Baby Pictures!

Adam and I went to see the doctor this week (at 14 weeks, 6 days), and it was a good visit. The babies are exactly the same size, which the doctor says NEVER happens. They are also measuring exactly what is normal for how pregnant I am--like, seriously, exactly what the norm is for 14 weeks, 6 days. So far, these are pretty good little kids, huh? Neither baby really wanted to pose for photos, so they both look like they're doing face plants.


Here's Baby A, who is so named because she/he is closer to the cervix. (As a side note, the doctor said that sometimes babies switch places, but that's usually with twins that are left and right; ours are top and bottom and are not likely to change spots...so Baby A will be Baby A the entire pregnancy.)

Here's Baby B doing the face plant...good looking spine, though, right?

Here's a side by side, which was REALLY hard to get. This was actually the last picture for the day, and it was really hard to get a good angle.

This picture is so small that it's hard to tell what's going on, but up on the big screen it was about the cutest picture I've seen in my life, because the babies were facing each other with their heads pointed toward each and it seriously looked like they were leaning their heads together (separated by placenta walls and stuff) to a have a private conversation!

FAQ about My Pregnancy

Since announcing that we're having twins, I've gotten lots of questions from lots of people, so I thought maybe I'd take a few minutes and answer them.

Q: ARE YOU SERIOUS?
A: Yes. Completely serious. We are really having twins :)

Q: Are you guys excited?
A: YES, YES, YES. We are absolutely thrilled. I was actually afraid that people would be able to guess just by looking at me because it was really hard to reign in gigantic smiles! Adam is a little better at hiding his emotions, but he's excited, too, as demonstrated by the fact that he will, on his initiative, go check out baby sections of stores on his lunch break and then report to me what's on sale and that he kisses the babies every day and other totally sweet stuff like that.

Q: When?
A: Sometime in May. That's vague, but twins are even more unpredictable than singletons. Forty weeks would be May 29, but twins average 37 weeks, which would put us at May 8. Hopefully they don't come earlier than that, because we want them to be healthy and not spend a lot of time in the hospital...but hopefully they don't come too much later than the 8th because I'm going to be HUGE.

Q: Do you know what you're having?
A: Yes, babies. :)  It's too soon to tell if they're boys or girls.

Q: Are you going to find out? And if you do, are you going to tell us?
A: Yes and yes! For a long time, I thought I'd want to wait until delivery to find out, and then a few years ago, I realized I was nuts for thinking that! I mean, sure, I might like the surprise...but technically, it's still a surprise; I just get to find out at 20 weeks in the doctor's office instead of at delivery. And I like to plan ahead--I started planning college in 4th grade, so the fact that I have to wait 'til 20 weeks to know this is killing me! As far as telling people, keeping this pregnancy a secret for so long was hard enough! I can't keep ANOTHER secret for that long!

Q: What do you want to have?
A: BABIES! :) Honestly, we will be happy with whatever we get. Right now, I'm kinda hoping for a boy and a girl, because I think that will be the easiest combination! I think two boys will have tons of energy and destroy the entire house, and I worry that two girls will be super competitive and hate each other! But really, we just want babies, and whether they're boys or girls doesn't really matter.

Q: How are you feeling?
A: Pregnant! Overall, I think I'm doing really well. My main problem has been absolute exhaustion! (No one warned me that being "extra tired" meant barely able to stay awake, to the point that I would worry if there was something really wrong with me!) I have had plenty of days where I've been nauseated all day, and I'm getting tired of eating crackers to try to stave off that feeling, but I haven't really thrown up. Now that I've entered the second trimester, I'm starting to feel achy and sore and my muscles are tight! (I mentioned that to my doctor today and he said, "I've got a solution for that, but I can't give it to you for about 5 or 6 months.") 

Q: Do you have names picked out? Are you going to tell us what they are?
A: Not yet, and no way, Jose. I used to have a bunch of lists of names I liked, but I don't know where they are anymore...somewhere in NY somewhere, probably. I can remember some of the names on the lists, but those ones have mostly been claimed by other people or have been ruined in some way (like Isabel...loved that name until Twilight ruined it.) Adam doesn't have any suggestions at this point...but someone please remind me to tell you after delivery the one name that he has actually said he might like! Once we do decide (assuming we actually decide before the babies are born), we're not telling people so that no one has the chance to tell us why those are dumb names or about their cranky old aunt or uncle who has that name or whatever other annoying or even rude comment that some people feel the need to share. (I realize most people aren't that rude...but all it takes is one dumb jerk, so you all get to wait.)

Q: Are you going back to work after you have the babies?
A: HECK NO! I've actually got a countdown on my computer for when I quit...and have ever since we found out we were expecting. That's not to say I hate my job or anything, but being a librarian doesn't even begin to compete with being a mother. I've wanted to be a mother for my entire life, and there's nothing at the library that makes it worth giving up those precious moments with my babies. When I was in fourth grade, I had to draw a picture of what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I drew a picture of me with my 14 kids. I highly doubt we'll end up having 14 kids, but still, I'm finally, finally, finally going to get to do what I really want to do with my life, and I'm not giving up a single second of it for the crazy people we deal with at the library (or even the nice ones).

Q: Do you know if they're identical?
A: No, we don't know for sure, but we have a really good guess. The babies are completely separate, with two separate placentas, which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but in our case, one placenta is on the front of the uterus and the other is on the back, meaning there were two different implantation sites, which is a pretty good indicator that they're probably fraternal, not identical.

Q: Do twins run in your family?
A: Um...no? I don't know of any twins on my mom's side. I'm not sure about my dad's side, since I think he has about eight million cousins and stuff (or, that's what it seemed like at family reunions anyway). However, Adam has twins on both sides of his family.

Q: Are you showing?
A: Yup...and it's just going to get worse! I've read that by 28 weeks, I'll pretty much look like I'm 9 months pregnant with one baby...and then I'll just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger...(Not so excited about that part of things...)

Q: Can I touch your belly? (Okay, no one has asked this one, but I'll just address this now.)
A: NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. The very idea completely creeps me out. If you do, I will probably hit you as an instinctive, protective reaction. I know some people are pretty open, but for me, this is something very personal and the only person besides me who is allowed to touch my pregnant belly is Adam.


Hm...I think that's about it...but if you have more questions, you can ask.

New Floors!

For the past couple months, whenever we've had spare time, we've been working on our floors. (And by we, I really mean mostly Adam but I did help!) We had some pretty ugly linoleum in our house...but we also had a couple of hard wood floors that made us wonder if the whole upstairs had the same hard wood buried underneath the ugly linoleum, which it did. So, we decided to pull up all the ugly linoleum, which took FOREVER. In the spare room, the stupid brown linoleum was so old that we couldn't just melt the glue and pull the tiles up; we literally had to take a chisel to the floor and scrape the tiles up--and the first time through, only the top half of the tiles would come up, so we had to do this TWICE in order to get the bottom layer off, too. Ugh.
So, moving onto the hallway, that was supposed to be easier...and the top layer of linoleum came up nice and easily...but it turns out there was another layer underneath (some weird blue linoleum that has to have been from the 70s). So, more scraping with a chisel :(
That left the kitchen--which was originally where Adam had started, but then he realized that the floor underneath was super sticky after the linoleum was pulled up, so he stopped in there and did the spare room and hallway and then returned to the kitchen. That was the easiest to pull up, but then we had to put cardboard and paneling over the floor in order to walk on it until we could move on to the next step because we would literally get stuck in it.
So, next, Adam used a bunch of chemicals (which he just told me was called "Adam's mixture of fun") to de-stickify the kitchen floor, and even more chemicals to deal with the dumb hallway. (Good thing we didn't have to pull up linoleum in the living room and our bedroom!)
Next, it was finally time to sand....
Adam and I both had Tuesday off; he went and rented a sander from Ace, having consulted with a worker there who assured him he'd have no problems; the machine he was renting would be great. Well, about 1.5 hours or 2 hours into the sanding and having only done about 3 square feet, we realized the Ace guy was NUTS. Adam went to Home Depot and got a heavier duty machine, which worked much better. He then went over all the floors with that machine a couple times and I followed behind with the wimpier sander to give the floors a smooth finish. We got the main areas of the floors done, but we still had to do the edges, which required renting yet another machine from Home Depot. By this point, I was pretty wiped out and went to bed, but Adam stayed up until 1:30 in the morning working on the edges. He finished that up, but then there were still some spots (like under the counter edges and in the corners) that had to be done by hand...which takes us to Wednesday.
I actually had to work on Wednesday, but Adam took a vacation day so he could work on the floor some more. He got the hand sanding done, applied the base coat and did 3 layers of the finish in all of the rooms but the kitchen, so I came home on Wednesday to beautiful floors! (And hey, even unfinished the kitchen floor looked way better than it did with the linoleum.)
On Thursday, Adam finished up the hand sanding in the kitchen (despite going to work and a church meeting, meaning he was out of the house for a good 12 hours). He even put down the base coat before going to bed. Then Friday morning, he got 2 coats of the finish done before going to work and came home on his lunch break to put the final coat on.
So, after tons and tons and tons of effort...we have nice floors!! YAY!


This is the before and after of the living room. The living room actually had a nice floor, but it was faded in one spot, and we knew it would be pretty much impossible to match the stain of the other floors to it, so we sanded it down and refinished it anyway.

This is the before and after of our bedroom. It's hard to tell with the rug there, but this floor was pretty scratched up...but still the second best floor in the house.

This is the before and after of the spare room...which had the UGLIEST linoleum in the history of linoleum. Brown parquet? Seriously? YUCK. I have hated that linoleum from the second I saw it!

This is the before and after of the kitchen. The linoleum in there wasn't as ugly, but it was very worn and needed to go.

We didn't take a before picture of the hallway, but the linoleum in there was brown and white-ish and not terrible but definitely not as pretty as a hard wood floor!

 Anyway, I'm thrilled with the new floors and very appreciative of my amazing husband and all of the hard work he does to improve our house.

Friend or Enemy?

Had a fun conversation with Adam this morning, which he says I'm not allowed to post on Facebook so I'm putting it here so to preserve the memory.

Me: Don't worry, I won't tell your friends you just said that.
Adam: What friends? [Good point. Adam is very much a loner and he doesn't claim many people as friends.]
Me: The deacons. [The 12 and 13 year old boys he works with at church, who are quite rambunctious and slightly crazy but who actually are the people he spends the most time with besides me and his co-workers.]
Adam: They're not my friends; they're my enemies.
Me: Haha. I'm posting that on Facebook.
Adam: You can't. You're friends with ****[one of the deacons] on Facebook. He'll see it and it'll hurt his feelings.
Me: He'll know you were joking.
 Adam: I don't know, he might not.
Me: I'm sure he will.

Adam kept insisting that the kid might not know Adam was joking, and eventually I had to concede the point, since his sense of humor is one of his best-kept secrets. Ah, the problem of having a funny husband who hides it so well from everyone else...

Just a Little Hairy...

Adam teaches the 12 and 13 year old boys at church, which tends to lead to interesting stories...such as this one:
The boys are going to have a Q&A with some of the people in the ward later this week and the boys were writing out their questions. One boy was writing out quite a few questions and asked Adam, "Hey, what's your name?" (Never mind the fact that Adam has worked with this kid for the past EIGHT MONTHS or so...apparently it takes longer than that to learn a name.)
Adam said, "Why? Are you going to write me a personal question?"
The kid said, "No, I just want to know your name."
Adam said, "First or last?"
The boy said, "First."
Another of the boys chimed in, "Brother" (which is the term that we use in the church for the men), and Adam added "Everitt" to help this slightly clueless kid out in remembering who he is.
The first kid (the one who had been asking Adam's name) then provided this lovely piece of information: "Hey, Brother Everitt, your arms look like a Sasquatch."
Adam's response? A simple "thanks".

(My response when he told me the story? I totally laughed out loud.)

Clear and Copious

On Friday, I drank a full 8 cups of water in the hour that I was on the treadmill...and in the hour afterwards, had to use the bathroom quite often, and a funny conversation ensued.

Me: "This is the FOURTH time I've gone to the bathroom in an hour."
Adam: "Oh, that's okay; it's supposed to be clear and copious."
Me: "What?"
Adam: "Clear and copious."
Me: "What are you talking about?"
Adam: "Clear and copious. That's what they teach you in Boy Scouts."
Me: "Um, they do? No, they don't, do they?"
Adam (emphatically): "Yes. It's easy to get dehydrated so you have to drink lots of water and then your urine should be clear and copious."
Me (tone of disbelief): "Did they really teach you that?"
Adam (confidently): "Oh, yeah. It's an official Boy Scout lesson."

I'm not sure if it's really official, but it seems to be one that stuck with Adam!

*Since this happened on Friday and I'm just getting around to blogging about it today, I asked Adam if there were any details he remembered, and he quickly said, "Yeah, you laughed at me a lot." Um, true. I certainly did :)

Bathtub Cheese

I just told Adam that I was trying out a slow-cooker tomato basil soup recipe; it called for canned tomatoes but I decided to try fresh tomatoes since very soon we're going to have lots of ripe tomatoes (and Adam doesn't even like them), and I'd like to find something to do with them. I finished off my explanation of this by saying, "Then we can eat lots of tomato soup and grilled cheese."
Adam responded, "And we can make our own cheese."
I said, "Oh, yeah, I actually saw directions for that on Pinterest."
Adam replied, "And we'll make it in the bathtub."
Looking quizzically at my husband, I said, "Why would we do that?"
Matter-of-factly, Adam told me, "So we can make large batches and sell it."
Feeling the need to nip this idea in the bud, I said, "That's so unhygienic," to which Adam quickly responded, "That's why all of those places get shut down, because they make their cheese in the bathtub and it's unhygienic."
Thinking surely he wasn't serious, I said, "What places?" and Adam told me there are lots of them. I still didn't believe him, but Adam insisted I could google this and I'd find lots of stuff on bathtub cheesemaking, so I headed for the laptop, typed in "bathtub cheesemakers" in google, and sure enough, bathtub cheese is a real thing (although not necessarily made in an actual bathtub; it sounds like it can be made in any unhygienic tub/vat).
So, I turned to Adam, who was watching me with an expression that told me he was quite confident that I'd find things about bathtub cheese, and said, "Where'd you hear about bathtub cheese in the first place?"
His answer? "I just thought it was common knowledge." :)

A little later in the evening, we were having a bantering session that would have sounded completely nonsensical to anyone else, and I said, "We're so weird," and Adam quickly countered, "Why? We're not the ones making cheese in our bathtub."

Adam-isms

People think Adam is so quiet, but he's really not, and he has an absolutely hilarious sense of humor. Besides his famous "it's a car, not a boat" story, here are some things he's done that have given me a good chuckle.

For the past few days, whenever I've gotten a cut or a scrape (which happens more often than you'd expect), Adam has been spraying some sort of antibacterial spray on it. Well, today, I happened to see the label on his magic spray, noticing first that it says, "Used by Veterinarians" and then that it says, "For animal use only!" Adam's explanation? "Well, we're animals."

The other day, I mentioned to Adam that I'd seen a job description that talked about wanting someone fun and easygoing, complete with the ability to dodge foam darts. I said, "How would you even put that on your resumé?" Adam said, "Excellent dodge ball skills?" and then paused for a second and said, "Do they want Napoleon Dynamite or something?"

While watching the Olympics, "Why didn't they have Harry Potter at the Olympics? He should have lit the torch with his wand." Well, I posted that as my facebook status and then later reported that people liked my status and think he's funny. He said, "I'm serious. They should have had him fly in there on his broom and light it." (Btw, he's not really a big Harry Potter fan...but I am, and I like how he incorporates Harry Potter into quite a few of our conversations.)

I was trying to take a picture of Adam, but when I looked at the image afterwards, I had to let him know that he'd been talking during the picture, to which he promptly responded, "No, I don't talk."

Adam playfully squished me one day, and I said, "Hey, you're not supposed to belly flop your wife." Without missing a beat, Adam said, "Hm. It didn't mention that in my book." What book, you ask? Adam's favorite:

Ethan-ism

Just wanted to share a funny story...

Ethan decided to come to Utah for a couple of days in between spring and summer classes. Adam and I arranged to meet him at the airport, where he was being dropped off by a shuttle. He texted me to let me know that he was waiting where it said "Rental Cars" and "Passenger Pickup". So, Adam pulls into the lane for Passenger Pickup and Rental Cars, with the rental car offices on the left and the passenger pickup curb on the right. Well, there are numbered segments of the passenger pickup curb, so I texted Ethan to find out which number he's waiting by; he insists that he isn't by a number and that he's "sitting right where it says passenger pickup and rental cars". I scan the area and realization dawns--and sure enough, I spotted Ethan, and then called him to say, "Hey, are you standing right where it says 'Rental Cars' and 'Passenger Pickup' and has a BIG ARROW on it?" Yes, indeed, he was standing on the drop off curb, right near a sign that was directing him to cross the drop off lane go wait by passenger pickup...

Ruby-isms

Just wanted to jot down a few fun facts and cute stories about Ruby:

Rabbits are largely nocturnal, resting during the day and being more active in the evening, night, and early morning--and this includes Ruby. But Ruby is also a social little rabbit, so that means that she doesn't want to just play by herself, so twice (or more) a night, when she's ready for some company, she comes and scratches at our bedroom door so that I'll get up and play with her. She is very cute and usually wants to do lots of cuddling during these times. She has a routine all worked out--she'll lick my hand for a little bit, and then she nudges my hand with her head, nestling her head beneath my hand, indicating that it's my turn to pet her. So, I'll pet her and then after a little bit she'll lick me and then tell me it's my turn to pet her and so on. She also likes to put her nose against my nose and have me pet her--and then shows her love by licking my face. Then she puts her nose back against mine for a little bit and wants me to pet her, then she licks my face, and so on. I love her little routines--and I like that she's just as happy to give love as receive it. It makes me super happy to hear her little happy noise (a slight teeth-clicking, if you were wondering). She has also recently decided that sometimes she wants to sit in my lap and let me pet her, which is something she didn't used to do. All that sweetness makes it totally okay that she wakes me up in the middle of the night...twice.


Ruby is a smarty-pants...and she knows where the kitchen is and what the sound of the fridge opening and then water running means--that she's getting a treat. When Adam or I go into the kitchen, she is very attentive to what we are doing--and if I call her while I'm in the kitchen, she's more likely to come than if I call her while I'm in a different room. Also, with our little nighttime play sessions, I usually go back to bed once she starts munching on some hay...but sometimes, as soon as I turn off the light so I can go back in my room, she runs to my door because she knows I'm going to open it...and I think she knows she's not really allowed in there. Why, you ask? Well, she chews cords and I don't want to have to unplug the clock and stuff to keep it out of her way, and because she likes to hide under the bed and it's hard to get her out...especially when she finds a tear in the material under the box spring and hops up inside it and wanders around!

Ruby is very protective of her carrots. If we give her lettuce or cilantro, she's content to just eat it right there, but if we give her a piece of a carrot, she grabs it and and "hides" in her box to eat it. I'm not sure why she thinks we're going to take the carrots away--we haven't ever done that--but I think it's funny to see how consistent she is.


Ruby is way more popular than Adam and I are. Some proof:

I stopped by a friend's house to drop something off to her. She is my visiting teacher* from church, so she comes over once a month, and usually brings her youngest two kids with her. However, since I'm the Primary president*, I also see her kids every Sunday at church. Well, when I stopped by, her little boy said to me, "Hey, I know you! You're the girl from the bunny house!" Never mind the fact that he sees me every week at church; what's important is that once a month, he gets to see Ruby!

Our home teacher* brought his two-year-old son Paul over when he came for his monthly visit. A few days later, Paul was out for a walk with his mother and his friend, Jane. When they were walking past our house, Paul told Jane that it was "Ruby's house" and tried to bring her to the door to meet Ruby. (Unfortunately, we weren't home to accommodate his wish.) A week or so after that, Paul's mom made some strawberry jam and Paul and his dad came by to give us some. Paul's dad told him they were going to "Adam's house"; Paul informed him that that was "Ruby's house."

I taught a group of six-year-olds at church a couple weeks ago; the topic for the week was prayer, and in sharing an experience I've had with prayer, I talked about Ruby's illness a few months ago and the fervent prayers that Adam and I and our friends and family offered that she would get better. One of the girls (and actually the one I would have least expected to say something like that) said, "I wish I was your kid because then I could play with Ruby every day"!

Well, I can't say I blame the kids; Ruby is the cutest little rabbit ever. And even though they probably like her better than they like me, at least I get some coolness points for being Ruby's mom. :)

(*Visiting teachers are women who are assigned to each woman in the congregation and visit at least once a month to provide a spiritual thought, any needed assistance and just general watchcare. Home teachers are men who are assigned to each family and provide watchcare as well. Primary is essentially the children's Sunday school.)

Living Planet Aquarium, Part Seven--The Penguins (Part D)

Last round, I promise!

I didn't quite catch the moment when this little guy tripped, but you can see him picking himself back up. I was a little worried, but the Aquarium employee assured us that it's quite common for them to trip and they just bounce back up!







Here's Meg, hiding under the sink.


Adam's friend





As you can see, these little Gento penguins are super entertaining, and I pretty much fell in love with the aquarium--can't wait 'til they expand and have even more penguins!!

Living Planet Aquarium, Part Seven--The Penguins (Part C)

The penguins are super excited for feeding time!

Living Planet Aquarium, Part Seven--The Penguins (Part B)

This is right before feeding time. The penguins go nuts; they know it's time to eat and they'll all jump in the water and zoom back and forth, super excited for the food to come.

This penguin can't decide if he wants to go in the water or not...and toward the end, you can see a penguin jump out of the water.

Here we can see penguins diving into the water, as well as jumping out.



They're having fun under the water here!

They are zooming back and forth, ready for some food!

Living Planet Aquarium, Part Seven--The Penguins

Okay, now that it has been nearly 3 months since we went to the aquarium, I'm actually getting around to blogging about the penguins, who were the whole reason we went to the aquarium in the first place...In my defense, I've been super busy, and it's hard to narrow down...you know, 200-ish pictures and videos. I still haven't sorted through all the video to decide what to keep and what not to keep, but here are some cool pics.

I have always loved penguins, so for our anniversary, Adam and I went to the aquarium to see the penguins and do a behind-the-scenes penguin encounter, and it was awesome! The penguins were pretty funny. They have a room off the penguin area that they'll open up during the Penguin Encounters, and the penguins can wander in and out as much as they want.

This is when they first opened the door...first penguin in!Penguins tend to follow each other a lot, so more trickled in...

For some reason, the penguins really like to stare at the wall...
Those are Adam's knees; some of the penguins really liked to come stand by him.
It's mating season, so we saw several times when the couples would circle each other,
and then bow to each other.

There's Adam getting all the penguin friends again..

This particular penguin, Sampson (you can tell it's him by the band on his arms--he's got the blue and brown combo on his beads) kept coming back to stand by Adam; it was SO funny. I don't know why Sampson singled him out, but he came over many, many times.

More bowing and communicating between mates.

He was getting ready to call....

So close, but he decided not to do it.
Ah, even cuter than the penguins ;)

This funny little girl (Meg, I think), likes to hang out under the sink!


There's Sampson, pecking at Adam's shoelaces!
Notice the kinda scruffy looking feathers on this penguin's fins; that means he didn't shed properly last year :(

Sampson just chilling with Adam...










These are the penguins back in their area; we're watching from outside rather than in the back room.
Just dove in.

This one couldn't decide if he wanted to go in or not; he kept wandering back and forth, back and forth.

Living Planet Aquarium, Part Six--The Otters

Besides the penguins, the otters were the coolest thing about the aquarium. They're so funny! They're very active, like puppies.

You can see all three of them in this picture--two in the water and one above it.

Living Planet Aquarium, Part Five--Shark Tank

The shark tank was pretty interesting; there were three different types of sharks, as well as lots of fish and a cool turtle.


The poor turtle had a spot all picked out, and then one of the big nurse sharks apparently decided he wanted her spot and kept inching his way underneath her, nudging her. She did eventually yield and let him have her spot.


The big nurse shark lying on the bottom of the tank didn't move the entire time we were watching him. I'm assuming he was still alive since they left him in the tank, but he sure didn't move. The others were much more active.