Our little base house

So, Danny says beaded socks are completely out of the question for the twin boys. Party pooper.

A week ago we received our household goods. There is not a single room in our cracker box house that is not crowded with boxes. I estimated a week ago that I need to unpack and organize at least one dozen boxes a day to be done in time for family to visit. I really REALLY want to get to my freezer and fill it with meals. But I don't see the reality in that. I just hope a ground squirrel or raccoon doesn't find it first and make a home there.

So, Mom, ermm, I think these boxes in the living room and in the classroom might actually keep you warm and insulated from the single pane windows of this house that were installed in 1950. It's that or give birth 16 1/2 weeks early. And I'm not down with that.

What? I made a room a classroom? Yeah, I'm nuts like that. My kids don't like their own rooms. And I don't like being in a separate room from my nursing baby-- or in this case babies. So, the master bedroom will have our bed, the recliner and dresser and a crib or playpen.

Gabbers and Bun share a bedroom with 11,938 toys . . . until the yard sale that is. Then there will be like 20 toys. tops.

Pookie and mini-Pookie, I mean Ham, share a room. By the way, Ham can't say "Pookie" and instead calls him "Cookie." Pookie's real name of course is harder for Ham to pronounce-- so it's Ham and Cookie's room. They have a dresser in there that will be sold at the yard sale. They also have the changing table in there-- which I actually use. It's VERY handy for holding all the diapers and wipes and just the right height to change bums at. As of right now, Pookie just moved to the top bunk of the bunk bed. Ham has been sleeping in a playpen, but I suspect is reaching the weight limit. It's also difficult for me to lift him out of it when Danny isn't home. So, this week Ham will probably move to the bottom bunk.

And the fourth room is the classroom. Ideally, when the dozens of boxes are organized and removed, it will have our six foot table for homeschool, my desk, my glider and ottoman, and another cupboard I use to organize craft & school supplies. The room will also house my sewing machine and serger. The closet in the classroom is the largest of the three small rooms. It will be our kids' closet.

I've been reading inspirational all over the world wide web for organization and down-sizing. I've especially enjoyed this article from Neighbor Jane Payne with input from her sister's organizing. Right now this plan works for us or rather will work for us once done. But it might not when the twins are bigger.

I am feeling very grateful that we didn't buy a home and actually really excited to make this small base house work for us. I keep telling myself, "This house is like one we lived in when my dad was stationed here 20 years ago. If they could fit 2 teens, 2 preteens, and a grade school child, I can fit 6 little ones." I love a good organizing challenge. *knock on wood*



P.S. Kiddie Kwip from Memorial Day:

Nikki telling Bun for perhaps the fifth time (insert staccato where necessary): Bun, help Gabbers pick up the toys in your room and just stick them in the boxes and blue tub.

Bun with angry eyebrows: Mommy, if you say anymore bad words to me, I will put my shoes on the wrong feet!

No beaded socks.

XY

XY

We are not homeless.

I am well beyond the soccer ball or basketball stage. It is OBVIOUS I swallowed a beach ball. I had a dear friend say to me once, "Twins! I always wanted twins. It's like two for the price of one." And may I just say in response to that, not that she reads my blog, I'm sure she doesn't, but in my own personal opinion of course since all pregnancies are different, it is not the price of one. It may be the same length of time as one, but you definitely pay for two. Or at least I do.


To clarify from previous post's comments, I don't have any new stretchmarks. I have stretchmarks that have long since faded from my pregnancy with Pookie. I just don't have any new ones. And I'm expecting to get some. I'm only 22 weeks and 6 days and feeling like a beached whale. I'm bound to get larger. But the funny thing is, I'm one pound less than I was at my first appointment. But I am definitely large with life. Two more days until my long-awaited ultrasound.

Yes, I have been homeschooling Pookie. I'm not sure if this is that path that we will continue on when the twins are born. I might send Gabbers to Kindergarten at the school on base and continue to homeschool Pookie next year. We'll see.

We are not homeless anymore. We have decided home-buying isn't for us right now. We accepted a 4-bedroom home on base. It is tiny compared to our home in North Dakota. This past Thursday our household goods were delivered. It looks like we need to have a major yard sale.

I can't wait to get organized. I've been trying desperately to get the kitchen in order and hopefully fill my freezer before I end up on bed rest. But the freezer is hidden somewhere in the stomach of the garage right now behind dozens of boxes of books and food storage and out of season clothes. This morning I decided I was going to make bread since it's been since March since I've baked any. It was a little worrisome when I realized I haven't yet unpacked my measuring spoons and have no idea where they are. I hope it still turns out.

Happy Memorial Day to you all! I'll try to find the power cord to update some pics of our chaotic home, growing children, and of course, the ever-growing belly.

The OB appt or "Hey fatso time to tie them up"

I have decided that the OB I saw yesterday will most definitely not be my OB for the rest of this pregnancy. grr! It didn't sit well with me, leave a good impression, or endear me to him when he said at the start of the exam after squishing my belly, "You have a big belly . . . you want your tubes tied?" Whattheheck?! Are those really related? Could you have possibly breathed a little after the belly comment before the question?

He hardly did a regular appointment exam at all claiming my records weren't there yet even though I walked in in-person two weeks prior to sign the official consent form. He asked the nurse to schedule me an ultrasound for FOUR weeks from now. But thankfully due to some scheduling conflicts with a meeting or something he had it scheduled for about three weeks, May 27th at 2 p.m. But still, I'm on the hunt for a different OB. I keep trying to convince myself that it may not matter at all if I can get in to a specialist anyway. I'm not convinced yet.

Still homeless. Even if we did get word today that we got a house we offered on, it would still be 6 1/2 weeks before we got into it. That would put me at 27 weeks. I fear at that point I will be on bedrest. I had NO idea it was this difficult to buy a house. I can't begin to describe to you how many houses we offered on for the full price they asked or MORE. I thought if someone was selling a house for eleventy-fourple dollars and you said, "Yes, I'd like to buy your house. I'll give you eleventy-fourple dollars," then it was a deal and the paperwork would follow. I'd like my big sparkly "D" for Doofus to permanently adhere to my forehead now. Squid probably know more than I do about home-buying.

On a happier note, tomorrow we get to go see Monsters vs. Aliens at the base movie theater. I'm hoping the short people get a discount rate since it takes two to a seat to keep it from collapsing on them.

Half-baked babies and thoughts

I'm halfway there. Today I am 20 weeks. I don't have any new stretchmarks . . . that I know of. I can still kind of see my feet. My nose looks swollen-- but I've accepted it and stopped judging it. Strangers are starting to pat my belly and say things like, "Soon! Soon!" and "How much longer?" I have an appointment with my OB on Thursday. I'm not sure if he'll be my OB for the rest of the pregnancy. It will depend on where we actually get a house. I was going to take a picture and download it of my twinned-prego profile, and then I remembered that I am blogging on dial-up. I'll be lucky to post this tonight. The benefit of dial-up is I can teach a whole subject to my homeschooled Pookie between page loads.

I've been thinking a lot about cloth diapering while languishing here in the TLF. I've also been reading the book "The Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn. I'm still wondering how I got to this point in my life before finally reading it. It's an easy read and most libraries carry it.

Cloth diapering, if you do your own laundering whether at home or at a laundromat, is cheaper than disposables. It doesn't take much longer. A couple of good resources for you to read about cloth diapering that are already online are on http://www.comfybummy.com/ and http://www.stretcher.com/. Watch out though if you click on the dollar stretcher site, it's very addictive and you might find three days have passed since you left your PC. One day, when I have a home, and my stuff is all set up (like my computer), I will actually post my cloth diapering post. But my short opinion is, it's cheaper (though does require a couple hundred dollar initial investment), it's better for the environment, it's not really that much more work than disposables, and a cloth diapered bum is so adorable in it's chubbiness.