The Secrets We've Been Keeping

As mentioned previously, I had the joy of spending the majority of my beach vacation in the lovely Outer Banks Hospital. I was admitted Tuesday of vacation week as a result of a reaction to medication I had been taking. I found myself in the most horrendous pain I have ever experienced and can not imagine pain worse than that. I was also having various issues like an imbalance of sodium in my system and kidneys that were just not functioning correctly. I dealt with a lovely staff of nurses and one fantastic doctor, in addition to one awful doctor who attempted to discharge me every time he was on duty despite the fact that I frequently screamed in pain, couldn't eat or drink, and my kidneys were not functioning. I hung out at OBX hospital from Tuesday morning until Friday afternoon, at which point my father-in-law and his friend flew down to the Outer Banks in a small plane to evacuate me. Three hours later I landed in my town where my mother-in-law was waiting. (Greg, the kids, and my parents were all still at the beach.) (My in-laws are the most fantastic people ever.) After spending a few hours in my bed I decided the hospital was a better place for me. The local hospital decided that the best place for me to be treated was at Magee at which point I found myself in an ambulance being taken into Pittsburgh. I remained there all Saturday and was finally sent home feeling much better on Sunday. Good story? It gets better.

Turns out the entire time I was hospitalized, there really wasn't much they could do for me other than manage the pain since I am pregnant. Yep, that's right. Me. Pregnant. We decided about a year ago that we were going to look into this route of expanding our family. Due to some health issues, we weren't even sure I could get pregnant but we tried. It worked. And apparently it worked really well since we are expecting twins!

So that is what I have been busy with lately: making babies. It hasn't been the most glamorous task what with the several days in the hospital and the type of morning sickness that I thought only existed in horror films. (If there is not a horror film about someone with morning sickness, there should be.) We have quite a long road ahead of us due in part because I am carrying twins, but also because of large risks that my health issues place on carrying a pregnancy to term. We have just been trying to take things one day at a time and already that has gotten us here to week number 12 of the pregnancy.

Meet the newest members of the family who are currently named Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Thing 1 was a lively little person when I had the pleasure of seeing him/her last Friday. The small white blob above Thing 1's feet is the top of Thing 2's head.


Thing 2 was much more chill last Friday, preferring to sleep mostly, and show off his/her cute little fingers, although not in this picture.

Vacation - Part 1

This time last month, our family took a little trip down to the Outer Banks. We didn't do a beach vacation last summer so we were all looking forward to it. This was the kids' second trip to the beach and the pup's first trip. My parents came along too and we all rented a house together, just a hop skip and a jump to the ocean.

(view from window of beach house, photo courtesy of my mom)


My little clan arrived first and while we waited for my parents, we couldn't help but take a walk down the beach. It was completely necessary to find out as soon as possible if the pup would be as much of an ocean lover as the pooch was in all her days. At first she was a little concerned about the fact that the water chased her.

But within a few minutes she was diving in, chasing sticks and balls, and ready to become a beach dog for life. (Although she never did get used to the taste of the salt water and would make these entertaining faces each time she got a mouthful.)


Our plan for the week was to spend each day at the beach doing fun beach things like swimming, looking for shells, building sandcastles, and more swimming.






We also got a few treats at the beach like seeing a group of dolphins playing not far off the coast. Greg spotted a giant jellyfish making its way up the coast. Some guys boogie boarding near us scooped it up on their boards and brought it to shore. It was HUGE! I don't have a picture but the top of the thing was over a foot across and it had this massive blob of tentacles. I'm not one for senseless killing but I wasn't upset in the least that this poor beast had met his fate.

Our evening plans included sometimes eating out, sometimes eating in, and exploring. These photos are from the area around one of our favorite restaurants down there that is situated on the bay.





Of course we managed to squeeze in a little relaxing too. These two squeezed in a lot of relaxing.


Speaking of relaxing, since we bought our current home almost 2 years ago, I have been itching to get back to the Outer Banks so we could hit up Nags Head Hammocks and purchase something to help us relax back home. We did a little shopping one evening and came home with this!


We had several more things planned for our vacation week including more beach time, ice cream, a seafood boil, and a boat ride. Unfortunately, as the sun began to rise on our third full day at the beach, my beach vacation took an unexpected turn which resulted in this lovely souvenir from our long awaited vacation.


To be continued...

25 Things

Check out our latest list of 25 Things I Never Said Until I Had Kids. To see the rest of the list, follow the links.

#1-25
#26-50
#51-75
#76-100
#101-125
#126-150
#151-175
#176-200

201. Go tell Marcus you're sorry you took his stinky.
202. That's a potty, not a drum.
203. Don't tell your brother to eat your finger.
204. ZIP IT! IT'S MOMMY'S CHOCOLATE TIME!!
205. Putting people in your mouth is usually a bad decision.
206. Glasses that cool shouldn't be on such an ugly face.
207. Those aren't wings. It's bok choi.
208. Peeing first carries different responsibilities. Perhaps you're not prepared to handle that.
209. Put your ugganut down and get in here!
210. It doesn't matter how you feel, you still have to race.
211. What are you doing? I already Vaselined you.
212. If you didn't want to be tickled then you shouldn't have painted your arms.
213. You can't see my bone, it's buried under the yumminess.
214. You hit yourself in the head with a trashcan?
215. Don't swat bugs with no pants on.
216. Jabbing a lizard in your boo-boo is probably going to make it hurt more.
217. I'm shaving a monkey.
218. Stop trying to break your neck.
219. I do NOT have fish nipples.
220. We can't roll down the windows because the dead people might get in.
221. Does it smell like Jesus?
222. If you put green balls in your mouth, you're going to get sick. Just ask any hooker.
223. Don't suck on your broccoli.
224. It's YOUR butt. YOU scrub it.
225. You don't want to be hugging Mommy with wonky pants.

The Wedding

Sure, it has been over a month since the wedding took place but I most certainly am not that far behind in posting this. After all, it can't be that long ago when I still have a piece of cake from the wedding shoved into the back of my refrigerator. (Wow, can't believe I just admitted that.) Back on June 12th, we got to attend the wedding of Bethany and Jeremy. Bethany is Greg's sister and Jeremy, of course, is her new husband.



Of course I could talk about what a wonderful wedding it was. I could talk about how stunning the bride was and how handsome the groom was. I could talk about how in love these two people are and how happy I am that they found each other. I could talk about how seamless the wedding day went and how fun the reception was. But, I won't talk about any of that.

What I really want to talk about is how absolutely adorable their two little ring bearers were. Cutest. Ring bearers. Ever.



Marcus and Will began their preparations for this important job about two weeks ahead of time. Normally I cut their hair myself. I don't do a great job but it is pretty decent. Because this was such a special event, we headed off to get professional haircuts. I purposely went a couple weeks before the event just in case... Marcus's hair turned out great. The lady who cut it asked if I wanted it spiked up. I said, "Sure! That is if you can get it to spike." Marcus has really coarse, straight hair that insists on only going in one precise direction. Apparently this hair place had some really potent hair products because Marcus came home looking like this.


We weren't so lucky with Will's hair. When I got to see the finished product, I was basically mortified. He went from looking like a cool skater dude with some floppy hair to, well, quite dorky. I tried to explain to the lady cutting his hair that that was not what I wanted, and maybe thought she could fix it up a bit. A couple snips later and it was clear that letting her close to my child with a sharp object was a bad decision. It took me about a week before I decided just how to fix up this haircut so Will was back to looking (mostly) like the awesome guy that he is instead of like this:


I have to say, I was a bit nervous about the wedding. You just never know how small children are going to act. I knew in my heart that everyone would understand (and probably laugh) if Marcus and Will decided to run away screaming instead of walking down the aisle nicely. We attended the rehearsal the night before the wedding. When it was Marcus and Will's turn to head down the aisle, Marcus informed me that he just couldn't do it. Thankfully he was holding hands with Will who was more than happy to help Marcus overcome his fear. And that is pretty much how it went on the wedding day too. Will grabbed Marcus's hand and drug him down the aisle. I was standing at the back of the church and I could hear everyone in unison saw, "Awwww!"

Then it was time for pictures. Greg and I clean up pretty good, don't we?


Marcus and Will made themselves right at home with the other men in the wedding party.


I said there would be dancing, and I guess I didn't specify that it would be after dinner.





By the time we did some outside photos, we were all getting pretty tired and hungry. I did lots of begging but this was the best smile I could get out of Marcus.


Hey look! A helicopter!


The bride and groom gave each of the boys a little bag filled with small toys so they could be entertained during the day. They used the crayons and coloring books while the ceremony went on and dug back into their bags of fun while the formalities of the reception took place. Turns out that their little treat bags provided a bit of fun for everyone in attendance. Marcus and Will each got a new airplane that everyone enjoyed watching them fly around the dance floor while we waited for dinner to finish up.


It wasn't our plan, but we stayed at the wedding until the very end, even longer than Bethany and Jeremy did. Marcus is always one to party hard and crash hard and he just kept dancing and playing all night long. Will hit a wall at one point. He and I found a quiet place to rest up for a short time and then he was ready to go again. It was a great day to get to spend with family and share in the love of two people that are special to us.