I *heart* little smokies.

I LOVE little smokies. The coming of the 4th of July and New Year's Eve always bring back memories of little smokies. But today, it was my toes on my right foot that made me think of them.

Any favorite little smokies recipes you'd care to share with me?

"Man girl, you huge! You chunky!"

Can you name the movie quoted in the title?

Today I had an ultrasound. Today at 28 weeks and 1 day the measurements are:

Baby A: 29 weeks 2 days and sitting breach
Baby B: 29 weeks 3 days and laying transverse right under my ribs

So I realized why I look so huge and completely full term and cannot sleep and have SOME pain constantly to mention. I have never before in my life been this big weightwise or bellywise.

Pookie was my pregnancy closest to term at 37 weeks and 5 days. Today I measure larger than 38 1/2 weeks. I feel validated.

Thank you doc.



P.S. The babies are sharing the same placenta. The doctor's words. "Monochorionic Diamniotic pregnancy." Have some fun looking that up.

Yes ma'am, 28 weeks.

It's official. I look full-term. I feel it. I have two skirts and one pair of pajama pants that fit. Two shirts are still trustworthy enough to stay down over my belly. Yesterday I bought a pair of men's size 10 sandals. MEN'S size 10! They will look lovely with my church clothes.

At the BX yesterday, when I bought the sandals, the cashier asked me how far along I was. She definitely does not have a poker face. So I felt the need to share with her that I'm carrying twins. She looked so relieved and said, "I thought you were nine months already. You look like you are." Oh really? Cuz I hadn't noticed. Now let me just switch my cankles and caveman feet into these petite little shoes I bought. Thankyouverymuch.

I found my camera. But my computer doesn't yet have the software on it to download the pics. Or is it upload? I never know. Be relieved though. You may lose your lunch seeing my profile.

250 rolls of toilet paper

Yesterday I was writing out a grocery list for typical perishables like milk, bananas, apples, and cheese. After I write those first few items, I always then write WATER at the top. The water here is whole-body-icky-shiver-bleck. Brita doesn't even help. I don't mind cooking with it because supposedly it is safe-- but I will not drink it. Anyhow, I digress.

So, as I was writing out my list, I thought about how we're down to about two packages of 12-double rolls of Quilted Northern Bathroom Tissue. I thought about my friend Jerusha and the advice she passed along to me about buying all the non-food type items on one store trip per month and her groceries at other times. Those non-food items like toilet paper, diapers, napkins, etc. always seems bulky and take up the whole cart. That's not very reasonable if you want to containerize 1 or 2 kids in it at the same time.

Then I started thinking about how I look like a circus act when it's time to unload my grocery cart and my body starts into contractions trying to get the little cans and shelf stable food from the cart (versus the big items like cereal and t.p. that I can reach without having to bend too much). And by the time I get to the register my feet have swollen up into caveman proportions and I'm dancing back and forth trying to ward off further pain. AND this reminded me how much I love the riding cart.

BUT I can't fit all my stuff into a riding cart. I had a contraction just thinking about all the annoying factors in grocery shopping. Then I thought about how tricky it will be shopping post-partum. I HATE shopping within the first six weeks after a baby is born. Do I predict the joy points will increase shopping within six weeks after twins are born? Notsomuch. Anyways, I tend to be anemic and extremely sleep-deprived and low on muscle tone after a baby is born and so it is painful and exhausting to shop then-- even sans children.

SO I decided to make a massive list of non-food items, non-perishable self-stable food items, and bulk freezer items in addition to my weekly perishables like milk, bananas, apples, and cheese, so I can buy them before I have the babies and before any possible bedrest.

I was quite pleased with myself when I was done with the list that should take us through Halloween. When Danny came home I showed him beaming from ear to ear and probably talking 120 miles per hour because that's what happens when I'm excited . . . or nervous. I talked to him about finances explaining that this could be a tremendous amount considering I also factored in approximately 180 newborn/size 1 diapers per week but it should end up being cheaper since we won't be frequenting the store as often and it should be easier then forcing our brains to print out a grocery list when we will be sleep-deprived.

He told me that some lady on his mission only went to the store every six months. Other than that she had a little vegetable and herb garden to help sustain her. I was so intrigued! I want to hear more about people who don't shop on at least a monthly basis. I want to know how they organize their shopping list and shopping day. I would very much like to know about their budget as well- but that's a little more personal. Am I a frugal nut? Perhaps. I love efficiency.

So why did I blog all this? Because I hope that this is the start of a grand thing for our family in time saving and money saving. And I hope that if you have any motivational stories about yourself or others that you'll share with me too. And I want it saved for posterity.

Annoying Pregnancy Symptom #1047

I can't breathe.

In the daytime, it's not so bad if I stand up to do things and walk around. That however, creates other issues like backache, swollen feet, Braxton-Hicks, round ligament pain, and IMS (irritable mommy syndrome). But my main concern is trying to breathe while sleeping. Babies are squishing my lungs . . . and everything else in there.

Please leave any and all advice that you've ever heard of or worked for yourself on how to sleep and breathe at the same time. I'm all ears. and babies.

Just 97 days to go . . .

I just called my doctor's office and told them that I had a nightmare last night and so I was calling with a question.

"Okay," said the nurse inquisitively.

"Do you have epidurals at the local hospital?"

"No, not epidurals," she replied.

My heart skipped a beat.

Trying desperately not to burst into tears I said, "Well what do you do?"

She explained to me something called an ITN.

I asked her, "Does that work long enough to get two babies out and me not feel a thing?"

Her comforting reply, "I hope so."

WFMW-- Stuffed Potatoes

Yesterday, my good friend Denay blogged about the greatness of potatoes with some handy tips in her Kitchen Tips Tuesday edition. This reminded me of a yummy recipe I got from my Aunt Freda. I can't remember now if my aunt fixes up her potatoes exactly this way, but this is how we do it:

5 lb. bag of potatoes scrubbed and rinsed

8 oz. sour cream

1/2 lb. cooked bacon crumbled

1/2 cup chopped green onions

8 oz. cheddar cheese or Colby jack cheese grated

Bake the potatoes in a 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes. Let cool.

Cut potatoes down the middle.

Being careful not to tear the skins, scrape the insides of baked potatoes into a bowl. Scrape within 1/8-inch from skin. Set the skins aside on a bar pan (cookie sheet with edges).

In same bowl that the potato insides are in, dump the rest of the ingredients. Stir until well combined.

Spoon potato mixture bake into the skins.

Put the two halves of each potato back together and place on the bar pan.

Freeze until firm and place in individual baggies and altogether in a gallon-size Ziploc.

To serve: take stuffed potato out of freezer and nuke in microwave about 1 1/2 minutes.

This is a great recipe to add to your Once A Month Cooking plan. But sometimes, it's better if your family isn't home when you make them, and possibly doesn't know about these for a while after they're made. They seem to disappear fast.

P.S. The main appeal to this recipe, other than the yumminess factor, is that you can FREEZE them ahead of time. :)

Frugal Fridays: Prepared Beans

When I think of being "Frugal" beans come to mind. Legumes like pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, navy beans, white beans, etc, help cut our grocery costs tremendously. The trick to is preparing them ahead of time. And to save more time, prepare LOTS ahead of time. Bulk prepare your beans.

The cost of prepared beans in a can is still much cheaper than say chicken or beef to enhance your family's meals. The cost of dried beans compared to beans in a can is far FAR cheaper. Like I said though, the trick is to remember preparing them ahead of time.

If you have room in your freezer, I recommend preparing unflavored beans and freezing them.

How we do it using a crockpot:

1. Place a pound or two of dried beans in a crockpot (black beans are my favorite) and sort out the broken pieces and non-bean items. Because beans are an agricultural product, occasionally I have found a tiny little rock in them while sorting.

You can save these little half-beans and rocks to make toilet paper tube maracas for your preschoolers.

2. Rinse the beans and drain.

3. Add water to about twice the height of the beans.

4. Soak beans several hours or overnight. Eight hours is more than sufficient.

5. Drain the bean water in the morning. Add fresh, clear water to about two inches above the beans.

6. Turn the crockpot on low about 6-8 hours, or until tender. Do NOT add salt. It will prevent your beans from softening and cooking. Occasionally I will add a little bit of bacon grease for a less beany smell while it's cooking.

Now that you have cooked beans, turn off the crockpot and let cool. Sometimes I use some of the beans immediately, but this tutorial is about how to store them in bulk ahead of time.

Some recipes call for beans drained; some call for beans with their liquids. I save the liquid just in case.

Freezing your beans:

1. Using quart-size Ziploc freezer containers (4 cups), I spoon in beans up to the 3 cup line.

2. Spoon in some bean liquid up to 1/2-inch from the top of the container.

3. Put lid on top and place in freezer. Label it before you put in freezer so you know it's just beans and not soup.

Do NOT freeze in glass jars. They will break.

Using your beans:

1. Thaw in fridge overnight or on the counter in the afternoon. Or you can dump the beans in a glass dish and nuke them in the microwave.

2. Some food suggestions: use in chilis, soups, salads, tacos, taco salad, dips, burritos, or our family's laziest favorite dinner ever, Fast Beans.

Fast Beans How-to:

1. Mix precooked beans and their liquid, cooked brown rice, grated cheddar cheese.

2. Add these ratios to your taste preference.

3. Mix up and eat. My kids BEG for fast beans. They have no idea how cheap this dinner is or how nutritious. I see no need to discuss that with them.

Running in the Sprinkler

We are very fortunate to have a fenced-in yard here on the West Coast. It's nice and warm nearly every day and the kids love to play outside. Yesterday, amongst my potty-training angst, desperate for a break, I told the kids, "Whoever takes a good nap can play hang-man with me after they wake up or they can run in the sprinkler."

On base, even numbered houses can only water the grass on even days and odd numbered houses on odd days. But you can turn on the sprinkler for your kids on any day.

So after nap, they all remembered my promise and they all wanted to run in the sprinkler. We have no idea where our swimsuits are mind you. They're probably in a box marked "Decor" or "Books." Yeah, our packers were so precise with packing.

I told them the only rule was they could NOT come back in the house wet-- and they had to warm up and dry off in the sun. If they needed a towel to come in the house, sprinkler time would be done.

They played for about an hour and then begged for umbrellas to play with too in the sprinkler-- which I also thought was a marvelous idea. In the Frozen North it was always WAY TOO COLD to play in the rain with umbrellas. And here, it rarely rains. So why not use umbrellas in the sprinkler too? The umbrellas bought them another hour. Or rather I should say, it bought me another hour.

The other fun thing they did was find a cup in the backyard, fill it with the water from the sprinkler and poor it down the holes in the ground that the moles and ground squirrels dug. I felt like cheering them on, "Yeah! GO! Drown those annoying lawn-destroyers!" But I definitely did not. And when they saw me and did that, "Oh crap, we're in trouble now" expression, I just smiled encouragingly so they would continue.

By the time Danny came home, I was exhausted from a day of gestating and potty-training, but in good spirits. So I squeezed 8 or 9 lemons and crushed about a basket of strawberries and made fresh strawberry lemonade. I won Bestest-Mommy-in-the-whole-world Award from the kids.

It's only 8:30 a.m. now. Bun has had a very successful poop in the potty already this morning. Gabbers and Bun are playing together nicely in a box right by the sliding glass door watching and waiting for the sun to shine strong so they can play in the sprinkler again.

What I just commented on my friend's post

Ugh. I am in potty-training hell right now. My almost FOUR year old will NOT poop in the potty. I need to buckle down and just get rid of the Pull-Ups and stick him in thick training pants. He knows he's not supposed to poop in the Pull-Ups so he poops a little tiny turd about fifty times a day. I actually yelled at him today, "IF YOU'RE GOING TO POOP IN THE PULL-UP, JUST POOP IT ALL OUT AND STOP WASTING SO MANY!!!"

And yesterday, I decided that I needed to buy him a new potty chair since I mistakenly chucked the last one when he was oh-so-close to being fully trained. (I was sick of it). Anyways, my hope was maybe he would poop in it since he won't use the toilet for pooping. Now Hammy (the two year old) wants to use the potty chair. And I'm really debating hard on whether I should discourage Hammy until after the twins are born-- or buckle down and train both Bun and Ham right now. That's probably the smarter option. I can only imagine my energy level dropping more after I have twins.

Please leave your potty-training advice in the comment box. I am very open to ideas right now.