power of the multi-vitamin."

* Daily naps. Sometimes rather long. Once again, no guilt whatsoever.

* Going through one rougher pregnancy for two babies is still probably better than having to go through a single pregnancy twice. I have my doubts that this theory will remain consistent once they are born, however.

* At least right now my stomach is firm.

Nothing but class

So we went to this really nice German restaurant in Milwaukee tonight. Cash has been sick the past week, but we thought he was finally feeling better and would like a trip out of the house. So we're sitting at dinner and Cash starts just coughing and hacking up a lung in the middle of this quiet restaurant that wasn't too crowded yet. Ryan surveys the situation and comments, "Yeah, here we are - nice restaurant - bring our tuberculous child, the pregnant wife who keeps spilling food all over her big belly (honestly, I was a total mess by the time we were done, but there was too much drippy food and too great a distance to my mouth!), order only water to drink, we're splitting one meal between the three of us, and we're paying with a coupon we got online. Nothing but class, nothing but class..."

Commercial

This commercial was on during the Packers/Giants game the other night. I was SO busting up when I saw it.

Where in the world???

My friend Aaron had this listed on his blog as the best map game ever. Give it a try if you need some mental stimulation (which I frequently do, especially after hours of play-doh and Baby Einstein). And frankly, I stink at it.

Mmmm, mmm brownie batter

Still a quick learner.

Word to the pregnant

So at the end of November I had a doctors appointment, but my midwife was gone so I had to see some other doctor, who seemed too young to know what he was doing. Anyway, I told him about my ridiculous amounts of heartburn and he told me to get Zantac over-the-counter. So I did. And suffered miserably the whole holiday season. When I came back and saw my midwife in January I told her how bad it still was. She told me to take Prilosec over-the-counter, that it usually seemed to work better during pregnancy. Hallelujah. I haven't had the burn once since. Wish I'd known that over Christmas when I was eating so much. So anyway, if you get heartburn as miserably as I do, give the Prilosec a try. Figured since I know so many pregnant people I'd pass it on.

Interesting article

I just saw this article that was in the Deseret News, talking about Mormons and the Presidential election and stuff: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695242228,00.html

Just to give you a taste of the article:
"If you denigrate a racial group, you're racist.
If you denigrate women, you're sexist.
If you denigrate Mormons, you're hip."

Who's Your Daddy?

Ok, so here's a boatload of pictures. But, here's the thing. Ever since Cash was born, I have heard the following, "Wow, he looks just like Ryan and nothing like you." "Are you sure you're the mother?" "Wow, the first successful human clone!" ETC.

So this Christmas when we were at home, we happened to look at some of our baby pictures, both mine and Ryan's. And I must say, I had a faint glimmer of hope that perhaps there was some genetic transfer from me to my child. While I agree - I think that Cash looks like Ryan does now, I almost think he looks more similar to me when I was his age - or at least that there is a combination of both Ryan and me. I definitely see the hair - besides mine being blond and his brown (and if I let his grow out more), he has the curl just at the very ends like mine did; Ryan's was curly all over. Plus I had a more lean build like Cash. Ryan was a fattie. And I was surprised to recognize some of his expressions and mannerisms that looked like mine.

Anyway, so here's some pictures since people are always asking if Ryan looked just like Cash when he was his age. Of course, it's hard to see in just a few random pictures, but for those of you who know us well and have seen Cash more, you may be able to see that I really think we both made this child! (Sorry some of the spacing is weird - does anyone else have trouble formatting this thing like they want?)

Pictures of me (ending with red and white dress, then pictures of Cash):






































Pictures of Cash:






































Pictures of Ryan (starting with the baby standing on the table):

Man down

Ok, that's probably a little dramatic, but I did find out that Brooke just got put on modified bed rest, which of course felt like a big blow to me since what happens to one of us seems to happen to both. But anyway, nothing is seriously wrong, thankfully, it's more just precautionary since one twin is growing bigger than the other. Whatever it takes to have healthy babies is the goal though, of course. I keep telling Ryan that's why I'm so anxious to get everything ready for the babies because that's how it seems to happen to most people with twins - they go in to the doctor one day and everything is great and the next day they're on bed rest.

On a more positive note, we finally did the trial run today, and yes, three car seats will fit in the back seat of our car. It looks pretty hilarious, and if they're shifted off center just a little, one seat gets bumped slightly when the door gets shut, but hey, at least we don't have to get a new car.

And I learned something important this week. See, Ryan currently is sick with a sort of chest cold I had over Christmas. Every night as he goes to bed, he wishes me good night and then proceeds to say he hopes he makes it through the night. And every day he is super dramatic about how sick he is and every coughing spell turns into a soap opera. I continually remind him that I know it stinks, but I had the same thing, and somehow I came out alive. And here's where the new, little-known fact came in: he informed me that, "Yes, you had it, but since you had it, it mutated and it is now 7 times worse than it was when you had it." A-HA. So there you have it, all you wives who know exactly what I'm talking about - how your husbands always seem to be so much sicker (and whinier) than you ever were with the same illness - that is why. And I'm sure it's much worse than having that same sickness and being pregnant with twins too, no less. :) This is also why I tell Ryan it's really good I'm the one who has the babies - I could never handle 9 months of him being pregnant.

The 2007 Awards

Here's saying goodbye to 2007 (according to us):

Best Movies:

Bourne Ultimatum: Matt Damon can do no wrong. In fact, I was hoping we would have a moment like we did during Walk the Line where we realized it was cool enough to name our child after (Johnny Cash). But Jason and Bourne just didn't do it for us. And when I tried to suggest Linus (Ocean's 13) Ryan said it was kind of a wimpy name. Point taken. (But if you do know someone with that name, good for them - I think it's daring).

Who Killed the Electric Car: Our next car (when we can afford it) will be electric. We love them.

Food:

Best ice cream: Loaded. Finally enough stuff in the ice cream.

New discovery: Stretch Island fruit leathers from Costco. I made Ryan go back and buy 5 boxes. He thought that was a little excessive (there are 48 in each). But - what if Costco didn't have them the next time we went back??!?!?

Best restaraunt we ate at: Can't think of one I guess. Max Brenner's chocolate restaraunt (NY) was fun since I love chocolate, McGrath's fish place (WI) for Ryan. Hmm, we can't think of anything that blew us away this year acutally. Just some pretty good places like The Holy Basil (NY), The Chart House (NY), The Chop House (Chicago). Wow. I'm a little disappointed that I can't think of the last really good food that I ate. Maybe that's why we don't eat out. We're too poor for the really good stuff and don't enjoy the mediocre.

Best purchases:

Our SportsArt Elliptical: See this post. Wisconsin weather would be enough excuse to keep us from exercising for an entire year. How do you think I keep this svelte figure?? :)

The Baby Bjorn bib: Ryan claims it's the best thing we ever bought. I thought that statement was a little dramatic, but he continues to claim that it was. We had the vinyl-type ones but holy cow did they start to stink, even after washing them. This one has been nothing but pleasant, I must admit.

Best websites:

Craig's List has to take it for me.

*Update - Maybe I changed my mind on this one. Craig's list ruined my week when I drove 45 minutes only to get shafted by someone who gave away the best deal on a new car seat moments before I got there - even though he knew I was coming for it! Grrrr.

Then, of course Slick Deals for Ryan. See this post.

We also love Go Music. $.19 downloads. Those Russian's know how to do it. And still make me feel legal because I'm paying for it.

Best vacations:

The week we spent staying right in NY city just being tourists hits number one.

Boston and Chicago were also awesome.

And of course, we always love going home to Utah and Ryan got some good skiing in (of course the year he could get us both in free (me for snowboarding) and I'm a beached whale).

And of course deserving mention -

The Best Surprise of 2007: Twin boys showing up on the ultrasound.

WOW. When we racked our brains to see what the highlights were this year I had to laugh out loud! Holy cow are we lame or what?! We need to step it up in 2008 if the best thing out of 2007 was a tub of ice cream!! Anyway, at least we can say 2008 will be adventurous.

Happy New Year everyone!