Feeling Overwhelmed

Summer for teachers is supposed to be fun and relaxing, right? Wrong! 

Yesterday for some reason it hit me that I have about a billion things to do before the end of summer and before these babies come.  I was just sitting on the couch watching some t.v. thinking about all what I need to get done and soon after I found myself crying! I'm not a person that usually cries all that often, so I am going to partially blame the crazy pregnancy hormones. 

Here are a few things from my to do list for the summer:

• Get the basement finished (it flooded a year ago April and now just needs paint, carpet, doors, and baseboards).
• Clear out my "office" that will soon be the nursery (BUT, I have nowhere to put the stuff that's in there until the basement is finished!!)
• Touch up the walls in the nursery.... its already a nice color so we don't want to re-paint
• Buy EVERYTHING that we need for the nursery... 2 cribs (we did some research and some say that twins sleeping together have a higher risk for SIDS) changing table, bedding, rocking chair/glider, etc.
• Ask my mom super nice if she will sew some curtains (once we know what theme we want to go with)
• Figure out what birthing classes/breastfeeding classes Brian and I want to take
• Register for the classes
• Take the classes!
• Clean the house
• Organize the house and have a garage sale
• Do some yard work (my lawn looks terrible!) and tend to the vegetable garden
• Plan two trips back to Minnesota (one for a wedding and one for a baby shower!)
• Complete the final class for my Master's Degree so I can make more $$ teaching next year
• Last but not least, HAVE FUN!!! =D

I have to admit that I did feel much better yesterday after I cried, but that still didn't really shorten my list to do.  I guess I am just the type of person that if I get super overwhelmed instead of doing something about it, I just shut down and cannot do anything.

Baby Bump! 18w6d

As a request from my sister, here is another picture of my belly! (And my messy bathroom... lol)

Urza and Luna

So some of you may be wondering why I chose urzaandluna.blogspot.com for my blog address... Well, here it is! Urza is my dog and Luna is my cat.  Here are some silly pictures of them!

Luna likes to sit on top of the couch so that when Urza comes to growl at her she can attempt to scratch his face.

When she gets tired of playing with the dog, she goes and sits in her bed that is full of cat nip!

When Urza has enough with the cat, he finds boxes and other random things to chew into a million pieces.... and then falls asleep.  At least it wasn't my shoes this time! =)

School's out for "Summer"?

For some reason in Colorado schools start VERY early (August 19th) and get out VERY early (May 19th!) Its almost hard to believe that it still pretty much feels like winter out and I am on summer break.  What is even crazier to me is that we had snow on the last day of school last Thursday! When I say snow I don't mean a few flakes, but rather snow accumulation on trees and grassy surfaces.  It was pretty crazy if you ask me.  I am a native Minnesotan (lived there for 25 years) and I can't ever think of a time when it snowed in May. 

This is the view from the parking lot at work.  When I got to my car after school I thought I should take a picture or I would never remember that it snowed on the last day of school!!

It was also crazy that it was only 33 degrees!  Insanity!

Baby bump! 17w5d

Every time I think about taking a picture of my baby belly I am either in my pajamas, too tired, nobody is home to take the picture or I just don't feel like it.

Well, today I didn't feel like getting ready for work (and I actually liked what I was wearing) so I asked Brian to take a pic of my belly. 

I actually didn't realize how big I looked until I saw this picture! Wowsers! If I look like this now, what will I look like at 30 weeks?  Its going to be scary! 

On a side note, when I went to the doc last (2 weeks ago) he yelled at me for not gaining any weight.  Well, in the last 2 weeks I have gone from 161 to 166! I never thought I would be happy about gaining weight, but whatever the doctor says, goes!

Clothes!

I finally decided that its time to break down and buy some maternity clothing.  My dress pants for work are way too tight and my shirts are getting rediculous looking.  BUT, here are a few of the problems I have faced so far:

1.) If I buy clothes that fit  now, will they really fit me later?
2.) Maternity clothes are super crazy expensive if you go to somewhere like Motherhood Maternity or Pea in the Pod.
3.) I really only need summer clothes right now, but when I decided that I needed clothes I still had about 3 weeks to work until summer vacation
4.) I think I have a slight identity crisis every time I look at how HUGE the maternity clothes really are!

I've been to a number of different stores just looking for simple short-sleeved shirts and such and have been seriously unsuccessful.... until today!  The Old Navy store by my house unfortunately does not carry maternity clothing.  BUT, luckily another store about 30 minutes from home does! Brian and I went there today to check things out.  They actually had a ton of shirts on clearance and I brought some coupons to use as well.  I ended up buying a huge bag of shirts for really not that much at all.  Success! 

While we were shopping I saw a woman with a twin side by side stroller.  I had been looking at strollers online to see what was out there and what people thought.  I saw a few different options:
1.) snap and go strollers (the ones where you snap the baby seats right in the stroller)
2.) regular side by side double strollers
3.) front-to-back double strollers
4.) both types of strollers just in the jogger version (they have bigger wheels that look like bicycle tires)

So I guess I am a pretty social person so I decided to randomly ask this woman how she liked her side by side stroller and then I ended up talking to her for probably a good 20 minutes.  She was very nice and answered all of my silly questions and didn't seem to think that I was nuts at all for just randomly asking her questions.  She really seemed quite happy to talk about her experiences with her twins!

We got to talking and I told her that we were looking into car seats, etc. and she just so happened to be getting rid of her two car seats and snap and go stroller!  She also has bouncy seats, boppy pillows, etc. and a huge bag of maternity clothes that she wants out of her garage!  She also told me about a mother of multiples group that meets every so often and that has garage with all of their multiples stuff.

We exchanged information and I told her that I would give her a call or shoot her an e-mail to find a time to meet up so that I could look at her baby stuff.  I think it is very cool that this perfect stranger was so nice and so happy about unloading her used baby stuff!!  I'd call it a successful shopping trip today! =)

Kids are funny

I teach Spanish at the elementary school level so I see all of the kids each week.  Since my belly keeps getting bigger, I realized that I would have to tell them something or they would just think that I eat too much.  I had made up my mind that if last week's OBGYN appointment went alright then I would spill the beans to the kiddos.  I must say, they really do say the funniest things in response. 

The best one that I got today was... Student: "What are you going to name the twins?"  Me: I don't know yet."  Student: "I think I will call them kiwi and strawberry for now then." LOL

Also, some of the 5th graders were so happy for me that they created a congratulatory block of wood.  Yes, you heard me. A block of wood.  Its really cute actually.  The wood is about 3 inches by 3 inches and maybe an inch wide.  They colored it blue with markers... One side said "Congrates" Mrs. Grewe (with the spelling error! gotta love kids) and they all signed the blue block of wood on the other side. 

These 5th graders are some of my favorite students.  They are bright and very compassionate.  They also notice everything!!  When I had the bleeding incident at about 8 weeks they were my first class of the day. While they were coming into my room, they obviously noticed that I was crying and that something was wrong.  Of course I didn't really want to tell them then what was going on since I myself didn't really know what was going to happen and if everything was going to be okay. 

Well today they brought up that incident.  They asked, "Oh, so does this have something to do with why you were crying in the hall way talking to Mrs. H that one day?"  I thought for a second if I should make something up or if I should just tell them the truth and I decided that I didn't want to lie to them.  I told them that I thought I was going to lose the babies.  I didn't really expect them to understand wha that meant, but many of them went on to tell me about how their mom had a miscarriage or thought she was going to have one.  I was pretty shocked to hear that 10 year old kids could kind of understand all of that. 

Two other students went on to tell me that they were adopted because their mom's couldn't have children and/ or previously had a miscarriage and had decided that enough was enough. 

I guess sometimes kids just really amaze me in unexpected ways.  These are the times when it is really cool to be a teacher even though the kids didn't complete the intended lesson. I even think some days that I learn more from them than they do from me!

First Baby Purchase!

I have been hesitant to buy anything for the twins yet, but yesterday I just couldn't resist!  I went to the outlets with my friend and we just so happened to stumble into the Coach store.  I have to admit that I have a weakness for designer handbags.  They are just so pretty!

I told Brian a while ago that I really wanted to buy a Coach diaper bag and we both agreed that if we were ever going to buy anything for ourselves then we should do it now because later we for sure won't have money to splurge on silly things such as a designer diaper bag. 

So anyways, I gave in and bought the bag.  It even comes with a pad to put down to change the baby!  This now makes me really excited to keep buying things!! =D

Brian says that it won't be big enough to carry two babies worth of stuff, but I love it!!!  Its got lots of pockets inside and a long strap to carry it with. 

9 + 1 = Vacation!

Its the end of the school year and I'm probably not alone in saying that both teachers and students are ready for summer vacation.  We started the year VERY early this year (August 19th) so we only have 9 more days of school with students left! After that, 1 work day to get our classrooms all cleaned up and then it is officially summer vacation! Yahoo!

I looked at my yard today (since its actually nice out) and realized how bad it really is.  Hopefully with summer just around the corner I will have some time to pull weeds, plant the vegetable garden, and get things looking nice and green again.

However, I will also be starting my LAST class to finish my Masters degree as well.  The class runs from May 16th-July 9th.  I seriously do NOT want to take this class at all, but I know that once the babies come I will really be tired and have no time so now is the time to do it.  The class is all online so I won't have to "go" anywhere besides my computer, but sometimes that makes it harder.  Oh well, the college chapter in my life will be officially closing and the mommy chapter will be starting soon... I can't wait! =)

Its a new day!

Yesterday I pretty much had the worst day at work that I've had in a very long time.  Lets just say I got ganged up on, bullied, and sent to the boss' office.... all for giving my opinion on a subject that they asked for it on.  In the end, the person that I had to "hash it out" with wouldn't talk to me and offered no solutions to the problem. 

This particular woman lost a baby at 20 weeks last year and I almost feel as though she is resentful towards me being pregnant.  I know she would never say it, but she has been acting strange around me since I became pregnant.  I know didn't just click her heels and get knocked up either so I have been trying to keep my distance from her just so that I don't hurt her in any way.  I know how it feels to have to work with someone being preggo because I dealt with that at my other school for most of the year.  I actually wish that I could be friends with this person who hates my guts because we have something in common that is sometimes rare to find.  I don't actually know a lot of people in real life that have been through infertility struggles or who have had miscarriages.  But, it doesn't seem as though this person is close to anyone at work and doesn't like to talk about anything personal to anyone else.  So, I guess there's probably nothing I can do except for attempt to be nice and wait for her to quit being mean.

On a side note, the Minnesota Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano threw a no hitter last night!! He was an "unlikely candidate" since he had never thrown a complete game or a shutout in his career of 94 previous starts.  He also had an ERA over 9.0 and was going to be replaced by Kevin Slowey in the starting rotation.  So, that haulted a 6 game losing streak by the Twins... they got swept by the Rays AND the Royals.  I hope last night gives them enough momentum to start the ball rolling in the right direction! 

16 weeks and counting!

Wednesday I will be 16 weeks... so close enough!

Brian and I went to the OB today for the regular check up.  I asked the doc my silly questions such as, "Can I go to the dentist while pregnant?" and of course he didn't act like I was nuts for asking.  He also checked my cervical length... I was told it was 4.7cm and that it was fine.  Since I haven't really been pregnant before I will get my cervix checked every time just to make sure its holding its ground.

Along with the trans vaginal ultrasound, I got a regular abdominal one too!  I was seriously hoping we would get a look at the "goods" but both of the babies had their legs crossed! How dare they! 

The last and most fun part of the appointment was getting my blood drawn.  Ugh.  I have had it drawn about 50000000000000000 times but it still doesn't hurt any less.  They did some test (I forget the name) to check for open spinal cord defects or something such as spina bifida and also tested my thyroid levels. 

On my way out I had to make my next appointment for a 2 hour ultrasound!! This one will look at all of the anatomy and will give us a better idea if the babies will most likely be "normal."  At this ultrasound we will definitely find out if the babies have girl parts or boy parts so that maybe we can really start buying things! 

The only bad part about all of this is the appointment isn't until JUNE 8th!! It seems sooooo far away.  But, the doc did say that if I ever want to come in for an extra ultrasound then I am always welcome to do so.  Or, we may find a place that does the 3D/4D ultrasounds and go get one of those.  I guess the wait is really on this time and my patience will really be tested!