I know, I know...my blog has been crazy as of late. One day it's redirecting you to WordPress, the next it has a bird, and then it's asking you to sign in. I'm trying to rearrange and change all of my HTML and it's making a mess of things...

Soon it will be beautiful...it just might take awhile! Until then disregard all things going on...it is staying here, open to everyone. If you get a strange message check back the next day...or maybe the next!

We were at the grocery store yesterday when the very nice checkout lady asked if I was sure I didn't have "two in there." Yes, I would imagine that after carrying 17 pounds of baby during my first go round that I'm, ahem, slightly larger than most pregnant women at 30 weeks. To be fair, I've (only) gained one pound every week since 12 weeks. Perhaps people aren't aware of what 'big' looks like...

BIG is my belly a few weeks before giving birth to twins. BIG is not my belly now. Thanks though. You sure know how to make a girl feel good...
 

We love a good dance party at our house.

Whenever a song comes on that I don't know the words to (because you know I'm belting it out otherwise), I do an open-mouthed-hand-as-my-microphone-lip-syncing.

Apparently Fin has picked up on this because now whenever music is on she does the same...no sound, but full of emotion nonetheless. Makes her mother proud!

I brought our dog to the veterinarian this morning (and you thought this post would be political).

The only reason we visited the swindlers was so that I can bring her to Petco to have her shaved.

Shaved naked.

I love my dog. I really do. She was our first child. A birthday present to my then boyfriend (now husband) of four years. A good as gold yellow lab who wants only to please. So much so, in fact, that her following me into the bathroom and wherever I go has earned her a spot outdoors from 7am-7pm.

She is a dog.

A dog that has now been confined to the laundry room at night and outside during the majority of the day.

Before you get all 'awww' and 'that's so sad' on me let me tell you dog lovers out there with a shed free dog and/or with no children what high maintenance my animal has become- all you out there who are just recently married or engaged and thought it would be a brilliant plan to go ahead and get YOUR first four legged 'child' be warned. It is not a matter of 'if' the following will happen to you, it is a matter of just how much you now resent that purchase once your real children come along...

Our dog used to sleep with us in our bedroom before she started pacing back and forth at odd hours during the middle of the night. I'm pregnant. I get up two to three times without the help of our four legged creature waking me due to her insomnia.

Into the family room she went. Then it was discovered that she was preferring to sleep on our brand new couch rather than her very expensive Orvis dog bed. Not only was she leaving piles of hair for me to have to vacuum EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING. but she was also doing the circle circle scratch scratch on my upholstery. I would go to bed thinking about how I might wake up with holes in my microfiber.

Into the basement. It was here she thought that the children's tent was her new bed. I discovered this only during a playdate when the children emerged COVERED in dog hair. Nothing like having to pull out a lint roller for a two year old.

Into the laundry room she goes. Brian thinks I am cruel. Brian does not heave the vacuum cleaner up and down the steps EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING. to clean the piles of fur that have somehow accumulated over night. Nor does he wake up multiple times due to her scratching/licking/pacing. Nor does he play hide and seek with the piles of vomit that appear every now and again on our carpets and our hard wood floors when she has licked the floor a little too thoroughly- how do you prevent a dog from licking mac and cheese off the dining room floor?!

PS. It's a dog.

Anyways, we're at the vet this morning for a rabies shot. One shot. The shot we must prove she is up to date on so that I can have her body shaved of its anxiety inducing white fur. The babes were pumped- a room full of puppies. We waited five minutes tops and were ushered back to our room by a young (very young) nurse (are they nurses? do you go to nurse vet school?). She started in on a H and P, I answered all her questions. At the end of her rigemroll I told her that we were just here for a rabies shot. Apparently that makes me a really bad pet owner because after mentioning that we would be interested in ONLY ONE shot the floodgates opened. This nurse proceeded to advise that we float her poop, give her three other shots, schedule a teeth cleaning appointment, and start her on heart worm medication.

I'm here for ONE. SHOT.

Reserve flood gates: "Did you know that mosquitoes can live in your home and infect your dog?" "Heartworm is easily transferrable to young children and can be fatal in humans." Oh no, you did not just go there. You did not just prey on a pregnant women's fears of the health of her children.

Did I mention teeth cleaning for a dog is upwards of $600? I'M HERE FOR ONE SHOT! It's a DOG!

Five minutes later and I had been roped into some package deal (that was after five minutes of hearing how I really should be purchasing the expanded annual health package). Three shots and a blood draw later and I'm feeling like the worst pet owner of all times while nurse Jessica most likely retreated to the back office where she was busy telling her co-'nurses' how horrid I was while picking up the telephone receiver to hotline my ass.

Moral of the story is that we've been to five different vets over the years and they're all the same- go in for one shot, leave having spent $300 and feeling inadequacy radiating from the depths of your soul.

Good thing I didn't mention to Jessica that I lock my dog in the laundry room at night. Although, to see her facial expression afterward is something I would not have minded spending money on...

Finley has really started to master language...she conjugates all her verbs correctly (i.e. "bird flew away" instead of "bird fly away") and for the most part uses proper pronouns, including 'I.' I cannot get enough of her lately...

Last night after finishing all of her dinner I told her she could have ice cream.
"I want PINK ice cream!"
I told her that I only have white ice cream. She thought about if for a few seconds...
"I LOVE white ice cream!"

This morning I forgot to give the babes a glass of milk with breakfast so I pulled out some sippy cups. Finley pulled the bottom of hers off and ran into the kitchen yelling, "MY MILK'S NAKEY!"

The past few weeks when we've been outside or in the car at night Fin has pointed out the moon and with determination announces, "I want hold the moon!" The first time she said this my eyes got a little watery with the complete innocence of it all...Of course you can hold the moon darling! If I could pull it down for you I would in a heartbeat!

Finally! Another room...I set this goal for myself to be done with the house before Harry gets here. Slowly but surely it's happening. We decided that instead of getting the babes birthday presents this year that we would 'finish' their playroom (i.e. what has turned out to be the entire basement). Did I mention that me and my mom drove to the Ikea in Chicago one morning in August on a whim? Drove back that afternoon...for playroom furniture it cannot be beat! Oh, to have an Ikea closer than four hours...

 The only 'grown-up' space in the lower level...mmm, medical school furniture. I dream of the day I can donate these drab olive beauties!









This desk is perfect for playdoh and markers- everything wipes right off. There was a reason plastic laminate furniture was invented!






The babes love seeing all their 'artwork' so I used green and white twisted laundry twine and attached wooden laundry clips to hold up their masterpieces...

The chalkboard is just a piece of 8' crown nail gunned to the wall and painted. I drilled a hole through the backs of three mini PB Kids buckets and attached them to a wall to hold chalk and erasers...the fruit stand and tent are from Land of Nod.





 Who doesn't love an indoor swing?! Yet another reason Ikea rocks my world...






Ta da! Operation imagination complete! My hope is to, in the next year or so, remove the old (and really really gross) refrigerator that was built in under the stairs and to finish the drywall to make it a dress-up room...


Next up is our (finally) finished living room- I just have to find a fireplace screen and the perfect pictures for our empty wall frames...

You're out of your mind if you thought I would leave this one alone...

Yesterday morning the President of the United States was awarded the most prestigious prize of all mankind (well what used to be anyways). The committee claimed he was bestowed such an honor because BHO has "captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future."

That's it. Spewing false promises in the form of oratorical genius is now qualification enough to be classified among such individuals as Muhammad Yunus (whose book I highly recommend) and Nelson Mandela.

Some claim the prize was awarded for his "great diplomacy efforts." When Rabin, Arafat and Peres won in 1994 THAT was for diplomacy. To be considered for this award all commendable actions must have taken place before FEBRUARY 1. That means that the committee thought Barrack Obama's diplomatic efforts as President were SO great in the whopping ELEVEN AND ONE HALF day that he was in office that he should supersede all other nominees for the award. Or maybe they thought the diplomacy on display at the Brandenberg Gate outweighed the efforts of a women's rights activist and those of a man who opened the first clinic in Congo to aid rape victims.

Yes, that sounds about right.

Well, the judges, of what has now become the biggest joke of an honor that exists, just found "his promise of disarmament and diplomacy too good to ignore." I wonder if they forgot that he was currently presiding over two wars and is solely responsible for the counterterrorism attacks in Somalia and Pakistan or about the fact that he singlehandedly turned the clock back about 20 years during his 'diplomatic efforts' in Russia or how far his diplomacy has gotten our great nation since he jumped into bed with Hugo Chavez or how about the fact that he has killed more people in air strikes in the past eight months of his presidency than President GW Bush did in his last year...I guess that's pretty peaceful and diplomatic.

Let's make a quick comparison. Awarding Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is like me going to a mediocre doctor because I have malignant brain cancer and him promising me that I will live to see my children into their old age. This doctor would have stood in front of me and given a beautiful speech on how I could beat this thing. He would speculate that my odds were good despite all medical research proving otherwise. He would PROMISE me life and that would be good enough to make him eligible to win the honor of Best Doctor in America award even though he never performed surgery, drew a lab, or performed any type of procedure.

After all, these days it seems that making a false promise is just as good as the real thing...what a joke. America should be embarrassed.