First Belly Pictures!

Yes I know the lamp over my head looks stupid, but the picture was too dark otherwise.

Here's a close-up

I'll post more soon because I think I've already grown again!!

Oh Geez

I just busted the strap on my shirt today. I was sitting at my desk and leaned forward to type and the strap just popped off. Oops! It's not because of my belly, it's because of something else that's grown.

It's super hot today too and now I can't take my sweater off because my strap is hanging on by a safety pin.

*Sigh* Well I guess the bright side is that now I can go shopping :-)

Worse than I thought...

So this morning I was skimming through Drudge Report (like I do every morning) and I saw an article about a so-called "Craigslist Rapist" that peaked my interest. I started reading it and realized the attacks were in Prince George's County (where we just moved). It was a really long article but at the bottom of the page it said:

"Police set up a sting operation the next day. When Humphries entered the room, he and his .22-caliber would find a SWAT team. But Humphries cased the hotel and apparently spotted an undercover officer, police said. He entered the front lobby and moments later was seen sprinting across a rear parking lot.

He escaped, but police moved in. They raided his apartment in the *** block of ***** Road in Suitland and found the Craigslist ad for that night and two cellphones stolen in earlier attacks.
Humphries was on the run and seemed desperate. " (I deleted the exact address for safety reasons)

That's why the police were at my apartment last week!! They were raiding the apartment of a serial rapist who had attacked 9 women at gunpoint!! And he lived right above me!! The story went on to say that the suspect killed himself a few days later at another location. So I guess I should feel better knowing that he's dead and definitely won't be coming back to his old apartment. But still, I'm totally spooked now and afraid to be home alone at night, even for just a couple hours. We'll just have to trust that God will protect us there.

Lesson learned... don't move to the ghetto. Even if it saves you alot of money, trust me, it's not worth it!

Weekend Update

I was pretty bummed out the whole weekend because I was supposed to be in Seattle for my good friend's wedding, but was flying stand-by and all the seats disappeared at the last minute, so I didn't get to go :-(

I feel like a terrible friend since I had to back out 24 hours before the wedding and I was really, really, really looking forward to seeing all of my college friends and Renee and Shauna. Instead, we kept busy all weekend so that I wouldn't have time to be depressed.

*The Dark Knight (Fantastic!!)
*Unpacked the kitchen
*Rearranged the bedroom furniture
*Semi-cleaned the apartment
*Lounged by the pool and read pregnancy books
*Cooked the first meal in the new apartment (Baked Ziti, Brandon loved it)
*Family naptime - all 6 of us :-)
*Bought ahh-mazing new sheets
*Helped some friends move to a new apartment
*Tried and failed for the 2nd time to register our car in Maryland
*Watched Bridget Jones (Brandon obviously felt really bad for me since he agreed to watch this)
*Went to church
*Watched re-runs of The Office

Still growing...

Brandon finally came back last night, thank goodness! I stopped by the management office of our apartment complex on Saturday but they didn’t sound too promising about letting us switch apartments. They don’t really have any incentive to let us switch I guess. Apparently, having a drug dealer live above you that the cops serve warrants to at 3 a.m. isn’t a big deal to them. Hopefully, Brandon can be firmer than I was and get them to let us switch. At the very least we will have bars put over our windows and I’ll make Brandon sleep with his baseball bat under the bed. Please pray though, that the management will have mercy on us and let us move to an apartment on the 2nd or 3rd floor.

Anyways, I went shopping this weekend and bought 2 pairs of maternity pants. One is a pair of basic black pants for work which I’ll probably wear every day once fall comes. The other is a pair of cute white capri pants which I’m wearing today. I really like them a lot and have gotten compliments on them already. I have a rule that I won’t wear anything while pregnant that I wouldn’t want to be seen in when I’m not pregnant. This could be tricky though because I also refuse to spend very much money on maternity clothes since I won’t be wearing them very long. I went to Pea in the Pod (which I’ve always walked by at the mall and gazed into because I thought they had the cutest maternity clothes and always wanted to shop there when I was finally pregnant) but walked straight out because the prices were so high. They had Seven jeans in maternity sizes!! And they were $210!! Yeah right, that’s not going to happen! I prefer Target’s maternity line because the clothes are cute and cheap.

** Warning: All males should stop reading at this point**

I also had to buy a new bra because I was popping out of my old one. It was a 34A and was only covering about half of my boob as of last week. The underwire was also cutting into my rib cage and poking me all day long so I figured it was about time to upgrade. Anyways, I tried on a few and guess what size I am now…. A 34C!!! Can you believe it?!?!?! I sure can’t!! I never, ever thought in my wildest dreams that my own, natural breasts could grow that large. They have literally doubled in size in a couple of months!! Woohoo! The only downside is that a lot of my shirts don’t fit the same as they used to and I have to be much more careful what I wear now so that I don’t show too much cleavage. That was certainly never a problem I had before!

Unfortunately, I read a pregnancy book that assured me that these go away soon after you finish nursing and actually look worse than before. Darn! Well, I guess I better enjoy them while I can!

SCARY!!

So, last night just might have been the worse night of my life. There may have been worse nights, but I can’t think of any right now. Everybody knows I am a huge scaredy-cat and am really afraid of being home alone at night. I don’t mind it at certain places (where I feel safe) but I definitely mind it at our new apartment. It is in Suitland, Maryland which apparently is a very bad area. We live on the far edge of town so it doesn’t look too bad, thus I was fooled into thinking it was safe to live there. But most of my co-workers can’t believe we moved there since it has a pretty bad reputation. Brandon is in Norway this week so I am home alone for 4 whole nights in the creepy new apartment. The windows are pretty old and I can hear the tiniest noises outside, including the cars that drive by all night long blaring their gangster rap music.

Anyways, we’re also on the ground level and there’s a large sliding glass door in the back of the apartment which faces an empty parking lot and a forest area. This door terrifies me because I think it would be so easy for somebody to break in through it. Before he left, I asked Brandon to move some furniture in front of the door but he forgot, so I had to push the large bookcase and dining room hutch in front of it myself. Then, I pushed the couch in front of those. I know this wouldn’t stop somebody from coming in, but at least I would hear them and have time to jump out the window and run to my car. I have been taking other safety precautions including leaving every light in the house on all night, locking myself and the cats in the bedroom, and sleeping with my cell phone and keys on the nightstand (just in case I have to escape out the window).

Well, last night at 2:59 a.m. I was woken up from a deep sleep by this loud banging that I could tell was coming from the outside door of the apartment building (which is about 3 feet from my bedroom window). It sounded like somebody was hitting the doorknob with a crowbar. I freaked out, my heart started racing and I bolted up, grabbed my cell phone, and called 911. I told them somebody had just broken into my apartment building and she asked me what my address was and if I could see anything so I looked out the window and saw a few guys standing around wearing police vests over their clothes. I was a little relieved but there were no police cars anywhere and I still had no idea what was going on so I was still pretty scared. The 911 operator told me that there were officers at my building responding to an “emergency” and that they had needed to gain access to the building. She wouldn’t tell me what they were doing there so I asked her if it was safe there or if I should leave. She told me to just stay in my apartment with the door locked. Great… that doesn’t make me feel safer.

I kept peeking out my blinds watching for anything to tell me if I was finally safe. All I could see was a big black van with a few guys in police vests standing around it and I could hear people moving around upstairs. About 10 minutes later, an actual police car drove through the complex and circled around every few minutes. Then, like a half hour later, I saw 10 or 12 police cars and vans pull out from behind a water tower across the street and drive off in the other direction. Creepy!!! Like they had the place staked out!! A few more police cars showed up and parked in front and I finally began to relax a little. Police officers kept walking in and out of the building for the next couple of hours. I couldn’t sleep so I just kept praying and peeking out my blinds. I stayed awake until about 5:30 or 6:00 and then finally dozed off. When I woke up again at 7:00 the police were all gone.

I called the police department this morning and they told me that the police were serving a warrant but they were very vague and wouldn’t give me much information. Everybody that I’ve told so far said it sounds like a drug bust but that the dealers probably weren’t home so they just searched the place. Great, so we live in the same building as a drug dealer or maybe worse. The scariest part was all the police cars that were across the street watching the place, like they were expecting something bad to happen. So… we just moved into our new apartment and I already want to move out. I officially hate living there and now I’ve even scared of our neighbors. Luckily, my friend Jessica was nice enough to offer to let me stay with her until Brandon comes home. So I won't be murdered tonight after all.

Moving Day!

Well, we’re all moved in to our new place… and by “moved in,” I mean our stuff is physically out of the old place and now strewn about the new place. Nothing at all is unpacked… we don’t even know where most of our stuff is. We have to wind through a maze of furniture to get to the bedroom where there are piles and piles of clothes thrown all over the floor. Every time we go to get dressed we have to wade through the piles just to find something to wear. I had to wake up a half hour earlier this morning just to make sure I would have enough time to find my toiletries, find clean clothes, iron them, etc.

The cats are scared of the new place so they’ve been sleeping with us again instead of playing and breaking things all night like they usually do. In the daytime they have a blast running around and playing hide and seek in all of the boxes and furniture and then pouncing on each other. They’re excited to have their own room for a few months until their new siblings arrive and they get kicked out.

Last night, we finally finished cleaning the old apartment so hopefully the landlord will give us our whole deposit back… we scrubbed down walls, cabinets, appliances, floors; steam-cleaned the carpets; swept off the deck… That place looks perfect, he better give us our money back! I whined most of the time about how tired I was but Brandon worked really hard the whole time so we finished around 11:00. I think I worked pretty hard… for me.

Tonight, we’re going to start organizing the new apartment, starting with hanging up the clothes and then move on to the kitchen so we don’t have to eat out anymore. I hope we can get enough done so that it’s at least livable. Brandon leaves for Norway on Wednesday night and, let’s be honest, I’m sure not going to be cleaning a whole lot while he’s gone ;-)

Pregnancy Update

I had my 2nd doctor’s appointment yesterday. We ended up switching health insurance and doctors because we really wanted a good doctor that we could trust if anything goes wrong. I really like my new doctor. She’s a woman and is super nice and understanding and seems to love her job. She’s also been voted one of DC’s top doctors for the past several years and she specializes in high risk pregnancies and multiple births, perfect!! I felt really comfortable with her and I’m so glad we switched. I’ve also heard great things about the hospital that we’ll deliver in and there’s a NICU in the same building (just in case). This makes me feel a lot better and helps to put my mind at ease about the whole process.

In other news, I have begun to show A LOT! My stomach just popped out this week. Pants that buttoned just fine last week, no longer fit at all. Most of my shirts still do, thank goodness empire-waisted and peasant shirts are in style. I should be able to wear those for another couple months. But I’ve already outgrown all my pants. Right now, I’m wearing black shorts with the top button un-done because it won’t close. I think it’s time to go shopping for maternity clothes!! The doctor said it is normal to look like you’re about 3-4 weeks farther along than you actually are when you’re carrying twins. She said I look like I’m at 16 weeks although I’m only at 13 weeks. My babies are now each about 3 inches long… roughly the size of a peach. I like being able to have a fruit to reference when I’m trying to visualize their size. A few weeks ago, they were only strawberry-sized, now they’re peach-sized! Isn’t that cute?

Some other changes, besides getting a large belly, include disgusting blue veins popping out all over my body. I look like some freaky anatomy chart. You can literally see almost every vein in my body, especially on my stomach and chest. GROSS!!! The nausea has gone away for the most part, but the extreme fatigue is still hanging around. We're moving this weekend and poor Brandon has had to pack literally the entire house. I packed one box last night before I decided to take a rest and then promptly fell asleep. I can’t help it, after working for 10 hours, I’m exhausted by the time I get home. I definitely don’t have energy to pack. Don’t worry though, we will have plenty of people to help us move tomorrow. Brandon won’t have to do everything himself.

Whoop Whoop!

I am super duper excited because in just 48 hours I get to go here

and see these girls
to celebrate Katey' marriage


to crazy Edfunk
Match made in heaven!

!!!! I CAN'T WAIT !!!!

Seattle Weather

88 degrees, 60% humidity


DC Weather

92 degrees, 80% humidity

Guess where I wish I was?

It all makes sense now...

Well, now that this whole twin thing is (almost) sinking in, I have to say that I'm slightly relieved. For a few weeks, I thought maybe something was wrong with me because I have been gaining weight and I don't think you're supposed to at this point (I'm only 11 weeks along). I went to the Dr. to get a blood test to confirm the pregnancy in the middle of May and then when I went again a few days ago, I had gained 5 pounds... in just a month!!

Also, I have been extremely tired... we're talking sleeping 10-12 hours a night and still barely making it through the work day. If I get off work at 7, I usually go straight home, make the fastest dinner I can think of (often this is a bowl of cereal... or two) and then fall into bed as soon as I finish eating. I've also stopped getting ready in the morning because that extra half hour of sleep is so precious to me. My co-workers are used to seeing me crawl into the office at 9 am with wet hair and no makeup.

And I've been eating like a horse! I used to rarely eat breakfast... now I eat two! I eat a huge bowl of cereal first thing in the morning and then around 10 or 10:30, I'll eat a bagel and some fruit. Then I eat lunch and then I eat at least 1 snack in the afternoon. If I get off a little late, I eat another snack around 5:30 or 6 so I can make it until I get home. On the days I don't get my late afternoon snack, I'm very cranky and whine all the way home about how I'm so starved that I might pass out.

Also, I've been really irritable with poor Brandon. Although sometimes he has deserved it because he certainly has his insensitive moments. Most of the time, though, he has been trying to be nice to me and I'm either so tired or hungry that there's nothing he can say that won't irritate me. Poor guy, I don't think he's ever been around a pregnant lady before. Pray for him!

So, this whole twin thing actually makes a little sense after all. Apparently, you're twice as hungry and twice as tired in the first trimester because you're developing two little people. Now I don't feel like such a fat, lazy piece of lard. I'm literally having the life sucked out of me by two tiny babies. I can't wait for when it will all be worth it and I finally get to meet them!!

This blog is about to get a whole lot more interesting because...

I'm pregnant!!

Most people reading this already knew that a few weeks ago, but wait, there's more! I'm pregnant with

TWINS!!!

Don’t believe me? I couldn’t believe it either! The doctor scared me half to death at first, though, because she was staring at the screen for so long with a weird look on her face (the kind of look you don’t ever want to see on your doctor’s face). For over 60 loooong seconds she didn’t say anything and of course all these worst case scenarios start going through my mind and I thought for sure we had lost the baby. But then she got this big smile on her face and said “Well… I have a pretty big surprise for you guys… it’s twins!” At this, I bolted upright and, for some reason, started yelling at the poor doctor. “What??? Are you kidding me, lady?? That’s impossible! How did this happen?” “Brandon! Twins don’t even run in our family, how did this happen? There’s no way, this is not happening!”

She was nice enough to not be offended at my screaming and freaking out. Brandon took it pretty well, compared to me. Always sure and steady, that’s my man! Most of you already know that getting pregnant in the first place was a huge shock for us. We had just gotten used to the idea of being parents in the first place, and now we have to get used to the idea of having not one, but two children!

Seriously people, what are the odds? Who gets pregnant with twins after one teeny, tiny slip-up? This doesn’t happen to normal people! It’s a long-running joke that the women in my family are extremely fertile, but Brandon and I take the cake! We must be the most fertile couple on the face of the planet!

So there you have it! Twins!! We are about to be blessed beyond our wildest dreams, praise the Lord!! Here's the ultra-sound photo. Can you see them both??

My Big Night Out

Last night I somehow got to go to the President’s Dinner at the Convention Center and it was AMAZING! I wasn’t supposed to attend, but somebody backed out at the last minute and I got a ticket. The room it was held in was literally larger than a football field and there must have been over 5,000 people in there. But, the table I was lucky enough to be seated at was right in the middle, 1 row back from the stage where the President spoke. I was only about 30 feet away! Apparently if you have an extra $28,000 lying around to donate to the NRSC you can purchase a prime table like this. I, personally, can think of about a million better things to do with $28,000… but whatever floats your boat. At least I benefitted from it.

The dinner was so fancy that the butter pats were even cut into the shape of the President’s seal! Can you believe that? And the meal was fantastic! It was really good salad with goat cheese, braised short ribs and roasted vegetables, and an assortment of cute little bite-sized desserts. It was a little awkward, though, because I was about 10 years younger than everybody else at the table… at least. And I also feel awkward at fancy dinners because I don’t really know what to do with all that silverware and plates and glasses. The entire time I was nervous that I was using somebody else’s bread plate or drinking out of the wrong glass. I usually make do by carefully watching everybody else and then just copying them.

Anyways, right before dinner they announced the President and he gave a little speech- very partisan of course. All about how there’s no doubt John McCain will be the next President (yeah right) and how the Republicans are going to take back both houses of Congress (this one doesn’t even stand a chance). But all in all, the evening was really fun and quite an experience for me. I only wish Brandon could have gone with me. P.S. These pictures were taken from my seat!!

Finally my pictures from California...

The Rehearsal

Renee getting gorgeous


Here comes the bride...
Look at that location!! It was SO spectacular!

Congragulations Renee and Jon!

It's official, they're hitched!

My sisters and I with Grampa Ortiz
Our family
Me and the hubby



Renee and Jon smashing cake in each other's faces :-)
This is my favorite picture of the weekend
Giving our toast

Doing our dance
Jon taking the garter off with his teeth!
Christ's Church Girls!!
!!!!Disneyland!!!!


The Newlyweds





We ran into Mickey and Minnie on the way out!!