Belly Photo: Week 19

Babies are the size of mangoes (6" long, 0.5 lbs)

Oh Sweet Jesus!

Best parts of being pregnant, so far:

1. no more sucking in my stomach when I'm standing around people.  
2. maternity pants!!  holy crap - I think I'll wear these for the rest of my life.

And combine those two - sweet Jesus!  Best part of being pregnant so far!

Belly Photo: Week 18

Babies are the size of sweet potatoes (5.5" long, 5 oz)

Lava Lamp

Well, it's official, I've felt the babies move.  It finally dawned on me a few days ago that the rumblings I'd been attributing to gas were actually baby movements.

I kind of feel like a lava lamp - the amniotic fluid is the liquid in the lava lamp and the babies are the lava bubbles.

Following G-ma's tradition, I put up the Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving.  And to get into the holiday spirit, I popped in "Die Hard 2."  

Belly Photo: Week 17

I'm holding a turnip because the pregnancy books and websites use fruits and vegetables to explain the baby's size each week.  This week they're the size of turnips - approximately 5" long and weigh 5 oz.  

Personally, I think the books use the world's smallest vegetables and fruits because the turnip I'm holding in my hand is 10 oz.  So technically, the cubs weigh the same as 1 turnip. 

Hormones

I’d heard the stories – friends bawling at a Kleenex commercial or breaking down looking at baby clothes.  Hormones, they said.  Don’t worry, they laughed, it’ll happen to you too.  So, I was prepared for water works.  I wasn’t prepared for what’s actually happening. 

Annoyance.  Anger.  Irritation.

I’ve always had a pretty low tolerance for bs.  I’ve never suffered fools.  And I can’t stand incompetence.

Now, normally this hasn't been a problem, because I’ve tried to do a good job of being as neutral as possible (friendly, even) when I’ve come across people who irritate and annoy me.  Well, not anymore.  I’m not saying I’m mean or rude, I’ve just noticed that the mask I’ve been able to put up to block my disdain, annoyance and exasperation is on its way to completely disappearing. 

In short – I’m starting to act more and more like my brother. 

Huh.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

From the shoulders up, I recognize the girl in the picture.  But I don't recognize that waist at all.  I swear it's not mine.  

This Sidewinder Isn't Sleeping Tonight

A full night's sleep - I miss that more than my waist.  I haven't slept through the night in over 2 weeks.  Perhaps it's my body prepping me for the sleepless nights I'll have once the babies arrive? It's more than just an overactive bladder because I'm waking up at the exact same time every night/morning.  I wake up at 3:00am, 6:00am and more recently - I've started waking up at 4:30am, too.  And let's not forget the 45 minutes worth of tossing and turning I do before falling asleep - I feel like a dog who walks in circles before finding a comfortable place to sleep. Who knows - I may start up a new hobby during those bits and spurts I'm awake. 

Week 16: Doc Appointment

Had another ultrasound at Tuesdays’s appointment (my certified nurse midwife does an ultrasound at the beginning of every appointment to check on the kiddos and their fluid).  Starting as early as ultrasound number 2, I've noticed they’ve each had very distinctive movements.  Twin A continues to rock and roll inside the womb while Twin B just sits back and chills*.  I wonder if that’ll be indicative of their personalities outside the womb?

*  this observation is based purely on the ultrasounds – I haven’t felt them kick, yet

It's Alive! It's Alive!

I’m giving the blog a second chance at life.  It was hard keeping it updated when the blog didn’t really have a purpose to it, aside from assuring G-Ma that I was still alive out here in CA.  Now that I’m incubating, I’ll use it as a way to keep family updated on how things are going. 

4th of July cake

Some friends invited us to their house for a 4th of July bbq and block party.  Since I don't cook - I always bring desserts with me to bbqs and potlucks.  The last time these friends invited us over for a potluck I made Guinness & Bailey's chocolate cupcakes, so I knew I had to step up my game for this one.  I decided to try my hand at a cake.  For all the cookie and cupcake baking I do, I can't remember the last time I made an actual cake.  Not content to make a regular cake, I decided to make a Red and Blue Velvet layer cake with cream cheese frosting.

No need to adjust your computer monitors - the batter turned out turquoise and dark pink - not quite the blue and red I was going for. I'm so used to dealing with cookie batter - that I momentarily freaked out when I saw how runny and liquidy the cake batter was.

I love my Pampered Chef cake pans.  They cooked the cake so evenly and were a breeze to clean.  I cut each of these cakes in half (vertically) to make a 4-layer cake.

My favorite part of the cake is the frosting - I used a cream cheese frosting.  Buttercream is too sweet for my taste - it makes my teeth hurt.  But the cream cheese frosting is perfect.   I have no idea how people get their frosting to look so smooth.  I was proud of myself for putting on a crumb coat and letting it harden in the fridge for an hour.  But even going that extra mile I couldn't get the frosting to look smooth.  So I embraced the messiness of it and made the swirls part of the decoration.

The original decorating plan was to frost a small American flag on the cake.  Seeing as how this was the first cake I've ever frosted - that was a lofty, unreachable, goal. Instead, I broke out a star cookie cutter and used it as a stencil and poured sprinkles onto the cake.  Viola! 

I wish I had a better picture to show you of the inside of the cake.  It looks unappetizing, but I gotta tell you, it was DELICIOUS!  I'm bummed I couldn't evenly divide the cakes in half - but I figure that just takes practice.  As yummy as the cake was - I think I'll stick with cookies and cupcakes. 

One Sentence Review - Dengue Fever

Where:  Detroit Bar

When:  Saturday, May 29, 2010

Dengue Fever:  Awesome, awesome, awesome - I don't understand how Cambodian Pop Psych Rock isn't the most popular music out there.

Pocahaunted: Ugh - they're everything that gives acid-rock a bad name - with a dash of pretentious d-baggery by 'playing Indian' in feathered headdresses and facepaint. (Is this the new accepted form of blackface?)    

One Sentence Review

When:  Sunday, March 28, 2010

Where:  Detroit Bar

Turbo Fruits:  This opening band was the highlight of the evening for me – they outshined (outshone?) the headliner in every way: energy, mad skills (their drummer’s a machine and their lead guitarist plays with his mouth) and wicked stashes.

Surfer Blood:  Unfortunately, it was a case of ‘the album sounds better than the live band.’

Thought of the evening:  When did I become older than the people in the bands I see?  Especially Surfer Blood – I’ve never seen a more baby-faced lead singer. 

DeVito Watch 2010!

Hotel rooms are booked.  Line-up's announced.  More excited about the line up (Grace Jones! Sly & the Family Stone!  John Waters!) than last year's.  I'm ready for afternoons baking in the sun, evenings braving the crowd in front of the stages and late, late nights dancing in the Sahara tent.   87 days.    

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, love the Flinns

4 Easy Steps to Become an Oompa Loompa

1. Turn your face orange. Resist urge to use self-tanner - you only want the orange glow for a single night, not the next 2 weeks. I found putting on a liquid foundation and then heavily coating yourself in bronzer worked very well.
2. Create costume. Brown long sleeve shirt with some brown/white striped fabric sewn to sleeves to form cuffs, white skirt, brown/white striped tights and a pair of white gloves and you're set. And don't forget the wig - I found that putting on a wig cap first was a huge help - it kept all of my hair in place.
3. Don't put wig on backwards. You're going as an oompa loompa - not Cousin It. It doesn't matter how many attempts it takes you - put the wig on correctly. This step will come in very handy at 2:00am when attempting to walk down street to hail a cab.

4. Find yourself a Willy Wonka. Otherwise, you're just some crazy broad in a green wig.

Lessons from a Dumbass Homeowner

We bought a house! Woo-hoo! We decided to paint the walls of our house before we moved in.
We thought that we’d be able to knock it out in a weekend. For the most part – things went well; we were able to knock out the living room, dining room, office and bedroom in 2 days with no problem. However, being the dumbass first-time homeowners we are, we had NO idea how f-ing impossible it would be to paint the kitchen and bathrooms because nobody told us that painting over glossy paint is a mother-f-ing nightmare, what with the sanding, wiping, washing, and repeating multiple times. We invested at least 20 man hours trying to paint the 2 bathrooms. After 3 weeks the paint in the powder room was still tacky and it was peeling off in other spots – at that point we knew we were in over our head and needed professionals to tackle the kitchen and fix our bathrooms.

We're glad we decided to paint before we moved in - that saved us major hassles and headaches. However, we learned a few lessons that we'd like to share with you:

1. Spread the wealth. Take stock of the work needed, determine what your time is worth, and then decide what’s more important: A) spending the money on a professional who’ll do it right the first time, or B) saving a few dollars to do it yourself just so you can gain the knowledge that hiring someone to do it was the correct choice to make.
2. Don’t trust the word of the 18 year old working at Lowe’s or Home Depot. Ignore the "Hi, I'm Bob your trusty paint specialist" button they're wearing - wearing the button doesn't make him a specialist.
   
3. Buy your paint directly from Sherwin-Williams or Dun Edwards, not Home Depot.
4. If your wife says, “let’s put the couch on the 1st floor, rather than try to squeeze it upstairs,” listen to her. (story to come later)
   
5. Painting your living room, office or bedroom by yourself = good idea. Flat enamel paint is easy to use for even the most amateur of painters.
6. Painting your bathroom or kitchen yourself = bad idea. See rule #1. Glossy and semi-gloss paint are now 4-letter words in my book. We sunk at least 20 man hours into painting the guest bathroom and powder room and we STILL had to hire a professional to fix what we couldn’t.
7. If, after 3 weeks, the semi-gloss paint in your powder room is still tacky, hire someone who knows what they’re doing to fix it.
8. Be prepared to feel like a complete and utter Eddie Bauer-certified yuppie when discussing paint colors. Our colors are Expedition Khaki, Corn Husk, Spiced Acorn and Windsor Haze. In other words - tan, light green, orange and dark blue. I can't say our color names without feeling like a complete schmuck. The only color that's not dumb - Milk Chocolate. Mmm, that just makes me hungry.
   

...And I'm Off

First off – I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who donated to fundraising efforts!! I have the most wonderful and thoughtful friends and family who helped me totally exceed my fundraising goal. I couldn't have done it without your help! Thank you so much. As my team - The Underwires - walk throughout Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs, I'll be thinking of you and your support. And trying desperately not to think about the thousands of footsteps that lie ahead of me each day. (Seriously – what was I thinking?!?)

I still can't believe I leave tomorrow morning to head back to MN. It's crazy - but I haven't been back there since I moved to CA over 5 years ago. I'm really looking forward to heading back to the state that I called home for 6 years and catching up with friends and, most importantly, relaxing at the cabin for several days. Hello pontoon boat!

See you on the other side of 60 miles.