Happy New Year!

Since about the age of five, losing weight has always been at the top of my list of resolutions...not this year!

As the new year rings in I hope for the happiest and healthiest babies in the world. I hope to be a wonderful, understanding, and patient mother and wife. I hope that God gives me all the energy that I need to keep up with two little munchkins! I intend to believe that there is no such thing as being super-mom, and if laundry needs to be put off for one day, or there are dishes left in the sink, it's nothing to beat myself up about. I have to let some of my OCDs go, and this will be the year to do it!

And of course after all of these things are said and done...I hope to lose the baby weight! : )

Happy 2009!

Let there be light!

After an evening of searching and searching, my designer at heart sister found this for us from Shades of Light. I haven't ordered it just yet, but I'm pretty sure that this is the light fixture that we're set on. I love it!

Thank you!

I would like to give a special thank you to my sister and brother-in-law for their artistic talents in painting! The pictures posted below show some of their amazing work! Love ya, guys! Also, thank you to my wonderful Hubby who is spending all of his free time in putting the Twinkies' room together. I have the best Hubby ever!

Before and During

Here's our work in progress!



These are the before shots. Good-bye butterflies!


So we're finally seeing some progress in the Twinkies' room! There's still a lot of trim work to be done, followed by a little more painting. Hubby promises to have it complete by our shower date!

Phinely Phinished (sort of)

The glider has been ordered! Woohoo! Now it's just the painting and the setting up that needs to get started. And the accessorizing, of course. There's still so much to do! Anybody bored??

Long ago

Growing up in the "Bible Belt" was never an easy task. Every morning of Christmas Eve I am taken back to a memory from long ago. When I was about 5ish, I remember getting out of bed after being tucked in. I would sit on this table that stood in front of my bedroom window and watch for Santa. I never saw him, and always woke up disappointed because I didn't get diddly squat!

I only hope that as a new mother I can help my twinkies understand who we are and where we come from, and why we don't celebrate Christmas. Gotta love the South!

phew...

Things looked much better at our ultrasound yesterday! The babies are still doing great and I am no longer showing signs of effacement. I'm telling you, I think that last week's ultrasound tech really screwed up. I'm still supposed to take it easy, and we should have the test results back on Monday. I must go for one more fetal fibronectin swab on January 2nd, just to make sure that everything is a-okay. I'm feeling so much more relieved!

Yesterday also marked the beginning of a two week vacation from work...I LOVE IT!

I almost forgot...

Our long awaited crib bedding set arrived today. Yay! Thanks to my awesome sister, we got the canary set from a drawing that she won off of a blog. And, thanks to her as well for finding the pumpkin set on sale for me to order! Love ya, sis! I can't wait to see the twinkies dozing (hopefully) on their super- cute organic cotton sheets! I wonder which color each of them will prefer??

Odds and Ends

Here's the cool dresser that we ordered from Pottery Barn Kids! Unlike the crib bedding, hopefully it will come in just a couple of weeks. It's exciting to see everything slowly coming together. All we need now for the final big nursery purchase is a chair/glider.

Oh, the things you'll discuss in an elevator

Mark and I went on our hospital tour at Northside today. I've been there a million times, but we were able to get something new out of it. I'd say the most important thing we got out of the whole tour was learning which entrance was the correct one to come through when the big day arrives!

On the way out, Mark and I were in the elevator with a man who was about to check out of the hospital with his new family. We saw him with bags and gifts and told him congratulations. He responded with a tired thank you and told us that he just had a boy. He then proceeded to ask us what we were having. When we told him two boys his eyes got really wide and he responded with an exasperated, "Jesus!" I have to say that this is definitely the best reaction that we've gotten so far. This poor man was exhausted with the one that he just had. I think knowing that we were having two secretly made him think that maybe one wasn't that bad! I guess you had to be there. I just keep telling myself that since we don't have any kids at all, we won't know the difference between having twins from a singleton.

Awake

It's 6:40 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I've been awake since 5:30. We had our 25 week ultrasound yesterday and it didn't quite go as smoothly as all the others. The babies are doing just fine, which we are very thankful for, but my cervix is another story. It's measuring short. Basically that means that I need to get off my feet and go in for another test on Friday. It could be a potential sign of the babies coming early, but it didn't measure short enough to be in the danger zone. After our ultrasound the doctor hooked me up to a machine to measure for contractions. I don't believe that I've had any at all, but at the same time I had no idea what they are supposed to feel like. Anywho, thankfully no contractions. I just keep telling myself that all will be well!

I'm starting to get a little worried about what is going to happen work-wise. I'm hoping not to have to go on bed-rest, which is what will happen if things still haven't changed by next Friday. Oy!

On a brighter note, something truly wonderful happened yesterday morning. As many of you know I have been freaking out (no way!) a little about my work situation for next year. There is a brand new elementary school that will be opening down the road next fall. I have been driving to Peachtree Elementary for 4 years now, but next year the 40 minute drive would be very difficult with two little munchkins in the picture. Our principal called an emergency staff meeting yesterday morning to tell us that she will be transferring to White Oak Elementary next year!!! Woohoo! So next year my commute to work will change from 40 minutes to 5!

I have truly been blessed this year! My dream of becoming a mother is on its way to fulfillment. I have finally finished graduate school, and now everything for work next year has fallen into the right track. I couldn't be more thankful!

Pomp and Circumstance

So I am now officially done with graduate school, yay! It's weird sitting here tonight knowing that there is nothing else that I need to do. I have to say that I am very proud of myself, especially for not putting my degree off. I've accomplished a lot for my young age. Life is good.

Lullaby and Goodnight

Last night we finally bought the twinkies' cribs! We've been going back and forth the past few weeks trying to figure out what we wanted. First we decided to go with something a little more contemporary from Target, but after reading several reviews we quickly changed our minds. In the end, we were lead in the right direction and got a heck of a deal! It's exciting to see everything slowly coming together. I can't believe they'll be here in three more months!

The Continents of the World...

should apparently be drawn on my gigantic belly. Mark believes that it would make a great geographical resource. He's asking for it!!

Where's the pumpkin?

Although this was taken a few weeks ago, I'm even larger now. I completely love this experience, but it's starting to get a bit uncomfortable. You know you're getting huge when maternity clothing doesn't fit around your belly! sigh

The Results are In!!

We're having boys!! We are so excited to have finally found out. Our ultrasound was yesterday and everything looked perfect! Both babies are growing right according to schedule. When the ultrasound tech was examining the first baby, she asked, "Are you ready?" Of course we were, so she told us that it was a boy. She asked again with the second, but before she said anything I saw his little winkie and announced it myself! Too exciting! So come this spring, Ari Jacob and Noah Gregory will be the two wonderful new additions to our family. We're getting more excited by the day and can't wait to have them here! :)

Survey says...

A couple of weeks ago my students were starting to suspect that I was having a baby, so I finally gave in and told them that I was having two! They were very excited and have been really sweet since they found out. I've gotten all kinds of crazy comments from them as well, including, "Oh, so you're going to have the babies and then take them to your wedding so you can get married!" This shows you a little about the background knowledge of my students! I responded to that one with, "No, dear. I decided to try it the other way around!"

So, since my students found out that I was carrying twins, they have been making all sorts of guesses about what they will be. During math yesterday we took a minute to come up with all the possible combinations that Mrs. Smolyar could have, and then took a little survey. Here are the results...

girl/girl = 9
boy/boy = 3
boy/girl = 6

The kids were very sure about their answers. I wish I had a clue!

Time after time

You would think that just having started this blog I would totally be on about keeping it up to date...sorry! The past couple of weeks have been so busy with class, work, and birthdays...it's hard to keep up. Things have been going really well so far. Mark and I went in for our first trimester screening this past Monday and everything looked excellent. Our chances of the babies having down syndrome and trisomy 13 and 18 were 1 in 10,000; which is basically a pretty slim chance. We were hoping to find out what the sexes, but all we were able to see were little tooshies. We go in for our next ultrasound on October 17th, so hopefully we'll know then! So far everyone is positive that Baby B (bottom picture) is a boy! Baby A (top) was uncooperative and decided that he/she wanted to look to the left during the profile shot!

Sleeping is starting to become a little uncomfortable again. I'm starting to feel a bit like a beached whale in bed. It's becoming a little harder to turn from side to side and I just can't seem to find a comfortable niche. When I finally do get comfortable, I then have to get up and pee!

I'll be 14 weeks tomorrow and I already look like I'm 6 months pregnant! I am so starting to feel huge. I'm very curious as to what I'm going to look like in March when the twinkies arrive.

Each day I'm becoming more and more excited about being a mom. I can't wait to hold my little ones and finally see what they look like...although they definitely need to take their time baking in the oven!

It's September...where is fall?

What a weekend! Hard to believe that tomorrow is already Monday. I've been a little worried this weekend as I have started spotting again. I wonder if I'm going to spot throughout my entire pregnancy. It's scary every time that it happens, and I've been told what to watch out for, however it still worries me. I'll call Dr. Randell first thing tomorrow morning.

On Saturday I went to the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain with Kelly. We had a great time, but I was definitely missing Amanda (my English friend who was shipped off the island). It was so incredibly HOT on Saturday, which made me wish for fall to come even quicker. I mean come on, it's September for cryin' out loud! I'm ready for pumpkin picking, ghost stories, cozy sweaters, and not sweating every time I walk outside!

This is going to be a busy week. It's the start of the fall birthday season for the familia, so it's going to be party after present after party after present...pheww!

So, I go in on the 15th for the end of first trimester test...that's the one where they test for down syndrome and several other chromosomal abnormalities. I'm sure that all will be fine and I'm hoping that they'll be able to determine the sexes. It's interesting to hear how everyone has an opinion on what we're having. We have no preferences...I just want happy, healthy babies! We're also meeting with the pediatrician on the 15th. It's strange how we already have to have one picked out, but it's one thing that I can go ahead and cross off my list.

I'm already waiting for next weekend, however I have class, so technically I won't really have one.

Toodles for now, I'll keep you posted!

Something New

So this whole blog thing is new to me, but I thought that it would be fun to chronicle my pregnancy and update all of you on life with the twinkies when they arrive.

This summer was definitely quite eventful for us! After weeks of injections, bloodwork, ultrasounds, a retrieval, and transfer, Mark and I were successful in achieving our ultimate goal...pregnancy! A few weeks after our pregnancy was confirmed we found out that we were having twins! Two for the price of one, not bad. : )

I am currently 11 weeks and 3 days along. The babies are due March 23, 2009, and hopefully they bake for just that long! Pregnancy has been wonderful so far. Thankfully I never really had horrible morning sickness! The worst of it has simply been extreme exhaustion, which seems to be easing up as the weeks go by.

I'll have some pictures up soon as we continue to go to our monthly ultrasounds, and hopefully we'll soon get to share the news of exactly what the twinkies will be!