Ever wonder what it's like?

Ever wonder what it would be like to have twins? This is kind of how it is for me right now. Lots and lots of appointments. This is my little sticky note of appointments made yesterday through January.

The Belly Cast

Recently, I’ve been searching the online world trying to put together a list of what exactly we need for these babies coming our way.  It is a bit overwhelming.  Most the time I don’t even know where to start.  I feel like most of the stuff out there is probably not all that necessary and would just get in the way in our small house.  I was browsing Amazon and luckily I stumbled upon this gem.  I honestly didn’t know this existed but my world has now changed and I am better because of it (if you are one of those all natural, pregnancy is beautiful, love your body people, do NOT keep reading, you WILL be offended).

The Basic Pregnancy Belly Cast Kit.  With a measly $20 this bad boy can be yours and the memories you will save will be endless.  How is this even a thing?  And don’t worry, other Amazon shoppers have posted pictures to give a better idea of how great this product is.

 And direct from the customer reviews:

“My doula applied the balm and the strips while I sat in a chair.”
I’m not super familiar with the role of a doula but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you aren’t paying her/him enough.

“My wife and I had a great time doing this. Very simple and easy to use. An awesome bonding experience. I definitely recommend this as an activity and it makes an awesome keepsake.”
One word for you: hobby. And a few more words – get one.

“I had my 75 year old grandmother help me do mine and looks fantastic.”
Elder abuse is a crime that we do not talk about nearly enough in this country.

“i had some leftover that i still use 4 months later :)”
What exactly are you still using it for?

“There are people who do this for pregnant ladies and I wish I had just done that.”
Those people are called pedophiles.

“We painted ours blue for our baby boy and had hospital visitors sign it. Now it's a souvenir of the birth of our little one!”
Where exactly did the visitors sign? I think the souvenir you bring home from the hospital is supposed to be the baby.

“My husband and I have fun with these kits and it creates great keepsakes for the kid.”
Yes, I can see how any teenage boy would love to bring his buddies over to his house and show them this. “And this is how big my mom’s boobs are”.

“I really treasure my cast though and it was worth the pain to have it hanging on the wall!”
Is it worth the pain caused to everyone else having to look at it hanging on the wall?

“What a great product to use to capture the memory of a special moment in time you will never have again. :) I used ribbon and confetti from our wedding to decorate and added a 3d ultrasound picture of his face to it and it turned out awesome!”
Sounds awesome (sense sarcasm)!

“Pictures just don’t do your pregnant body justice! This is an excellent way to have a three dimensional, tactile remembrance of your belly.”
Isn’t “pictures just don’t do your body justice”, and “the camera adds ten pounds” cliché terms people use to justify why they look terrible in a picture? Clearly a three dimensional mold will put that to rest!

Sometimes you throw up, and sometimes you pee your pants

Sometimes you just have to throw up uncontrollably as you walk from your building to your car leaving work for the day.  And sometimes, just sometimes, because of the violent upheaval taking place you also might pee your pants. 

Yep, we're having twins.  It is crazy and I have been sick basically non-stop which is not a lot of fun.  Obviously the highest point of my sickness was the above mentioned little story.  It was a series of unfortunate events really.  Or just poor decisions on my part.

I had brought a lunch plus all of my snacks to work that day but couldn't get the main lunch down.  So I went to the cafe and bought a lunch.  Which I also couldn't get down.  So I thought, maybe I'll be alright with just these snacks.  I was wrong.

As I was walking down the three flights of stairs I noticed I was starting to feel quite ill and I thought to myself, just focus on chewing your gum that will help.  I also noticed that apparently many people leave at this time because quite the line of people was forming behind me.  As I got to the first floor I thought to myself, should I go in the bathroom just in case I'm going to be sick?  No, I said, just get to the car.  For some reason that thought, of get to the car overpowered every other sense of reason in my body. 

As I exited the building I was immediately hit with the wave of heat that is KC in the summer.  It was terrible.  Again I noticed the large amount of people surrounding me and I really wished they would go away because now I was really feeling ill.  But to the car I pushed.  I made it past a few cars on my what seemed like mile long journey to my car and knew I would indeed be throwing up very soon.  So logically I turned around headed back inside and to the bathroom right?  Nope, I just opened my lunch sack that had my uneaten lunch and kept right on walking.  And then I started puking.  Of course I was keenly aware of the people around me so I started bobbing and weaving between cars trying to avoid being seen, all the while heaving non-stop.  But I kept on walking.  Never once did I think, hey just duck behind this car, get your puke on and then be on your way.  The entire time I just kept thinking I should avoid people and keep walking. 

Unfortunately my body can only multitask so much.  The puking, dodging in and out of cars and walking was the max I could handle; unfortunately again I had to pee.  So as I continued to walk and puke with each lurch of my stomach out came a little pee.  And by the time I made it to the car, I had completely peed my pants. 

So yeah, when you ask me how pregnancy has been. . . I've been better. 

We are in Trouble

Introducing Deneremy and Jernae Hart



I don't know how to get the picture to work but basically if you turn your head sideways there is one baby sitting on top of the other baby.  I know, I hate when people show me ultrasounds and expect me to care because it honestly looks like nothing to me but I felt like I needed something to go with the announcement.  Besides the clearly awesome names.

Love/Hate

Things I love Today:
1. Mortorcycle Hand Wave.  I don't know if you ever pay attention to this or not, but whenever a motorcyclist passes another motorocycle they always do this little one or two finger hand wave.  It's not like a giddy arm flopping in the air wave.  It's just a cool, hey I'm a biker and you're a biker and we're cool little flick of the fingers.  I love it.  I don't know why it makes me so happy to see it but it does.  But if you even think for a second that they would give the same respect to a scooter you are seriously mistaken.  That would be offensive. 

2.  The Return of the Boy Bands.  Oh yes, it's true.  They are back.  Does anything warm your heart more than this picture?

Seriosusly.  The world needs more of this. My world in particular.

3. This Guy.

Because sometimes, you just need to dress like the Geico Caveman and that should be okay.

4. Getting Oversized Overgreen Free T-shirts at Work.

Because I care about the environment.  Okay, I don't really think about it that much but I love getting free stuff so this made the list.

5. Movie Theatre Recliners.  Kansas knows how to do movies.  the AMC theatres here have recliners.  They are great and make going to a movie that much more enjoyable.

6. My Halloween Costume. Yes, I know this was like forever ago.  But I saw this horribly taken picture today and it made me really happy.  I was the Kia Hampster and I was awesome. 

Things that I hate:
1. The NO Trails on Nall People.  I don't even know them but I'm sure if I did I wouldn't care for them.  They have put up these signs everywhere protesting a potential bike/walking trail on the main street by our house.  Need I say more?  These people are lame.

2. People who run/skip/bounce up the stairs on the way in to work every morning.  I don't have a picture of these people but you can imagine the type.  I hate them.  Who runs/skips/bounces up stairs on the way to WORK?  And first thing in the morning?  I can't really imagine a situation I would be bounding up any stairs unless it was some kind of race involving me getting a heaping pile of cash at the end.  I want to tell them that I could very well take the elevator every morning but I begrudgingly trudge up the stairs to convince myself I'm getting exercise and they are ruining it for me.  When these types of people are behind me I like to walk right up the middle of the stairwell as slow as humanly possible.  Eat that suckers!!!

And finally, I'm not sure if this is a love or a hate item.  One day on my bike ride into work I was slowly trudging up this hill.  The hill is not terribly steep it is just long and drawn out.  I believe I was huffing and puffing quite loudly.  All of a sudden out of nowhere this guy comes cruising by me on his bike and as he effortlessly passes me he turns and says "never give up".  Never.  Give.  Up.  I wanted desperately to explain that I had a heavy back pack on and was just feeling kind of lazy because I had been riding a lot, or some other assortment of excuses for why I was riding so slowly but I was so out of breath all I could really do was awkwardly pant in his general direction. 

Doin' Work

For the last three weeks Jeremy and I have been putting in many hours trying to get our yard into a semi presentable form. The place was a disaster area. For real. The back fence was completely overgrown with this crazy fence plant that everyone has here that is ugly and overwhelming. There were vines taking over the tree and side of the house. There were years and years and years worth of sticks and garbage throughout the yard. We thought it would be a fun little project to undertake, emphasis on the fun and the little. We were wrong about both.

I believe in my original post about the house when we moved in I showed pictures of the nasty back yard. It would be an okay yard for the most part except that it slants downward and then flattens off at the end towards the back fence for about a 4 foot wide strip of area that is completely covered in vines, aforementioned fence death plant, sticks and who knows what all else. It is just gross. And there are stumps of huge trees everywhere just hanging out being eye sores.

So anyway...we went to work trying to clean up the area so that we didn't want to vomit every time we looked out the window. And did we ever work. I knew it wasn't going to be easy but this was insane. The best approach was to just take the hatchet and start swinging away. We needed machetes to hack through the stuff. It was back breaking. Literally, it broke my back and I've been going to physical therapy. Okay that was I lie I hurt my back before we ever started this. But now that we are almost finished hacking away back there I think we have done a lot of good work. And by we, I mean 99% Jeremy and 1% me.

We have cleared out about 20 of those large yard bags to this point and I would guess by the time we are done with the front and sides it will be more like 30.

These are some of the larger sticks we have yet to chop up and dispose of.

This little area is about three feet by three feet.

And this is all of the garbage that came from this little spot. There were endless amounts of roots and rocks and nasty bug things I'd never seen before.

And finally, is there anything more attractive than a man after a few hours of manual labor in the baking sun? I have to admit, there is something about a guy sweating his guts out doing work in the backyard trying to make your house look better.

A Blog of B's

Bummer - Jan/Feb of 2012 was kind of a bummer for us. But because this is my blog and blogs are intended to show only how perfect and amazing your life is we won't really talk about that. Am I right, Utah Mommy Mormon Bloggers? Now that we have hit March things are on the up and up around here. Spring has sprung and let me tell you, it is perfect here right now. I've started a new job. And Jer is keepin' on keepin' on at his job.


Bubbles - I'm the first to admit that my homemaking skills are what most would consider. . . Outstanding (sarcasm font)! One day I was being extra special, more special than I normally am and had a run in with the dishwasher.

Now I know that dish soap can't go in the dishwasher. I really do know that. I'm pretty sure I did this same thing when I was in college, which is when you are 18 and supposed to do stupid things. In my defense, I was confused by the Canadian bottle of dish soap that we had, and I was felling extremely lazy. Even as I put it in I knew it was wrong but somehow I convinced myself that if I watched it I could prevent the outpouring of bubbles. I couldn't. I left the room for seriously 3 minutes to change and came back and the ENTIRE kitchen floor was covered in bubbles. I'm not even exaggerating, it was the entire floor. I was so furious that I refused to take pictures of the room o' bubbles. Now I wish I had, but seriously, how special do you need to be?

Bikes - due to the aforementioned perfect weather we have been able to ride our bikes often this winter and now Spring. It has been awesome! I am now bike commuting to work which I absolutely love. It keeps me sane. My commute now makes me realize how dangerous my commute in SLC was. I don't know what I was thinking. I am basically riding through neighborhood side streets for 90% of my ride. It is so nice to not feel like you are going to die the entire time. This is my bike.

Equipped with new front and back safety lights purchased by Jer for my safety.

This also shows my tire repair kit on the back of my bike that my parents gave me for my birthday. I feel safer having it knowing that if something happens during my commute I will be prepared. However, I'm also fairly sure that if I were to get a flat I would have no idea how to use the tools to fix it. This is Jer's bike. We have twiner bikes. Except his is twice as nice and cost less.

This is me getting ready to head out on my morning commute. Safety shirt and all.

This picture was supposed to show my safety lights in action but it more just shows the awesome condition of our front lawn. Last Saturday it was completely white/yellow. Now half of it is green as can be. I'm sure by next week the whole thing will be green thanks to this humidity.

Begging - And to take off from the bike theme we will move to begging. We have registered to ride in the MS-150 in September. In order to do this we have to fundraise a minimum of $200 each. So now is your chance my 3.5 blog readers to make a donation toward MS Research so that Jeremy and I can go out and ride our tails off.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Bills - In January we received a $130 gas bill. Jer about pooped his pants. I actually think he did but he denied it. That was very frustrating because we had not been using the heat very much so for the rest of the winter we kept the house at 60 degrees! It was rough. Me and my snuggie became very close. And now it is heating up and Jer is too scared to run the AC so now we just sweat to death in the humidity. . . and it's only 75 outside. We are in trouble.

Blankets - And now that it has warmed up we need to find a way to stay cool enough to sleep at night so out with comforter and in with the lighter quilts. However, it is too much for us to share a blanket because then we might actually have to be close to each other so this is how we will roll.

p.s. don't make fun of the nasty old orange quilt, because Jer loves it more than me and will take it VERY personal.

Date Night

A few months ago a Groupon came through for 10 hot dogs at a place here called the Dawg Pound or something like that. For reasons unbeknownst to me somehow my wonderful husband thought this would be a good Groupon to buy. So, one Friday night we decided to go get our hot dog on and see where the night would lead. For me, the hot dogs were not so great, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them alright which is good because we still have five left. After our hot dog fun I suggested we hit up Power Play, the local teeny bopper arcade/laser tag/bowling/go kart hang out! Luckily, Melanie and Ashwin were game for a good time so we all pitched in and loaded up our Power Play card for a fun filled evening.

I dominated the 4 v 4 racing game.

I did not dominate the dance off.

We did not play this game but I played it when I went here for team building. It is called whirly ball but should really just be called bumper car wiffle basketball. I really want to come back with more people and play it because it was super fun. Basically you have teams and then you drive around and smash into each other while each team is trying to throw a wiffle ball using little scooper thingy's at a hoop. Just trust me, it is pure awesomeness.

What 28-year old guy wouldn't be excited about a room full of arcade games?

Ashwin and Jeremy getting their shoot em' up on.

Jeremy mid power punch.

He's pretty buff.

While getting the pictures for this post from Jeremy's phone I found some other gem's from Christmas and other happenings. Rockin the BYU Snuggie I won in the Hart White Elephant

Our favorite burger place in Utah is now the Burger Bar in Roy. It is definitely worth the trip up there and will be top priority for us when we go home. The onion rings are amazing.

I finally accomplished one of my life long dreams and finally ate at a Cici's Pizza. It was. . . spiritual really. They have a mac and cheese pizza! Can you believe that? Mac and Cheese = awesome; pizza = awesome; mac and cheese pizza = a little slice of heaven.

And finally, we had to invest in a new ice scraper because some how our good one was lost in the move, and Jeremy's solution didn't pan out.

House, Kansas and Holiday Update

I'm a little behind the times with what we've been up to so this will be a kind of random post. Many people have asked me about the house and the flies and Kansas. The house is okay, it's really not that bad and it beats an apartment and we love the area, and it's probably nicer than anything else in the price range so we're liking it. The flies are gone for now. I'm told they're dead but I don't understand how if all the flies die in the winter they magically repopulate themselves. It doesn't make sense to me. If they have hatched little fly sacs or something that can survive the winter then I want to find those and kill them. But I can't, and with the buzzing gone I really haven't thought about them much. Kansas is great! We are still liking it out here. We miss our families but it's been really fun to experience living in a new place and we love the area we are in. We look forward to the day we have a house and a yard that we care about and can spend our time doing this:

With the flies pretty much out of the way I don't have much else to complain about, except that sometimes the walls hate what we put on them and decide to revolt.

We actually went home for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I kind of failed to mention that we went home for Thanksgiving previously. It was a quick trip and we ate a lot of healthy food.

Our neighborhood is really cool, and during the holidays this street just down the road does a candy cane lane that is apparently pretty popular because limos were constantly taking people down it and if you're riding in a limo you are clearly someone in the know.

We didn't have the luxury of being able to fly home for Christmas so we drove. It was such beautiful scenery!

We left on Thursday afternoon before Christmas and drove to Cheyanne, WY. When we got up the next morning I was a little nervous about the temps.

But it ended up being perfect weather for us the entire time we were home. It didn't snow at all and it was actually pretty warm. We were glad we didn't have to deal with any snow storms. We ended up driving 2850 miles and spent 47.5 hours in the car during our 10 day trip. It was WAY too much time to spend in a car. We will be flying from now on. While we were home we did a lot of this:

We almost bought this but then decided it wasn't wise (we've been budgeting, I'll write a separate post about my disdain for budgeting).

We attended a Jazz game which was the highlight of the trip for both of us. We just love the Jazz. For those who thought I was obsessed before it is just getting worse.

And now we are home and getting settled back into a routine. Oh and Jeremy is loving sporting all of his reflective running gear.