Mother's Day Feast

With Momma Soch staying with us awhile... and the fact that it just so happened to be Mother's Day, Jei & I decided to invite the girls down from L.A. for a Mother's Day Feast at our house on Sunday.  Naturally, massive Ribeye steaks were on the menu... courtesy of Joanne!  Yummy!!!

We even got to wish Margarita & Michele a Happy Mother's Day in Mexico via Skype!... while master baker Gema prepares her creations!

How lucky am I?  ...Two hot senoritas slavin' away in the kitchen!

Two wonderfully sweet mothers sharing a moment before dinner.

The gang gettin' ready to dig in!

And for dessert... a beautiful sugar-free fruit tart and an amazingly delicious chocolate cake with ganache frosting... courtesy of the Chef from Le Cordon Bleu!

We were thoroughly disappointed that Moe-Joe wasn't there to join us... but having one out of two mothers with us certainly was a treat!  We had great food, were surrounded by wonderful family, and gave many thanks & blessings to our beloved Mothers!  I can only hope that your Mother's Day was just as enjoyable.  Happy Mother's Day!  

Key-Dens make life better!

Feeling let down, depressed, perplexed, sad, and completely disheartened... Jei & I decided to do the only thing that we knew for sure would automatically & instantly cheer us up.  So we jumped in the car and drove down the street to the local animal shelter and visited the "Cattery"!!!  We weren't sure what to expect... but boy we certainly weren't disappointed!  They had tons of tiny little kittens... and within seconds our hearts completely melted and all those depressing feelings we had hours earlier had completely disappeared!

Not surprisingly, we both fell in love with just about every little thing in there... but two sweet Key-Dens in particular really grabbed our hearts!  We held them, played with them, loved on them... and then I looked at Jei, and then Jei looked at me, and we both knew these were going to be our new "babies"!

It had been over a year since "Shmoo" had passed, and Jei & I had always said we'd be cat owners again someday... so I don't think we felt like the two kittens were replacing or filling the void of our lost 'MoMo' Twins, but I think it was just the right time for us.  Besides, we still had a whole bunch of love to give that was stored away for two little humans... so Jei & I decided to give it to the next best thing!  All we knew for sure was that these two little Key-Dens were going to be a part of our family now and were going to make us very happy!  

Unfortunately, both kittens hadn't been fixed yet, so we had to leave them there at the shelter for the weekend.  They would both go to the vet the following Monday and get taken care of... and then we'd be able to take them home that afternoon.  Jei & I could hardly stand it.  We were both glowing with excitement!  Finally, after a rather long lay-off, we'd have Key-Dens in our house once again!  Yippeeeeee!!!

Now, allow me to introduce you to our newest members of the family...   

Meet "Bing"... an orange male tabby that I picked out who is oh-so-sweet!

And now meet "Ming"... a female calico which Jei picked and who is also oh-so-sweet!

Together they are Ming & Bing!  No real rhyme or reason behind the names... but I swore if I ever got another cat (after Shmoo died), I would get two and name them Ming & Bing.  I would now like to point out, in all fairness... that Helen was the ONLY winner!  She was the only one that guessed it right... of all four logical answers listed in the poll, "Two Key-Dens!" ended up being the right answer after all!!!  Who would've guessed?!  =)  We were absolutely devastated at the start of the week, but by the weekend... knowing that we had just adopted two crazy little Key-Dens, and about to give them the best & most loving home ever, life was looking a whole Hell of a lot better!!! 

Just the two of us

After having our hearts broken and enduring quite an emotional couple of days in the hospital... I am relieved to say Alec and I are doing well.  I am physically feeling a lot better and emotionally still in disbelief of the loss we have suffered.  The babies were nothing but a mere idea that filled our hearts with unbelievable love and happiness.  Given that my belly never really grew at all, and the fact that I never once felt sick or "pregnant"... proof of the twins' existence was nothing more than a few ultrasound photographs. Needless to say, it's still hard to wrap our minds around the fact that our hopes and plans for the future with these babies have been crushed.

I pray to God most every night and trust he never left my side.  I thank him for telling me early that our babies were at risk and for giving me the strength when we had to say goodbye.  I am so very grateful for my family, for they made this horrible nightmare a little less frightening.  Joanne & Helen drove down to be with us, took off work, slept in their car, bought me ice cream, flew my Mom out, and even picked her up at the border!  I don't think I can thank them enough for everything they did for us and for all of their support!  I'm especially grateful for my wonderful husband!  Alec never left my side, nor did he lead-on for one moment that he was scared... he was sensitive and supportive, he was my rock, my optimism, my hope.

Most importantly, Alec and I would like to thank you all for your concern, prayers and well wishes.  Knowing that not just our hearts were broken and that family & friends shared our sadness brings me immense comfort.  We are truly blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives... and know that God will bless us with children when the time is right. 

Week 14

So this post comes a whole week late, as  the babies are 15 weeks today.  I woke up yesterday morning and I was unable to button my jeans for my chubs just squished and busted out over the top... so lately I've been wearing "flowy" tops just to hide the fact that my pants are open! I'm feeling great and thank God my energy is up, for the past two weeks I have been able to stay awake past 7:30pm, woo-hoo!  Believe it or not, my appetite has decreased and I find myself scrambling to eat whenever I remember I have to feed two little people who depend on me to grow.  

My belly seems so small considering the babies should be about 4 inches in length (about the size of an orange or an apple).  They have 10 toes and 10 fingers (each hopefully!) and should now have functioning joints, which means they should be wiggling around like crazy... which certainly isn't a bad thing considering they have their own little playmate right there inside!  

Now cross your fingers everyone, if we get lucky, we just might be able to tell if they are girls or boys by next Friday!  Second trimester, here we come! (Waist size: 34)

Happy Birthday... Again!?

Ahhh... the month of April - you gotta love it!  Well, maybe not you... but certainly Jei & I do.  It just might be our favorite month!  Not only do we get to celebrate, go out, and do something fun on my birthday... and then celebrate, go out, and do something fun two weeks later for Jei's birthday... but we also get to milk our birthday celebrations a little longer than we probably should... until we finally meet up with "The Girls" and once again, celebrate our birthdays!  Of course you certainly don't have to twist our arms to set aside a weekend for the big celebration... we get treated to an incredible meal, get showered with gifts, but most importantly, we get to spend time & celebrate with family.  Celebrating your birthday over a span of a month is fantastic... I highly recommend it! 

Jeilene & I made the drive up to L.A. on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon and met "The Girls" (Helen, Joanne, Gema, & Nani) for an early dinner in Pasadena.  Italian was the dinner theme of choice... and there was only one place where we could sit & enjoy delicious family-style Italian food: Buca di Beppo!     

We ate, drank, and were all very merry.  Jei & I even got a free dessert along with half the restaurant singing happy birthday to us!  It was a great meal and an even better time.

After dinner we all headed back to Nani's house for dessert & birthday presents!  Naturally, Gema & Jeilene gravitated into the kitchen and began baking lots of yummy treats!





I of course had to teach Gema a thing or two about chocolate chip cookie baking!  :-)




After all the dust (dough) had settled in the kitchen... it was finally time to open presents!!!

Jei got some very pretty jewelry and some more charms for her bracelet...

While I was just excited to get blue tissue paper!






Actually, I got a couple of my favorite movies on Blu-ray which I was pretty excited about!  

Question: What does a baker give a fellow baker?

Answer: Top Secret recipes from prestigious 'Le Cordon Bleu' of course!

A couple of beautiful picture frames sure was a nice surprise from the Meeker gang!  One for each twin I suppose?

Unfortunately, I didn't end up getting that Key-Den I wanted for my birthday... so I had to cuddle up & play with Helen's instead.

After opening all our gifts and pigging out on cookies all night long... it was finally time to put our birthday celebrations to rest!  An enormous thanks to the Gonzalez Girls for an amazing dinner, hosting a fun night at the house, delicious baked goods, and of course all the wonderful gifts!  I have to say, we truly are blessed and very thankful for all of our family making us feel so special.  We really enjoyed our long birthday celebrations this month and took full advantage!  I figured we kind of had to since it might very well be our last... my guess is that any and all cash saved up to buy birthday gifts for us next year will undoubtedly be spent on random crap for the twins instead!  Oh well, "C'est la vie!"  It was fun while it lasted!  :-)  

What's Up, Doc?

Monday was our second doctor visit... and knowing that our two little babies have been growing inside, but without seeing any of that growth on the outside, made Jei & I extremely anxious to see and know what exactly was going on in there!  After all, it had been four whole years since our last visit (okay-okay, four weeks, but it certainly felt like four years!), and to tell you the truth... we were beginning to think we had dreamt the whole 'twins' thing up! 

Little did we know... that this visit, along with all other future visits, an ultrasound would be performed!  We were in the same little room as before, so flashbacks & memories of us finding out about the twins for the first time were almost overwhelming!  Jei & I obviously weren't as anxious as last time... but we were still pretty excited.  The doctor turned on the machine and squeezed a ton of transparent goo on Jei's belly while we both waited anxiously to see our twin little babies!

It certainly didn't take very long for a picture to appear.  A couple of tweaks here and there and then all of a sudden... BAM, there they were!  How exciting!!!  You could definitely tell there were two in there, but only one of them really wanted the spotlight.  You could clearly see the profile of the one... it totally looked like "Bing" (We still don't know the sex yet and I have a problem calling them "it", so they're "Ming" & "Bing" for now!) was sitting at the bottom just chillin' out watching TV or something (My twin!).  The other, "Ming", was off in La-La Land (Jei's twin!) and we never really could get a good view.  

It honestly took quite a while for my jaw to lift itself from the floor.  I was just completely amazed at what I was seeing!  Our two little fetuses had grown so much... they looked so much bigger than when we first saw them and could now see so much more detail... it truly was amazing!  Jei & I both thought the most incredible part was being able to clearly see and identify each of the twin's spine and ribcage!

As you may or may not see in the "Bing" sonogram above (the doctor did NOT bring her 'A' game when it came to capturing a good photo!)... where it totally looks like he (she?) is lounging back in a 'La-Z-Boy' recliner enjoying some tacos that Jei had for lunch... a few of the facial features are beginning to appear!  It was so fascinating to see the little nose & eyes taking shape, along with all the other features beginning to appear like the arms & legs... but yet so hard to believe and understand just how small they really are growing inside Jei's unassuming belly!  

As I mentioned earlier... "Ming" (above) did not want to cooperate and never really gave us a good clean shot for a decent picture, hence the illustrated version of the "Ming" photo (below)!

So... Jei & I finally exhaled, breathed a sigh of relief, and were as giddy as could be... for we had just found out the good news: there were in fact two fetuses, they were both alive & well as far as we could tell (we got to hear both their heartbeats!), and there was nothing blatantly abnormal about the pregnancy or the growth of the twins.  Unfortunately, what we weren't expecting was to hear that along with the good news came the proverbial bad news! 

The doctor finished up with the ultrasound machine and we were left with about a thousand questions... so once she cleaned up and turned the lights back on, it was question & answer time!  The doctor first explained that Jei & I would get a lot more information and answers to our questions once we had our appointment with the twins specialist in a couple of weeks. They apparently do a much more thorough and detailed ultrasound with better and more sophisticated equipment.  We'll also be on our 16th week by the time we see the specialist so we should be able to find out the sex by then too.  But nevertheless, our doctor did the best she could with the information she had at explaining to us what was going on with our two little babies. 

First of all... those who participated in the first poll over there on the right and chose "Identical" are absolutely correct!  The doctor explained that since both the babies were in the same "sac" together, the chances of them being anything other than identical twins were extremely slim to none.  The doctor went on to further explain that since the twins are in fact in the same sac and have their own umbilical cord... the chances of them becoming entangled and/or choking themselves (or the other) with their cords in that cramped little sac they're in are somewhat on the high side... and naturally pose a risk to the babies!  

As you might imagine, Jei & I were completely flabbergasted!  We didn't know what to think or how to respond... which of course the doctor picked up on, probably from the looks on our faces, but she was very calm and did a good job trying not to totally freak us out!  She went on to tell us just how rare this situation was and started talking in 'doctor lingo' which obviously went right over our heads.  Apparently, the situation, or our twins rather, are described by the following term:  "Monochorionic Monoamniotic."  It's certainly long and complicated... which is why twins that are described by the term are commonly referred to as "MoMo Twins!"   And in case you are as curious, intrigued, and bewildered as we were... I included a link you can click to help educate yourselves if you so desire.  

http://multiples.about.com/od/medicalissues/a/MoMoTwins.htm

So after hearing everything the doctor had to say and then going home and doing a ton of research... we're really not sure what to expect.  All we know for sure is that Jei is feeling great, we just finished our first trimester, and that we have a pair of crazy little "MoMo Twins" chillin' inside Jei's belly!  I think we'll know a lot more in a couple of weeks (May 7th) when we go and see the specialist... but for now, all we can do is hope for the best and plan for the worst!  And speaking of planning for the worst... the doctor did warn us that with such a rare & risky pregnancy, there would be a good chance that Jei would have to be admitted to the hospital a Hell of lot earlier than expected - like around week 24!!! ...YIKES!  

Like I said, we got a ton of really good news... but a little bit of bad news too.  Certainly nothing to worry about at this point, but it definitely wouldn't hurt to start sending a few prayers our way!  Sorry about ending this on a low note... but just wanted to give everyone a heads up on what went down at our last doctor's visit so their wouldn't be any big or unwanted surprises down the road.  Also sorry about the picture quality... we both forgot our cameras so my trusty iPhone had to step up to the plate!   

       

Birthday Girl

My 29th birthday weekend couldn't have started off any better!  A few of my coworkers took me out Friday after work for happy hour.  I couldn't let Alec stay home alone and watch ESPN all night, so I dragged him with me.  In the end, it was a really fun time had by all!  Great food, yummy drinks (Sprite on the rocks for me of course!), a few presents, and some good laughs... definitely good times!  

Saturday was my designated 'sleep-in' day... which, as you may have guessed, didn't get any objections from Alec!  That night we met some friends for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (Hmmm... my favorite!), and then after a magnificent meal and of course some delicious FREE cheesecake (thanks to Cousin Frank!), we went to the movies and saw 'Date Night', which if you're a big Steve Carell fan like Alec is, then you're sure to laugh out loud!   

I actually had to get up early on Sunday... for Alec & I had a date with a Harley that morning!  We had absolute fantastic weather which made the ride that much more amazing!  The wild flowers and California Poppies were in full bloom and were quite the site to see... although I don't think the pictures did them any justice.  

I felt bad not being 'available' for friends & family to wish me a happy birthday, so every once in a while I made Alec pull over so I could answer my phone.  I also used it as an excuse to rest my fanny too... those seats look way more comfortable than they really are! 

Now what exactly would a Southern California Harley ride be without some sort of pit-stop in the beautiful little quaint town of Julian?  We stopped for lunch at our favorite eatery: the Julian Cafe & Bakery.  

Of course, what would a pit-stop in Julian be without pigging-out on some famously delicious pie?!?  Hmmm... warm apple pie 'a la mode'!!!  YUMMY!  Happy Birthday to me!!!

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting on the miles!  Between the beautiful weather, scenery, and driver (hee-hee!)... I was lovin' it!

And after an ass-numbing 218 miles later... we had a little bit of sunburn, a little bit of windburn, belly aches from too much pie, and some pretty sore rear-ends... but it was so worth it!  What an amazing day!  Who knows, maybe we'll make this a yearly birthday tradition too?!

Thank you so much for everyone's phone calls, emails, gifts and good wishes.  I sure couldn't have hoped for a better time celebrating my last birthday in the 20's!  (p.s. Are we going to have to rent one with a side car next time? ...you know, for the twins???)    :-)