Formula Drift Seattle: Will I survive a big event?

Tomorrow Jon and I are attending Round 5 of Formula D at Monroe Speedway. I bought tickets as a gift for his birthday which was on July 11th. I wanted to do something he would enjoy because our wedding is the same month and he worked his birthday, so we didn't have our normal celebration for him. Plus with the babies on the way I know that these aren't things we'll be doing for a few years after they arrive.

Even while purchasing tickets to the event I was thinking "What am I getting myself into?"

I will be 18 weeks pregnant on Monday and I already get easily tired and worn out. I swear Im already waddling, but I think it's just in my head. I can tell that things that would have been no big deal before are now becoming more of a struggle to accomplish.

My main concern being how much walking will we be doing or not doing. I can walk for a little while without too much issue, but after a while I do need to rest and sit or else my back begins to hurt and I get tired.

My second concern was obviously eating, as the event is from noon to 8pm (we'll be showing up around 2 or so.) I did find out thanks to some amazing friends that I can bring in outside food and drink as long as it's sealed and unopened. So I plan to grab some things to snack on in the morning to pack in our bag. I'll probably still buy food while there, but at least we wont spend a fortune eating food there all day, since I'll probably be starving the whole time.

I jokingly told Jon it would be really funny to take photos of me in fromt of cars in the car shows with my pregnant belly, like how they have the hot skinny chicks model around cars. HAHA. He thought it was funny, but Im not sure if he'll actually do it. I still want to because I think they'd make for some really funny pictures to remember the day. If he wont take them I'll rally one of our friends to do it for me. I know someone will. :-P I will definitely post some photos, since I haven't taken any since I was 16 weeks.

So, I'm really hoping I can enjoy the event, maintain my energy, and stick it out so that Jon can fully enjoy his birthday gift. He of course, is willing to leave if I need to go home and rest and is completely amazing in making sure that I'm getting whatever I need. But Im going to try and sit often and eat and drink often, so that hopefully we can enjoy the entire day.

Car Dilemmas: Something you may need to think about

A few years ago I sold my massive boat-sized Cadillac because well I never felt comfortable driving such a big car. I had no reason to own such a large car, which might I add also guzzled more gas than I'd like to ever talk about.

I was set on getting myself an older Subaru Impreza and I wanted a coupe. Jon helped me find *my* car and it was love at first sight despite needing some TLC.

In any case, buying such a small compact vehicle was the best choice I have ever made because it fits in every spot and I feel comfortable driving it. And look... it's just so cute!

There is no dilemma until the shock settles and we begin to digest the fact that we are having TWO babies, not just one. Then there are all sorts of things to consider.

Will car seats even fit in my 2-door vehicle?

Will a double stroller fit in my tiny tiny trunk?

Will I be able to get the babies in and out of my car?

Just a few of many thoughts that have crossed my mind over the last 3 months. I have solved some of the dilemmas.

Car Seats: I found out from friends with children that Babies R Us allows you to take the car seats to your car and actually fit them in your vehicle. I can't even begin to say how thankful for this service I am. Jon and I went down to BRU one day and attempted to fit the car seats I had chosen based on various reviews and THEY FIT, with room for both passenger and driver. Although I will say if you had a very tall driver or passenger they may not fit so comfortably.

In case you're curious which car seat's we chose:

We are going to end up purchasing the Chicco Keyfit 30 car seats. They fit great. They are small, unlike some other models. The other thing I really appreciate about these is that they aren't too heavy. I'm no body builder, although I have a feeling lifting two babies and two car seats often will probably help in that department, but I still need the car seat by itself to be light weight enough that when I add a baby to the mix I can lift it. This seems to fit that requirement as well. Most of the other car seats were significantly heavier or they were too big to fit into the car. 

Tandem Stroller: Since my car has such a tiny trunk, fitting a stroller into it was a huge concern that I had. In fact, it was my biggest concern. After all.... if I can't put a stroller in the car how will I transport the babies, which then became the nightmare of "Will I have to get rid of my car??" and of course I absolutely do not want to do that if I can possibly avoid it. 

My first thought was how much luck we had at Babies R Us with trying out the car seats, so I figured thats the first place I should go to try out strollers. WRONG! So wrong. Not knowing this, I went to BRU to test out strollers. First, I was just testing them around the store for their ability to maneuver and then I was testing them to see how easy they folded and of course the FINAL test "Does it fit in the car?" Well, for some reason our tandem strollers of today have become like mini Hummers, with excess everything. I wont lie, I was always that lady that scoffed at massive double strollers in stores and now here I am finding myself in need of one. We tested every single stroller, even the ones I didn't like, alas, no stroller that was carried "in-store" fit into my little coupe.

It was time to take to the internet and see what I could figure out. After a little bit of digging I found that of all brands, Jeep makes a compact tandem stroller, that is actually pretty cute and after measuring my trunk I found that it should fit my trunk.

I immediately ordered the Jeep Traveler Tandem in Spark.

when it arrived I first tested it to see if it fit the way it was shipped (without the wheels assembled and various other parts.) IT FIT! IT FIT! It fit in my tiny little trunk. I drug it back inside and put it all together and spent some time figuring out how to fold it up, which was a little tricky at first, but not much worse than some of the other tandem strollers. I got it all folded properly and put in my car fully assemled.... IT STILL FIT!

I felt I had won the biggest victory. Their car seats fit and their stroller fit, with some extra room for a few bags of groceries or whatever else I may need. I wasn't expecting extra room, but I'll be glad to have it I'm sure.

I'll have to review how I like the actual stroller once they are old enough to ride in it, as clearly this stroller will not be their car seat stroller. It does fit one car seat, but not two, so until they are old enough to fit this stroller I am planning to get the BabyTrend Snap-N-Go tandem stroller frame.



 I still need to check the folding measurements to make sure this one fits when folded, as we dont want any surprises, but Im sure since it's just a frame it must fit. It just must!

Getting the babies out of the car: Well, while they are in car seats it will be a little bit of a juggling act. I think it will be okay getting the car seats out, but I will have to see once we have them and I can test them out completely. I think despite a two door car seeming very inconvenient at first, once they are bigger the car will be awesome. Think about it.... no doors for them to open (yes there are child safety locks, but if you ever forgot to put them back on...) and no window buttons for them to play with. Two babies completely contained in the back seat. I think it's quite perfect. So while it may be a bit of a hassle to deal with at first, in the end I hope it's worth it or I might have to let my little black beauty of a car go.

I'm sure more concerns will come up as this pregnancy progresses, but for now I feel the biggest one, which was the thought of purchasing a new car, has been laid to rest and can be put off for some time now.

Wedding Bells are a week away!

Im getting married in 10 DAYS!!!! 

A few things you might want to know:

My fiance, Jon and I, have been together for 8 and 1/2 years.

A year and a half ago, on Valentine's Day, he proposed to me. Of course, I said "Yes."

For the last year and a half we have been arranging and making plans for our wedding day. 

So, originally we had completely different ideas about how we would get married. I have always been a simple person and I really hate being center of attention. In fact, the idea of being in front of people (even ones I know) and having to be coherent completely terrifies me. I originally really wanted to just have a court house style wedding since we had been together for so long anyways. Then we would have had a reception to celebrate with friends and family.

My fiance wanted to have a real wedding. It didn't have to be big, but he really wanted to have an actual wedding and have all of his family here from out of town. He wanted to do it right and as he said to me "we're only doing this once, so we might as well have an actual wedding."

For a long time I was really nervous about the concept and nervous about the whole thing. Through out the planning process I've had moments where I said to myself "Why didn't we just do it the way I wanted?" because let me tell you... planning a wedding is no walk in the park, even one as simple as ours. 

However, after a year and a half of talking about it, planning it, meeting with our mothers to help put it together, getting (almost) everything we need to celebrate our day.... Im honestly EXCITED and also just really ready for the day to be here.

Im excited to celebrate with family and friends. I'm glad we chose to do it the way my fiance wanted. Now, I'm still pretty nervous about the actual ceremony, so dont get me wrong, but I realize that it wont be a long ceremony compared to most and that it WILL be in front of people close to us and thankfully the moms have calmed me by saying even they didn't recite it perfectly and that it's no big deal.

I am definitely feeling less nervous and more ready to celebrate than I have before. I know it will be a blast, but I am really ready to get to wedding day.

So, these next few weeks are going to be busy and go by quickly. I have tons of things to do for the wedding and family in town afterwards, in addition to appointments for the twins.

I'm getting really excited and the anticipation might be what drives me crazy now instead of nervousness. 

I am sure I will have some nerves on the day of and maybe the night before, but a lot of those nerves are put at ease because my fiance and I have spent so many years together. I'm not marrying someone I barely know and so I have no nerves about it being the right choice. He's the one and always has been the one and I'm looking forward to the next chapter of our lives as a married couple and soon-to-be mommy and daddy to two wonderful boys! 

Drum Roll Please.....

We had our 16 week ultrasound and check up. It was my second (of many) anatomy scans, as I have come to find out. Anatomy scans with twins last about 90 minutes, but thankfully I no longer need to have a full bladder because 90 minutes is a long time to hold back for a pregnant woman.

Our scan went amazing. Both babies weighing in at a normal 6oz right now. Wiggling and moving and getting cranky during the ultrasound. I've noticed that Baby B in particular seems to have the latter quality in particular. B really does not like to be poked and prodded and sometimes he even rolls over and faces away from us mid-way through. It's kind of comical and I like to tease his father that they will  probably be a lot alike with that personality trait.

In any case, those two looming questions from a few weeks ago can finally be answered.

These two babies are....

BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and they are IDENTICAL! 

(although we only got one really decent profile shot.... the other ones do look very similar. Im sure we'll be able to tell more as they get bigger.) 

So, we are having two Identical twin boys! We are so excited. I always imagined that I would have a boy when I had my first child or I guess when I imagined my family it always was a family with a son and even though I had that vision I mostly wanted them to be healthy regardless of gender. Of course my fiance really wanted to have boys, but would have been excited to have girls as well. I think it's just perfect. I never imagined myself having two babies at one time, so that's certainly a surprise, but Im looking forward to the challenge and all the fun and exciting moments, even through the sleepless nights and delirious days.