The Medleys

Wow...

2011-03-02T10:21:00.000Z

OK well my little break turned into a long break. My Mom came to visit in there and I was too busy playing tourist and going on date nights with my hubs then we all got sick because we were so upset she was leaving and were trying to guilt her into staying. Sick babies don't usually make photogenic babies so my little project is on hold but I will finish as soon as we swing back into routine!

So here are my sick babies being really sweet for the moment.

Taking a Little Break...

2011-02-08T21:28:00.000Z

I need a few days off from the class so I am taking a little break while I get the babies off bottles and while I'm sick. Here is a little tidbit from tonight though.

Tate Stood Up and Took His First Steps!

2011-02-06T14:00:00.001Z

Please ignore the screaming.

What I Love To Hate

2011-02-05T20:59:00.001Z

Capturing something that I “love to hate” was really difficult for me. I wish I could say it was because I just can’t see the bad in anyone but, truth be told, I tend to think that I love the people in my life despite whatever they do that happens to drive me up the wall. My feeling is that it is not their fault I have an inclination towards a certain set of social rules or guidelines so I just try to ignore it or work on a compromise. Now that it is finished, I appreciate that this exercise turned the tables on me and made me find the good in something I usually despise.

Here is Tate systematically droppin Cheerios off of his tray onto the floor. Eat one, drop one, eat one, drop one.

Very regularly, everyone has to change clothes after meal time. (Sidenote: as previously mentioned, we don't have a dryer.)

I absolutely HATE meal times with our kids right now. It is so messy. SO MESSY. I can't stand it. I love having my house perfectly clean. I had accepted this would not be the case while my kids were young, however, I find sticky stuff on the walls and I find green beans on the floor when I haven't served them in three days and I just can't stand it, I CAN'T STAND IT. (Please no comments about how it is only going to get worse. The Lord gives us what we can handle and you don't have the right to override his authority on this one.) Despite the skin crawling feeling I now get at the dinner table, I do love that my children are becoming more self sufficient and I marvel at the fact that one year ago I had to hold their neck but now they can hold their own cup… even if they do usually throw it across the room.

This is one of my husband’s drawers. He just cleaned it out because I asked him to about a week ago. As previously mentioned, I like things tidy. I cannot stand disorganization in my home. (I don’t care about your house; if I come over and it is a wreck I do not judge just don’t ask me to help you find your keys. If you ask me to help you organize I will probably get really excited and jump up and down but that is just because I am a crazy person that thinks throwing stuff away is fun.) My husband is probably the most disorganized person I know. I find it really frustrating because his mind is so organized whereas I find myself scattered a lot and I can’t understand why such an organized mind can’t translate organized thoughts to an organized storage closet. I have never really fought Trey on the drawer thing and the reason is: the day of my father’s funeral I went home to my mom’s house and systematically opened every drawer that belonged to my father taking a mental picture of each one. They were totally disorganized and contained every scrap of paper, gum wrapper or free t-shirt my mother hadn’t been able to trash before he stashed it away. I loved those drawers. I saw my father in them. To this day, when I look in Trey’s drawers I remember my Daddy and I love that Trey unknowingly gives me that reminder.

The Park!!!

2011-02-05T18:54:00.000Z

Today we went to the park for the first time. We have been meaning to go for a while but between finding a day that was realistic to take the babies into the wild and a day Trey was home was a logistical nightmare. Tate is still crawling so I defiantly need a second adult when I go but also, Trey really wanted to be there for the first time the babies explored the magical park.

I Love What You Wear

2011-02-04T19:01:00.000Z

The focus for today in my photo class is "what they wear."

When Trey puts on his jacket and hat the babies know he is about to leave. They run over and hug him. So sweet!

There above the burp cloths are the clothes I have laid out for Tate and Ellie tomorrow. Trey gets them ready in the morning but if I don't pick out their clothes I don't get to complain if they are wearing, say, a brown top, grey shoes and blue socks.

Happy Birthday To You

2011-02-03T22:09:00.000Z

I really think the babies had a fantastic day. Trey and I played on the floor with them all morning. When they went down for a nap I ran to High Street Kensington to pick up some cupcakes and got home before they woke up. We scrounged up some lunch and then shot the videos below. We then got them dressed and swept them off to a big indoor play area where instead of drinking coffee with the adults, we rolled around and played. Frankly, I think we had a better time than any of the other parents there. They had bottles on the (stroller) ride home then another nap. They were pooped. I made dinner and when they woke up we ate and opened gifts. They played until bed time and seemed thoroughly pleased. I am now pooped and am about to retire for the evening. Can’t wait for my Mom’s upcoming visit, we may just have to have a birthday rerun.

Oh How My Love Has Grown... and so Have You!

2011-02-03T22:00:00.000Z

The inspiration for the day is then and now. I plopped myself in today's picture for growth comparison and symmetry. :-) Today happens to be the first birthday of my favorite kids so I think it is only appropriate that I focus on them. Now, technically I didn't shoot this picture but I did style it, set the camera, position myself, the babies and my husband and tell him when to take it so I think I still get credit because really he just pushed the button right?

Then: Tate and Ellie at 6 Weeks

Now: Tate and Ellie at One Year

I Love How You Look

2011-02-02T20:11:00.002Z

Today's assignment in the free eClass I'm taking was to find that shot that captures who your loved ones are. You can find out more here and sign up if you're interested.

I don't know if you can capture "Trey" without something to read in his hands.

Yesterday I caught Tate sad but he is the most fun when he's happy.

Ellie was pensive today and kind of off in her own world. Maybe she was reflecting on the last year.

Just a side note...

these are the last pictures you'll see of Tate and Ellie in their first year of life.

They turn 1 tomorrow!

I Love What I Do

2011-02-01T20:14:00.003Z

I am taking the free photography eClass offered by hosted by Willette Designs called The Joy of Love. (Sign up and take it with me, it will be so much fun and it is not too late!) The inspiration for today was to catch someone you love doing something they do and the focus on the lesson was on light. Here are the results of my day looking for the people I love doing their thing.

Trey...

loves to bathe the babies every night.

It is their special one on one time.

He has a special song he sings while they look in the mirror.

I think it is their favorite time of day

Ellie...

loves to splash in the tub.

She also loves to suck on her paci.

She loves to eat her cheerios!

Tate...

well, he doesn't love waking up from nap time,

but he does cry every day when he wakes up.

He loves to stare at me while he drinks his bottle.

He loves to chat it up when I'm changing his diaper!

We're back in London!

2010-12-03T18:58:00.010Z

It has been a long time and I have been really bad about blogging oh for the past few... months. We're back in London now and after waiting a month and a half for internet I am going to try to get back to it to keep our family and friends updated. Lets catch up with some videos...

Fancy Free

Pillow Pit and Wave Bye Bye

This Little Piggy

To: Daddy *** From: Ellie and Tate

2010-09-27T20:59:00.000+01:00

Daddy, We miss you and things aren't the same with you gone.

Ellie: You live in the computer and that's fine but I would really like someone to tell me how to get in there with you. I love talking to you and I get really excited whenever Mom talks about you.

This is the face I make when Mommy talks about you. If the computer is in view when she is talking about you, I look at it and do whatever I can to get over there so I can talk to you.

Oh, and Daddy. Could you please talk to Mom about the ruffles, dresses and bows? Seriously, I'm crawling now. All that stuff gets in the way.

From Tate: Dad, please come back. Ellie thinks you live in the computer and it is really annoying. She gets all excited when she sees you instead of crying to tell you to come back and play with us. I know I can just see you but you aren't really there and when we talk it reminds me of how much fun we have together.

Do you remember this look? I make it when you blow on my face.

I get really happy when we talk about you.

This is how I sleep now. I try to stay awake by sitting, cause I can do that now all by myself, and when I get tired enough I just lay down face forward.

Sometimes it is a problem because my foot falls asleep and turns all red and I wake up screaming.

We love you Daddy!

Play Time

2010-09-01T00:52:00.001+01:00

We have been having so much fun watching Tate and Ellie get more interactive not only with each other but with Toys also. It is amazing to us how strong they are getting so quickley.

I've Been Getting Complaints...

2010-08-26T14:54:00.000+01:00

So the point of this little blog is to keep family and friends updated while we were in London. I haven't felt so motivated to update because we have been surrounded. I recently been admonished for neglecting non-Houstonians so I will try to remedy the problem.

In an effort to make it up to you I give you some Gigi time. More to come soon, I promise.

Eating Take Two

2010-07-19T11:02:00.003+01:00

They're eating much better after three weeks.

Mood Swing - Part II

2010-07-17T18:40:00.000+01:00

I have too many captions for this video. It is one of my favorites.

1. "I love my Daddy's face when he hasn't shaved!"
2. "When I yell it means: "give me my paci!"
3. "I love kisses!"
4. "I can have mood swings like my brother."

First Bites

2010-07-17T17:02:00.000+01:00

This post is about three and a half weeks late but I am finally getting my act together with putting video on the blog. I had been uploading everything to Facebook to share with friends and family but became really frustrated with it. A lot of times I would wait 30 minutes to upload a video only to find it never processed. I have created a youtube account and will embed from there. We had read to let the baby play with the spoon before you introduced it in the meal so there is a video of that also. Tate looked like he was ready to feed himself from the first time he had the spoon in his hand. His hands are still very much a part of the process much to my dismay. I now undress him before he eats. I now realize the rice cereal should have been MUCH thinner but it works out, they will take a lumpier consistency really easily.

Tate Playing with the Spoon

Ellie Playing with the Spoon

Tate's First Bites

Ellie's First Bites

Weights, Measurements and Eczema – Really Exciting, I Know.

2010-07-13T21:01:00.003+01:00

Warning: The following information only has the remote possibility of being interesting to the Grandparents but the pictures at the end are pretty cute.

What I expected: Well baby checkups from a doctor every month or two wherein the babies would be weighed, measured, have their reflexes checked, get vaccinations and I would get to ask questions about feeding, sleeping patterns, rashes, stuffy noses, etc.

What is the case: I am supposed to bring the baby to “Baby Clinic” once a month on a Monday between 1:30 and 3:30 PM. No appointment, just write down your name and wait. When your name is called you are led to a room full of chairs with two scales and a table with two changing pads. There are usually three Health Visitors sitting in some of the chairs talking to mothers. I bring the babies in undress them, weigh them, then argue with someone to measure their length. (Them: “That’s done at your GP’s office” Me: “No, they won’t do it, they said they used to but when you set up down here you took all their equipment and they don’t even have a way to measure the babies.”) Put the babies back into the stroller and talk with a health visitor.

How it pertains to my story: There are several health visitors at the Baby Clinic I am assigned to and only one will give you anything other than what I find when I look on the NHS website.

My story: The first week I went to the Baby Clinic a Mom I had been chatting with in the waiting room whispered to me as she left “get the blond one, she’s the only one who is helpful.” To that mother I am eternally grateful. I now systematically take my time dressing and diapering the babies so I can time it so that I get to conference with this particular health visitor. It has worked two out of the 5 months I have had the babies.

When they were a month old, I brought them in and said “Every time I bathe them they breakout all over then peel. I am only bathing them once a week and I am putting lotion on them everyday but it is still happening. I am pretty sure it is eczema because I had it and it looks like the same as what used to cover the back of my knees.”

“No, worries, just rub a little olive oil on them. They are just new babies, they will grow out of it.”

The next month I come back and again say “the babies are still broken out from head to toe. They are cutting themselves from scratching; I think we need more than olive oil.” I am reprimanded for wanting to overmedicate my children and lectured about the harmful effects of steroid creams and given a bath substitute called Aqueous cream. I am told to rub it all over them following their bath and one other time a day. I do this for two months and at each baby clinic tell a new health visitor that Ellie turns red and screams when we put it on her and show them where my daughter’s neck is bright red and weeping and they say just to keep up the Aqueous cream and she will grow out of it.

Yesterday, I went in to have the babies weighed and measured. I rejoiced when I saw that the blond lady was there. I rushed Ellie to her and showed her that now the backs of her knees, inside of her arms and neck were all bright red and weeping. I explained how I was using the Aqueous cream, doing a lukewarm bath everyday and even putting Diaper cream on the areas because the jar said it helped with Eczema. She told me I should talk to my GP and get an oil based lotion instead of the Aqueous cream. I got really excited that I was being offered something other than olive oil. After a few more minutes of talking about it she asked if Ellie ever turned red when I put the Aqueous cream on her. I said “YES! I keep saying she screams when I put it on her!”

She told me that 5% of children have a reaction to the lanolin in it. She wrote down another bath substitute and an oil based cream. I went directly upstairs to my GP because I was so frustrated that I had been putting it on her for 2 months. When I got upstairs they told me that my doctor would call me tomorrow. I asked if there was no one on call that could write a prescription for something that had already been diagnosed and which the health visitor had told me my daughter was having a reaction to the former prescription. She said no, I needed to wait until my doctor called me tomorrow. I... wait for it... told her I didn’t have a phone. I had decided my daughter was not waiting another day. (I almost feel bad for the lie but I felt worse that Ellie had been in pain for two months and wasn't getting the treatment she needed.) She told me to sit but I would have to wait. I told her that was fine. It was time for the babies nap anyway. I sat for an hour and a half. I finally got in to see the on call doctor and she immediately started writing prescriptions for what her 8 month old son used.

What made me furious: I asked the doctor if she had tried the Aqueous cream on her son. She responded without thinking that she didn’t because it doesn’t really do any good. (Cut to me smiling on the outside but inside going: AHHHHHHHHHH!) I asked why it was prescribed for my babies and that put her back on her NHS good behavior side and she explained that they tried to prescribe the least invasive (read cheapest) form of treatment first. The health visitor had also bothered to mention that they probably prescribed Aqueous cream because it was cheap.

Unless you are the grandmother of my children and you haven't already, this is really where you want to skip to the pictures.

The Stats:

Tate

Weight – 16 pounds 13 ounces (50th percentile)

Length – 2 feet 2 inches (50th percentile)

Head Circumference – 50th percentile

Just call him Marry Poppins because he is practically perfectly proportioned in every way. Tate does have a long torso so we are already putting him in 6 to 9 month shirts. The 3 to 6 month shirts show his belly.

Ellie

Weight – 18 pounds 13 ounces (a bit under 91st percentile)

Height – 2 feet 2.6 inches (a bit under 91st percentile)

Head Circumference – 50th percentile (I think it still has a little rounding left to do from the suction cup.)

In conclusion: The following pictures are currently the only way I can get them to nap for longer than consistently and exactly 38 minutes. Lay them like this and they sleep for 3 hours. I can’t go anywhere because they’re on my bed but I am not complaining.

Sunday Summer Picnics

2010-07-11T16:52:00.001+01:00

One thing I have discovered that I love about London is how relaxed it gets when it warms up. There is not a lot of air conditioning to be found and suddenly in a land where personal style seems to be as important to some as brushing their teeth something wonderful happens. All of the black, layers and perfectly styled from head to toe city types are replaced by light colored, flowing, fresh faced beach hair relaxed types. It makes everyday feel like Summer holiday and the heat slows almost everyone’s walking pace. There is less bustle and less pushing but, admittedly, more B.O. on public transport. The other side effect of this is people throng to public gardens. It is wonderful to see hundreds of people resting on the grounds of Kensington palace.

Our church has some green space outside of it with lots of shade and several benches. One of our favorite things to do on Sunday has become having a picnics after the service. We still haven’t adjusted to the lack of air conditioned spaces and our house gets really hot during the midday. It is just nicer to be outside and I am not complaining for the excuse. It takes some planning and a lot of equipment but it is totally worth it to just sprawl out on the ground for a few hours. I go out and set up while Trey goes to the store to get sandwiches , fruit, chips and carrots and hummus.

Ellie and Tate can be occupied for hours just laying around looking at the trees, birds and sky.

It is a special time where we are completely away from distractions. No T.V., no computer, no work, no people asking us questions about London or the house.

The babies are especially loving to practice rolling over outside.

It is so fun to see them want to get to something or interact with someone and just flip over and try to swim away. Tate loves to be left alone on the blanket where he can see us but he feels like he has all the space in the world.

The tricky part is feeding the babies, especially now that they are eating solids.

Step 1: Undress your baby.

Step two: Try to feed your baby while you are both sitting on the ground.

Step 3: Give up (or your back gives up,) put your baby in the stroller and try to protect the stroller from the mess.

Only one more Sunday picnic opportunity left before we are in the States for 8 weeks. Here's hoping the weather stays nice!

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T20:16:00.001+01:00

Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love the warmth, the shorts, the burgers, the excuse to gather with friends and family, the swimming and I LOVE the fireworks. I imagine it will be a few years yet until Tate and Ellie get to celebrate the 4th on American soil but they still represented in their red, white and blue (Even those are the colors of the British flag also.)

Let go of my dress!!

5 Months Old!

2010-07-03T17:35:00.001+01:00

I can't believe that Tate and Ellie are 5 months old today. It seems like 5 minutes ago we were dying for their first smile and couldn’t imagine a time when they would ever pick up a toy and now we can get them in hysterics (particularly Tate) in a matter of seconds and they are grabbing at everything in sight. Here are a few moments that define how they’ve grown up.

We love books!

We love song time! (Sorry for the huge feet, honey. You can blame your Gigi. I do.)

We love to look out the window...

...and people on the street love to look at us!

Tate's feet are his favorite toy. They never get too far out of reach.

We love to chat with Mommy!

We don't love the stroller so much but Mommy does!

Ellie loves her tongue...

she also loves her tummy time (when she isn't stuck on it)...

...but she especially loves putting them together.

We're drooling a lot.

We're getting close to being able to sit and interested in small details.

This is Mommy's favorite face. It always makes her laugh!

Tate is getting ready for his modeling career.

We're both melting Mommy and Daddy's heart.

Medley’s Daily Schedule

2010-07-02T20:21:00.001+01:00

5:30 AM Wake up

Trey - Feed Babies/Change Babies/Put babies back down

Sarah – Boil water and Wash Bottles/Bring Bumbo chairs down to kitchen

6:00 AM Sarah – Shower/Get Ready

6:15 AM Trey – Shower/Get Ready

6:45 AM Set out breakfast for House Guests

7:00 AM Trey – Eat and Work in Classroom

Sarah – Eat/Set 10 up Bottles/Make Bed/Set up bedroom for play time

8:00 AM Sarah – Babies wake up/Play time with babies in Bedroom

8:30 AM Trey – Put away breakfast from house guests

8:45 AM Trey – Back to work in classroom

9:30 AM Sarah – Bring babies downstairs: Solid Food in Bumbo seats

10:00 AM Trey – Help Sarah bring babies and bumbo seats back upstairs then back to the classroom to work

Sarah – Feed babies in bouncy seats

10:30 AM Sarah – Change babies then babies play

11:30 AM Nap (Ahh, sounds like a break but it's a trick. What really happens is I alternate soothing babies back to sleep while they trade off waking up fussing for an hour and a half.)

1:00 PM Trey – Playtime with Babies

Sarah – Make lunch for Trey and I/Eat

2:00 PM Sarah – Feed Babies

Trey – Classroom to work

2:30 PM Change Babies

3:00 PM Walk (babies nap in stroller)/Errands (Mostly consists of buying breakfast groceries for 20 people)

5:00 PM Sarah and Trey – Play time with babies/tummy time for babies/check email (This is their fussy time of day. Our new trick is to sit on the couch, let the babies stand on our laps and look out the window. It is low key enough not to overtire them and interesting enough because we live on a busy street they will do it for about 30 min.)

6:00 PM Sarah and Trey – Feed babies

6:30 PM Sarah – Sets up bath

Trey – Prepares Ellie for Bath

6:35 PM Sarah – Bathes Ellie

Trey – Prepares Tate for Bath

6:40 PM Sarah - Bathes Tate

Trey – Massage and swaddle Ellie

6:45 PM Sarah sings and rocks Ellie

Trey – Massage and Swaddle Tate

6:50 PM Sarah sings and rocks Tate

Trey prays and reads bed time Bible story

7:00 PM Sarah - Go down to make dinner

7:30 PM Dinner

8:00 PM TV/Computer Hour

9:00 PM Flat Hunt (via Internet)

10:00 PM Feed Babies

10:30 PM Get ready for bed and straighten up

11:00 PM Bed

In the middle of all of that we answer the door and phone a million times a day and all kinds of questions like can I get a new sheet, can you show me how to email my son, can we get raisen bread for breakfast...

I love them but I can't wait to hand them to their Grandparents and just lie down.

Look out Tate

2010-06-26T21:58:00.003+01:00

So Ellie is rolling. She rolls regardless of if she actually wants to or not. She also wants to sleep on her side but she is pretty… round… so that results in sleep rolling. She forgot how to roll back as soon as she learned how to roll onto her tummy. She gets really mad about this throughout the night and we have to get up and flip her over.

Don't know if you can tell but in this picture she is screaming and desperately trying to stay asleep with her head "stuck" upright.

She and Tate have been sleeping in the same bed. They sometimes calm each other so it has been nice but recently, with the rolling, we have encountered a problem.

Sometimes he doesn't mind...

Sometimes he does. (Dont' know why blogger kept rotating this image.)

I think I have mentioned that Tate is not good with transitions. He is much happier if you talk him through changes and looks totally freaked out when he falls asleep in the buggy and wakes up in a new place. He particularly hates the transition between being asleep and waking up. He screams almost every time he wakes up and if something external wakes him up, look out buddy.

The other night Trey and I heard a sharp scream come from the baby monitor. We hesitate because it stops almost immediately but it was that freaked out something is wrong cry so I couldn’t help myself but to go in. I look down and what do I see but a whimpering Tate and Ellie asleep. The only problem is that Ellie is face down with her head on her left arm and the entire right side of her body is on top of Tate. I go to flip her off of him only to find she has a death grip on Tate’s bodysuit. I unclench her and roll her back over while she screws up her face and frantically waves her left had at me; her whole body language screaming “don’t move me, don’t wake me up, don’t wake me up.” When I told Trey he just laughed and said that is TOTALLY your daughter. You do the exact same thing. Sleep wherever you want and I just have to find whatever space I can get. Sadly, it’s true. To my daughter’s future husband: I apologize, she can’t help it. It’s genetic.

It was at this point that Trey and I decided that it is definitely time for separate beds. They are still in pack’n’plays (travel cots) until we find a flat for next year so now their beds are side by side so they can see but not touch. These kind of experiences make me so glad to have twins.

The Boltons

2010-06-21T14:34:00.000+01:00

We are in walking distance of some of the most expensive homes in London. For my Birmingham people, much like Mtn. Brook and for my Houston people, much like River Oaks. There are rows of "single bell" homes with brick privacy walls that retract into the ground so you can park your McLaren within the confines of your grounds above your underground swimming pool. (You can tell how big the homes are by how many bells are on the front of a house signifying how many flats a property has been broken into. One bell means the house is still intact.) I don't need all of that but one thing I am envious of are the private gardens. I miss having land around me. Having lived in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama I am used to the concept of a yard. Anyway, this is a shot of a garden I often walk by and ponder how I might be able to throw my twin buggy over and climb the brick wall surrounding this gate.

How to Parent Twins When Your Back Is Out

2010-06-13T15:03:00.001+01:00

So my Mother is probably going to kill me for posting this. My husband even said as he was taking the picture “this is just for our own personal memories right?” I agreed and had no intentions of sharing it with anyone. It was just a private record of a difficult time that I would whip out when I needed to run a guilt trip on our beautiful children but, it is just too honest and too telling of a moment in parenting twins that I couldn’t help but share it.

A couple of weeks ago I threw my back out. I literally could not even sit without being in excruciating pain. This is not a new thing; I hurt my lower back when I was 14 and at inopportune times the injury rears its head. It is kind of like an annoying relative (not that I would know anything about those… oh stink, if I can’t think of any maybe I’m the annoying relative…) that pops in unannounced. You don’t like it and you don’t know how long it will stick around but you know how to work it. I immediately began taking Advil (thanks to my sister-in-law Sam’s Beth who had just sent me an enormous bottle of it) and doing physical therapy exercises.

After three days, Trey sent me out to the doctor where they gave me some amazing muscle relaxers that are also prescribed for anxiety (as the Pharmacist was handing them to me she said “oh you’re gonna loves these”) which gave me not only some relief from the muscle spasms but also a much needed respite from freaking out about the fact that the four of us are living in one room with nowhere to live when we return to London after an 8 week trip home to the States coming up when we will have no income and I could keep going but if I do I will need more muscle relaxers.

Without further delay I give you this:

I do have to say, it makes me quite proud that when I am quite literally laid out, the multi-tasking continues. Notice the twins are getting tummy time, I am getting to watch So You Think You Can Dance and that towel on the bed says that I still got a shower that day. Even with the room that messy, I still feel accomplished.

Rolling Over

2010-06-08T21:23:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago Ellie figured out how to roll over from her back to her tummy. When she accomplished this task she immediately forgot how to roll from her tummy to her back which both she and Tate have been able to do since the first time they were placed on their tummy when they were two weeks old and we got them home from the hospital. She doesn't like to be on her tummy, especially when she is tired. She drops her pacifier in her sleep and thinks that if she gets on her tummy she will get her pacifier. This is probably my fault due to the fact that her pacifier was such a good motivator for her movement I would let her struggle to get to her pacifier and once she either reached the point of total frustration or made it to her tummy I would reward her (or pacify her.)

The point: She now wakes herself up stuck on her tummy, gets mad, screams, wakes Tate up and the whole family is anxiously awaiting for her to remember how to roll back over... or get her pacifier to her mouth. Either one. :-)

Here are some pics, they aren't great but there have been complaints so take whatcha get.

Coming Soon

2010-05-13T15:48:00.001+01:00

Tate and Ellie are at the stage where we are beginning to see rapid development and after the first three months of what seemed like such slow pace, waiting a month for the first smiles, waiting two months for the first laughs and waiting for some head control, it is really fun to begin to see them coming into their own.

Ellie is starting to find it enjoyable to chew on things other than her hands or paci. She also can stand up with me just holding her hands and sometimes even holds onto my fingers for support. This has been hard for me to capture :-).

Tate is SO close to being able to roll over from his back to his stomach. If only that head wasn't so heavy!

They coordinated today. Ellie says no pictures please.

Alone Time

2010-05-11T17:35:00.000+01:00

It seems Ellie has quickley learned how to get some alone time. She blocks out the world and, trust me, when she strikes this pose you do not want to intrude.

Ellie and Tate Today

2010-05-11T13:50:00.002+01:00

I had to post two to get one of each smiling. The guaranteed way to get them laughing and smiling during the day is to go through the alphabet and say "A sounds like ah. An A word is Apple" and so on. I am not one of those crazy people that is trying to over educate their children, I just did it one day when they were feeling particularly feisty and wanted nothing but to be spoken to and it worked. They are quite fond of the song also.

Sleeping Update

2010-05-10T13:09:00.000+01:00

So the sleeping through the night thing is going better than I imagined it would at this point. We are putting the babies down every night after a 7:00 feed, giving them a bath and a massage and swaddling. They go down really well around 8:30 and it is the best unison stretch of sleep they have all day or night until 11:00 PM where we give them one last feed. They are "sleeping" until the 7 AM feed. By that, I mean they don't need to eat again. They do however (mostly Tate) wake up numerous times requiring to be settled. Ellie seems to be a morning person, she is so happy and talkative.

Today our second Bumbo arrived and Tate and Ellie had a party to celebrate. They invited some of their stuffed animals.

Ellie started the party while Tate was doing tummy time

but he got jealous.

Could he look any more like his Daddy?

Pushing Our Luck

2010-04-30T21:52:00.000+01:00

Tate and Ellie have slept through the night since 8 weeks. They usually sleep from about 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM. I know I am blessed beyond measure and I know that would make a lot of people want to take a hammer to their baby monitors. Tate wakes up a few times at some point between 3 AM and 6 AM with gas pains and most of the time doesn’t even open his eyes, just going all washboard and screaming for a minute then going back to sleep. (Not complaining, I know some people would kill for this kind of sleep with two month old twins.) Ellie sleeps like a rock anytime, anywhere, anyplace.

I have been doing a lot of research on routines because my obsession topic of the month is daytime playtime vs. naptime plus working in some me time (which means cooking dinner, doing laundry, cleaning etc.) and some Trey time. I remembered I’d bought a book called “The Baby Whisperer” that had some timetables in it for different age groups. I had applied some of the principals from the time I brought the babies home such as creating a bed time routine including swaddling, having some activity after all the daytime feeds so they separated day and night and didn’t associate eating with going to sleep and some others. I picked it up and started re-reading today focusing on the sections that talked about babies older than 6 weeks.

There were a couple of things that stood out. The first is that I already have them on a pretty good schedule; I just need to be a little more consistent with setting the stage for their naps. The second was to keep all of their naps under 2 hours. Today they didn’t ever sleep longer than two hours so I got really excited about the third. For their nighttime feed the routine is: feed, bath, swaddle, bed and instead of doing what we had been doing which I was calling a night time feed where I kept them up (they would sleep most of it anyway) in their bouncy seats downstairs while I would cook dinner or whatever, do a dream feed at 10 or 11 PM. A dream feed was described as keeping the babies swaddled and the lights low. Picking them up, feeding them, no talking and putting them straight back down unless they are dirty. We are trying it tonight and it is so nice to be sitting downstairs with sleeping babies upstairs. I am a bit worried about how the middle of the night to the morning will go considering we all sleep in the same room so if they wake up bored we will probably wake up also but sleeping 12 hours with just a dream feed at 11 sounds pretty good!

Tate and Ellie are U.S. Citizens!!

2010-04-29T23:07:00.000+01:00

So, we went for Tate and Ellie's citizenship several months ago. It was a HORRID trip that resulted in Trey's passport being confiscated due to an error found when it was being used to verify Tate and Ellie’s eligibility for citizenship. They told him to pay $100.00 for a new passport then and there or we couldn’t get Tate and Ellie’s passports. The error was not ours and if you know me you know I am not the type to pay money for someone else’s mistake so I said we were leaving and demanded they investigate the error after I clearly outlined how the mistake could not possibly have been ours. (I never should have worked at a law firm, it just fueled a fire.)

We walked in hoping to obtain two passports and we walked with one less. We could not get any information on the dispute, my self-righteous indignation over the injustice had cooled and the pressing need for passports finally urged me to suck it up and pay the $100.00. We got all packed up and headed back to the Embassy. We went through security where I got to taste the baby bottles, pulled our ticket (P 80, last time we were P74…. that’s how long we were there, I could remember the ticket number from when the babies were 5 weeks old, they are now 12) and sat in an international version of the DMV.

We sat in the waiting room and fed the babies while I coached Trey on what to say. “Don’t tell them we’re here to pay for your confiscated passport. Tell them we want to know where we are in the dispute process…” I fully expected to leave there $100.00 poorer and I figured they would probably find some other extraneous charges for us. I was thrilled beyond belief when Trey came back from the window and said that when he asked where we were in the dispute they said they hadn’t been able to get a response from the post office of Birmingham, Alabama. Honestly I probably could have made $100.00 if I could have recorded the phone conversation. “Hello, this is so and so from the US Embassy in London calling to enquire if you made a mistake when transferring the details of a passport application?” Anyone who has ever been to the downtown post office in Birmingham, Alabama knows what I am talking about. I mean, come on, they put that Trey was born in a city that doesn’t exist. Anyway, they decided not to charge us and told us we would receive all three passports in three weeks, no additional charge. Thank the Lord!

After that we had to take the bus home from Oxford Street so we stopped by Primark because we have NOTHING for 6 to 9 months for either of the babies. I got a couple of outfits to get them started.

Tate and Ellie - 12 Weeks

2010-04-29T22:13:00.000+01:00

The famous Tate and Ellie holding hands. I promise, I never pose pictures.

Ellie, very focused on tummy time.

Tate, who hates tummy time, comforting himself post-trauma with his ladybug.

This is Ellie in her first 6 to 9 month outfit.

Tate, Ellie and I after our big day out to the V&A and book shopping. Sadly, this is how I look most days.

BIG Weekend!

2010-04-29T21:58:00.000+01:00

We had a HUGE weekend. Friday I met a friend for a little much needed time out at the grounds of our church. It was such a beautiful day and Tate and Ellie slept most of the time. I had planned to head over to the Victoria and Albert museum after we had a chat and glance around as long as the babies would let me. My friend told me she was meeting a friend for lunch in a courtyard there and I went along. It was a wonderful discovery and a place I will probably visit often. There is a fountain and areas of both shade and sunshine. The fountain area has a shallow pool of water where kids can play and, honestly, I am already dreaming about when it is warm enough to put my feet in. I am furious because I didn't bring my camera! Anyway, that day Tate and Elle were dressed in clothes from both of Grandmothers and I did get pictures before we left the house. Tate's outfit is from Gigi and Ellie is wearing a sweater from Grandma and lying on a quilt she made for them.

(Pardon Ellie's "You got a problem with that?" face.)

We call this look "Little T."

Saturday Trey and I headed to Nando’s for lunch and then back to the V&A because I hadn’t gotten to look around much and he hadn't been either. We made it through some of the medieval religious art, Asia and the Enlightenment sculptures before heading out to the courtyard to feed the babies. Going to the museum with them worked out pretty well although admittedly I held one or the other most of the time while I pushed the stroller one handed. (It isn’t that Trey wouldn’t push the stroller, I just have this thing about doing whatever I can on my own when we're out together trying something new to get a realistic picture of if I would actually want to try it on my own.) We then put on quite the show by going out to the fountain area to feed the babies and have a snack. After that we walked to Harrods stopping at a couple of bookstores looking for a book we never found then we took the bus back home. We were out for 6 hours.

Sunday we attended services then headed to a barbeque which meant we were out for 8 hours. It was really nice to see friends and meet some new people but we had a nightmarish time on London Public Transport. We had figured out a bus route home because the pram is getting heavier and heavier. Due to the London marathon, our bus stopped unexpectedly at a stop that wasn’t on our route. From that point we had to take one more bus and two lines on the tube to get home. Ultimately, by the time we got home we could have taken a cab for less. Days like this I really, really, really miss my car. To my Houston people, I would trade everyday in traffic to never have to deal with the complications of public transportation and that is speaking from experience.

Here are Tate and Ellie with their friends at the barbeque.

Weigh Day

2010-04-19T23:11:00.000+01:00

We haven't weighed the babies since March 15th. We thought it would be done at their 8 week checkup but it wasn't. Our health visitor has a baby clinic on Mondays from 1:30 to 3:30 PM where you can take the babies in, weigh them and ask a nurse questions. The Monday after their 8 week appointment was Easter Monday so it was closed. Tate and Ellie were born at 5 and 6 pounds respectively.

In her first month of life Ellie went from the 9th to the 25th percentile and now she has gone to the 50th percentile in her third month currently weighing 12 pounds 3 ounces. This means she has doubled her weight in a little less than three months. This is about a month faster than normal but it is normal for twins.

In his first month, Tate went fromt eh 3rd to the 9th and is now in the 20th percentile at 10 pounds 14 ounces. He has just now gotten too small for newborn clothes even though I started putting him in 0 to 3 almost a month ago because I was really tired of neutral sleepers.

A LOT of Formula

2010-04-14T21:39:00.002+01:00

Well, as of today Tate has officially caught up with Ellie and is taking 6 ounces. (They don't always eat a whole 6 oz but about once a day, however, you have to make that much to get what they're eating.) This means that we are officially going through a box of formula every 3 days! That's right; we have to buy three boxes of formula to make it through a complete week.

Here are Tate and Ellie today on their 10th week of life! For those who look closely, Tate scratched his own face. I can't keep his nails short enough, when he is upset he likes to ball his fists up and rub them all over his face. He is determined to always have a cut.

These are of them sleeping a couple of days ago. Sorry all the pictures are of them in their bouncy seats, it is just about the only time I have my hands free for pictures.

Ellie

Tate

...because what is sweeter than sleeping babies?

What's In A Name: Elijah Tate

2010-04-13T02:28:00.001+01:00

Trey and I had a harder time choosing a boy’s name. I knew I wanted to use my maiden name, Tate, but it sounded weird to both of us because we were so used to it being my family name. Especially after I lost my Dad I felt particularly strong about using it and eventually it felt right. Originally we had thought Tate Austin would be our son’s name because we liked the sound of it. Austin carried some family and geographical significance and we were pretty satisfied. I was about 9 weeks pregnant when we moved from Birmingham to Texas to spend a month with family before moving to London. We had been in Birmingham three years and while we were there attended Shades Mountain Baptist Church. We absolutely adored this church and it really became home to us. Our last Sunday there, the pastor preached a sermon on Elijah. The message was “Following God’s Will When It Doesn’t Make Sense.” It really resonated with us because we were giving up jobs, selling our cars and furniture all in pursuit of what we believe to be the path God has laid out for us.

The message was from I Kings 17. In it, the Lord had provided for Elijah during a famine directing him first to a brook where he could drink and was fed by ravens then to a widow who seemingly only had enough to enjoy one last meal with her son before dying. The Lord, in His faithfulness, multiplied their supply and they were all able to eat. We felt we were going into the unknown but following God’s promise that He would provide where He led us. I felt impressed during that sermon that we should name our son Elijah so that he would serve as a reminder that we are to follow the Lord’s calling on our lives and the Lord will be faithful to provide. Surprisingly, it was difficult for me to do this because Elijah is not a name I naturally was drawn to but the Lord has already been faithful to use it as a comfort in my life. I pray it will be a source of comfort and encouragement for Tate.

13 Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.' "
15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.
I Kings 17: 13-16

What’s In A Name: Eliana Grace

2010-04-13T01:53:00.000+01:00

The story of Ellie’s name dates back to mine and Trey’s first year of marriage. We were playing Scattergories at the home of our dear friends Jason and Kellie. The letter was “E” and one of the categories was “girl’s names.” (For those of you unfamiliar with the game, players attempt to match categories with a letter of the alphabet unique from those their opponents come up with.) When we were calling out our answers Trey said the most beautiful name I have ever heard, Eliana (pronounced el-ee-AH-nah.) I pronounced then and there that this would be our daughter’s name. I went home and looked up the meaning of Eliana and was thrilled to find it was Hebrew in origin and means “God has answered.” We began talking about a middle name and Grace seemed so natural because it is through His grace the Lord answers when we call on Him.

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

Easter

2010-04-05T17:15:00.001+01:00

So I have to say, other than having the sweetest babies (and thanks to their fashionable grandparents some of the best dressed) on the planet, we had a bit of a disappointing Easter. We got up early, got everyone ready and out the door with even time for pictures and made it in time to catch the bus. The bus, however, was being diverted around our stop and after paying full fare to go less than a stop we were informed we would have to walk the mile to church. Not usually such a big deal but because we weren’t going to walk very far I had decided to start breaking my feet back into my spring shoes. They were not prepared to walk a mile and I ended up with 5 bleeding blisters. The service was very well done, however, we didn’t realize that the service we were attending was one of the family services and we were both really looking forward to a good Easter sermon. There was a skit instead and I would have loved it if the babies were old enough to enjoy it. We did get to talk to most of Trey’s family at the same time on Skype which is always a pleasure and lifts our spirits. Ultimately, I think we are just getting homesick. Neither of us had ever gone 8 months without going home, frankly I don’t think I had gone more than 4 or 5 without being in Houston and we would see family that visited us in the meantime. We know we have at least another 4 months to go but I think on daily basis we say our top things we want to do when we get home.

Mine are:
1. Have all our family in the same room (minus Bill, Beth and Alex who we would have to settle for Skype with.)
2. Go to one of our Southern Baptist Churches with Sunday School and everything.
3. Be reunited with my dog, Anna.
4. Drive a car.
5. Eat some queso and kolatches.
6. Swim in my Mom’s back yard.
7. Live only with people I am related to.
8. Use my very own kitchen appliances and china… oh how I miss my kitchen aid.
9. Live in a house with a toilet I don’t have to pump and sinks that mixes the hot and cold water for me.
10. Pay for everything in dollars.

Tate's First Boo Boo

2010-03-16T21:56:00.000Z

So Trey and I had an extremely traumatic experience tonight. I don't think it was quite as bad for Tate but it wasn't fun for him either. He has caught my cold and has quite a stuffy nose. Because of this he gets really frustrated when he lies down because it gets harder to breathe so right now he is spending most of his time in our arms and he is sleeping in a bouncy seat so he stays upright. We have been using saline and suctioning but tonight thought we would take him into the shower room with it all steamed up and see if that would open him up some.

I went in and turned the hot water on. I let it run for about 15 minutes then Trey (because he has a cold also) went in with Tate and stood with him. He said he was really enjoying it and getting cleared up. He had been in the middle of an alert period where he was playing with Grandma and Granddad and giving them lots of big smiles.

Well, right before Trey and Tate were about to leave the room the plastic diffuser that covers the light fixture fell off of the ceiling into Trey's lap and a shard from it flew up and cut him right above his eye! The Medleys and I were sitting in the living room and when we heard the bang and Trey yell followed by Tate screaming Nancy and I ran in there. Tate just screamed and screamed and he had a cut about a inch long above his eye. Trey got some peroxide on a q-tip and we cleaned it up. He will be fine but the poor thing was fussy the rest of his alert period. So sad!

Ellie is Getting Big!

2010-03-16T21:52:00.000Z

Feb. 15, 2009 we took Ellie to be weighed and she was up to 9 lbs! Her 0 to 3 month clothes said she would fit into them at 8.5 and I was so excited she was going to get to start wearing them because most of what I had in the newborn size was unisex. The theory being that the newborn stage would be so crazy I would just want to grab whatever for whoever I was changing and not worry about the color. I'm so excited to bring on the pink!

The Birth

2010-03-01T00:10:00.000Z

OK, I really tried not to put too much detail in, however, if you are very sensitive to the idea of a birth story, don’t read further.

I went in to be induced Feb. 2, 2009. The plan was to apply a gel, if that didn’t work, break my waters and if that didn’t work, start Pitocin. I was told induction with twins is supposed to be quick and easy because of the lack of space. When we left the house at 9:45 AM that morning we actually thought we would have babies that evening. I felt very relaxed about the whole thing. The induction didn’t actually begin until 2:00 PM even though our appointment was at 10 AM. I was put in a ward with 6 beds where everyone who is being induced or isn’t close enough to “active” labor stays. After the application of the gel I was stuck in bed for a long time because my active babies didn’t want to stay put for the monitor. We literally had to hold them on so we could move them around and try to find them every time they moved away from it. The end result of this was a total of 6 hours of Trey holding one monitor and me holding the other monitor and searching for babies trying to get sufficient consistent reads of their heart beats. The first application of the gel didn’t work and instead of proceeding with the plan my consultant from the pregnancy set up (who wasn’t on duty that day) they reapplied the gel three more times over the next 14 hours, none of which worked. One hard thing was that Trey had to go home when visiting hours were over. It was difficult because I knew I was being induced and could go into labor at any point but my husband wasn’t with me.

After the third application, and a new day, a new consultant was on duty who came in and said I would have a cesarean and asked when I wanted to set it up for. This was at 6 AM before Trey was allowed back. I told him I didn’t want a cesarean and would need to discuss any changes to the plan with my husband before I made a decision. He looked insulted and basically replied that he wasn’t doing anything else to induce labor so I could sit there and hope it started or have a cesarean tomorrow. After having had only a couple hours of sleep between my own contractions and the women screaming in the ward who were further along than I was, I wasn’t sure if I could sit there another day and night then go through labor if the next consultant that came on duty was supportive of my trying natural delivery. Fortunately, a Senior Registrar who I had seen during my pregnancy came by and wanted to assess my progress. He told me he would be back at 1:00 PM and do an exam so I would have a better idea of how I was progressing to help with my decision. I also asked if he knew the consultant who had come by that morning and if that consultant tended to only perform cesareans on twin pregnancies. He said “no comment.”

During that time, Trey got there and I tried to walk around a lot to move things along. The exam actually took place around 2:30 PM Feb. 3rd. The consultant said I was ready to have my waters broken but the labor rooms had several people “in front of me” which kind of made me feel like I was going to get a table at a restaurant.

After the exam I started bleeding a lot. I went to a midwife who wasn’t worried, said it was probably normal and she would be back in a minute to check and see how much. When no one had come in a few minutes… and it was a scary amount of blood… Trey went out to get someone. The midwife came back checked the amount of blood, put her hand on my shoulder, looked right in my eyes and said “everything is going to be fine, I am just going to get you a wheelchair and into the labor room” then she turned and RAN into the hall. She ran into the hall and came back with a chair. They pushed me into the labor ward and someone had just been put into the room they were wheeling me to. She yelled to a nurse and asked who was in the room. The nurse replied it was a woman getting an epidural and she would just be a minute. My midwife then screamed “WELL, I’VE GOT A LADY WITH TWINS HERE BLEEDING SO GET HER OUT OF MY ROOM!” At that point, I started getting worried. I was introduced to my nurse (also Sarah) who was fantastic throughout the whole process. She and Trey left me in the labor room while they moved my things to the recovery room I would go into and I had a minor break down. By that time I was having contractions really hard and fast. The anesthetist came in and placed my epidural. It wasn’t even putting a dent in the contractions then the nurse went in to break my waters. Apparently, some people do not think this is painful... if you are one of those people I think you are out of your mind.

Once my waters were broken the contractions became more intense. I was at 9 cm. when they took me to the operating room (with twins you have to give birth in an OR in case something goes wrong) and the epidural still was not working. The epidural was also not primarily for pain relief (although I wasn’t arguing when the doctor said it was recommended for twin birth) but so I wouldn’t have to be put under general anesthetic if an emergency cesarean needed to be performed. Once they got it working then I started pushing. I was allowed one push and then the doctor got the suction cup for Ellie. I honestly had no idea he was doing it until Trey told me later. I was furious because she came out so quickly he was surprised, I seriously pushed for about 5 minutes. Tate was lying transverse and they couldn’t find him on the ultrasound. I think they were worried and they began turning him by pushing on my stomach. The nurses kept apologizing for it being uncomfortable but at that point I could see Ellie and I honestly could not care less. When it was time to push with Tate they realized they had turned him the wrong way so he was delivered breach with forceps. I only pushed about three times with him. They were born exactly 10 minutes apart. The whole process was so quick after it got started. My waters were broken around 3:30. Ellie was born at 4:47 and Tate was born at 4:57.

After I had Tate, my blood pressure dropped and I was given something to bring it back up. Once that happened there was no keeping me awake. I remember feeling awful because at one point the nurse woke me up and said look at your babies. Trey was holding them beside me and I could hardly even respond. I didn’t even wake up for the final phase of the delivery. At some point after I had been wheeled to the recovery ward I woke up enough to start going through some of the medical stuff and finally to try and feed the babies. Of everything that happened how tired I felt immediately following how I felt after all of the adrenalin of giving birth was the biggest surprise. Well, that and how nice I was to Trey. When they were placing the epidural I had a contraction and was not allowed to move. I was holding Trey’s arms and had this out of body experience where I looked down, realized Trey’s arm was red and that it was red because I was pinching the fire out of it. I thought “that must hurt” mustered up a part my self control that had been wholly allocated abstaining from moving as to avoid paralysis to release my grip and apologized. I didn’t call him any names or yell at him or anything. That was honestly the thing I was probably most proud of. Ultimately I feel the birth happens whether you want it to or not but going in I was certain I was going to physically bring Trey into the pain of the experience with me. Lucky for him, apparently my instinctual self is much kinder than my cognitive self.

We're Home

2010-02-10T21:59:00.001Z

After a long week at the hospital we are so glad to finally be home. Here are a couple of pictures.

It Will Be Here Before We Know It!

2010-01-28T22:41:00.001Z

I had my last doctor’s appointment before the birth of the babies today! Interesting side note for those interested in some of the different ways NHS handles healthcare from the States. I never saw the doctor weekly throughout the pregnancy. I arrived 12 weeks pregnant but did not receive an internal exam until I was considered full term for a twin pregnancy, the doctor’s appointment today. I requested a Group B strep test, performed at 35 weeks in the U.S., but was told that it was only done by request if an internal exam was taking place and because I happened to be having one next week I could request one then. The NHS deems it unnecessary. Today at my appointment I requested a Group B strep test and was told that it wasn’t performed here. Taking the advice from my UK friends, I was kindly assertive and said that I was aware but had heard that I could make the request to have one and would feel more comfortable if it was performed. The doctor looked hesitant but did it anyway and didn’t treat me any differently. I do know, however, that it wasn’t performed as thoroughly as it is in the States.

Ultimately, I was told today that conditions for labor looked favorable and she was very pleased with my progress. The consultant said if she had to guess she would give me four days, which would be Monday and booked me in for an induction on Tuesday, 4th Feb. I did my best to convince her that 28th Jan. sounded like a lovely birthday and even asked if I groveled, cried and begged if it would help. She said “I would very empathetically tell you no.” I really enjoyed this consultant. She is not on duty the day that I am scheduled to be induced until the evening and I am booked in for 9 AM. Due to the fact that they like to monitor twins periodically throughout the entire labor, if I have any signs of labor (regular contractions or water breaking) I am to go in immediately.

I will have to physically give birth in an operating room (called a “theater” here.) The reason for this is there is a chance that the second twin will find the long labor too difficult and there is a greater chance of a need for emergency C-section. If I go in on Tuesday, they will start by applying a gel and the consultant believed that with the state I am in currently that would be all it would take. However, if my waters hadn’t broken in 6 hours, they would go ahead and do that for me. If this didn’t begin labor, I would be put on a drip. The whole time I am in that early phase of labor I will be without pain medication and in a relaxed labor and delivery room. Once labor progresses I will be moved to an operating theater. I am not really looking forward to laboring in a highly technical environment but have no qualms about it as it is the safest thing for the babies. It is strongly recommended that I have an epidural due to the fact that a C-section is more likely to become necessary (although I wasn’t making arguments when it was offered) so I don’t have to be put under general anesthetic in the event of an emergency.

On a personal note, Trey and I still can’t believe that we can say “OK, sometime between now and Tuesday we will have babies.” There is a part of me that still doesn’t completely believe that after the pregnancy I will be a Mom and have two babies at home. The whole concept of birth still seems so foreign that I don’t truly believe my body will do it. I was in absolute shock when I found out today that I had progressed towards delivery (dilated, etc.) I don’t know when it fully becomes real and I imagine it takes time after coming home from the hospital even. I find myself full of babies that I can see on an ultrasound, hear on a Doppler, surrounded by things that go on babies or babies go in but that has been the case for months and now the realization is setting in that those things are actually about to become useful and those strangers are about to become family. I am sure this is the experience of many parents out there, I just never expected the sense of distance from reality after all the months of preparation.

Jan Term is Over and Braxton Hicks Have Begun

2010-01-22T21:59:00.000Z

Today we sent a total of 84 students and professors home from winter term. We had 10 helpers stay to clear out the rooms and get the laundry to the laundry service. There were a total of 21 garbage bags of laundry that went out and came back today. When it came back we had to put mattress pads back on all the beds and the bed spreads into the armoires in the rooms then get the rooms ready for the spring students. Tomorrow we have a cleaning service come in and have the carpets cleaned. Sunday we have a real day off with an empty house and then Monday we will have contractors around for estimates on work that needs to be done.

Monday is also a big day for Trey because he has his 6 month review. He has finished the first 9,700 words of his thesis and he will get to go over it with his advisor and second reader.

Two nights ago I started getting Braxton Hicks contractions. They continued until this afternoon getting more regular but this afternoon slowed down again. The babies did seem to drop so hopefully they are getting ready to make their debut close to their due date next week!

Our Nearest Green Patch

2010-01-17T16:27:00.001Z

Trey and I ran out today while the sun was shining (for the first time since October) and got some shots together before the babies aren't in my tummy anymore. Seeing as how we are having twins, who knows if I will ever be pregnant again and we wanted to remember this special time as a couple. I have been so blessed to have a husband with a servant’s heart who has gone above and beyond to take care of me during our pregnancy. He gives me back rubs, makes sure I take my prenatal vitamins, cooks dinner and goes to the store now that standing that long means sleeping less at night from the strain, has me hold his arm when we're walking down the street, goes to doctor appointments, carries the laundry downstairs if I am going to be washing that day and just generally goes out of his way to take some of the weight off of me. I am so grateful to the Lord for my husband and best friend.

On another note, we had an ultrasound on Friday (15 Jan.) Ellie has been breech since 20 weeks. I was so sure that we would go in for this scan and she would still be breech and we would leave the hospital with a date that these babies would be born. Well, just to surprise us all, she has turned and now we are going to be playing the waiting game as nature intended. I was really ready to have a light at the end of the tunnel. They are growing great. Ellie was two ounces away from being 6 pounds and Tate was one ounce from being 5 pounds. This is a great weight for a singleton pregnancy at this point so the doctors were very pleased.

Hospital Bag

2010-01-15T22:19:00.000Z

When thinking about pregnancy, one thing I had always heard not to worry about was the hospital. You just show up with a few necessities and creature comforts and everything else is provided for you. The advice from my friends was even to bring extra bags to take home everything from extra diapers to nasal aspirators because hospital policy is not to reuse anything that has been in your room. Packing for the hospital seemed to involve throwing some P.J.’s, sleepers, slippers, music, snacks and maybe glasses or contacts into a bag and having it ready to run out the door.

Upon learning that, like most things, it is just a bit different here I began researching what people take to the hospital. I compiled a list and it included the following. Some may be the same as the states but some I am still shocked that people are expected to provide themselves such as diapers, formula (the hospital won’t provide it unless you have attempted to breast feed and couldn’t for medical reasons) water.

Hospital Bag
*Pack one bag for you and one for the babies
• Ear plugs (you’re in a ward with up to 5 other women and their babies.)
• Old night dress (to give birth in… no hospital gowns.)
• 2 P.J. Sets
• Old underwear
• Your own large fluffy towel (have heard tons of stories of people drying of with the paper towels because no clean towels were available)
• Pillows (You get one flat one.)
• Overnight pads
• Toiletries
• Wet Wipes (To clean out the shower… can’t make myself think about it but because you are sharing a shower with the women on your ward they aren’t always cleaned out when you are able to shower and I have heard horror stories of bloody floors women have had to wipe down)
• Shower Shoes
• Breast Pads
• Journal to keep track of changes and feeds and pens
• Snacks (the café is only open during the day.)
• iPod with Audiobooks (no internet or cable T.V. folks)
• Water (there is a water cooler and Dixie cups should you become thirsty. Otherwise, better bring your own.)
• Camera
• Birth plan and hospital notes (Notes = records)
• Phone numbers
• Plastic bag for really dirty clothes
• Glasses
• Contacts
• Lanolin cream
• Change of clothes for Trey

Baby Bag
• Diapers (New Baby)
• 10 sleepers (extra for twins and sometimes they stay in the hospital longer.)
• 2 baby blankets
• Cotton balls
• Wipes
• Nappy sacks
• Going home outfit

Now, you can only bring what you can fit in your little area of the ward but, fortunately, your husband has to go home when it isn’t visiting hours so he should be able to make plenty of trips home to restock your diaper supply and bring in extra water should you need it.

We Have 48 Housemates

2009-12-29T19:36:00.000Z

We've known it was coming. Jan Term. The shortest course period for the university we work for. We planned, we prepared, we laid out 48 fitted sheets, 48 flat sheets, 48 towels. The house was ready but were we? I have been thinking about Jan Term since the day we agreed to be a resident managers of this property in London. I would be 33 weeks pregnant with twins and 48 people would come to stay in a 6 story Victorian with us for four weeks. They descended on the house in two huge bus loads blocking off the narrow street we live off of in Central London. Everyone (except the hugely pregnant woman who carried the heavy driver tips only) grabbed the loads of luggage and threw them into the house fast soon as possible. Within two hours we had all the luggage distributed to rooms, all the baggage being stored at the house for a group who was leaving to travel for two weeks before coming to the next session checked, all the students fed, oriented and out to roam the city with their professors. It was a whirlwind.

The first night I managed to sleep as well as I have been considering the two babies kicking and pushing around. I woke up about every hour to every hour and a half and finally got up at 4:30. The whole night one group of students or another was up and about. The last time I heard the front door close was 6:30 AM. We had breakfast for the whole group in rotations from 7:30 to 8:45 then everyone was gone again for class from 9 to 5. The house actually doesn't feel that crowded most of the time other than the middle of the night and the morning because the students are gone all day and only have time to move around London in the evenings. We'll see if they keep up that pace of go, go, go for the rest of the month. Trey and I actually cooked and ate dinner tonight with only about four interruptions. One thing I can say is that I am very glad we finished preparations for the babies before this group arrived. Everything is ready to go other than a few things to pack in my hospital bag and those are at least on a list that both Trey and I know about so we can grab as needed.

I am still a little apprehensive about being able to keep up this pace for the next four weeks, however, it is fun to have several faculty and excited students around. I'm enjoying hearing about their adventures and it is nice to have Americans around.

Christmas Eve

2009-12-25T00:55:00.000Z

We are having a pretty low key Christmas. It is our only few days alone in the house. For those of you who don't know our living situation, Trey and I are kind of a dorm Mom and Dad. We have our own bedroom but we share all other common areas of the house with students including a bathroom and, sometimes, shower. During the semesters so far the crowd hasn't been too bad and even when there are a few guests staying in the house between groups of students it isn't too bad because the house is 6 stories and they are usually here to visit London so are out and about a lot.

Tonight we made blueberry pancakes (got the Bisquick batter mix from the American grocery store) then headed to our church's midnight Christmas Eve service. It was a nice service but smaller than I expected. I was happy that most of the carols were almost exactly the same as ones we sing in the States. Other than waiting on the bus in the freezing cold it was a perfect Christmas Eve. Now we're back at home, changed into P.J.s (the poor elastic of my biggest pair of P.J. pants is now stretched almost to full capacity) and sipping hot chocolate. The only thing missing is our family and friends. We love and miss you!

31 Weeks

2009-12-23T20:48:00.000Z

December 17, 2009

First of all, I forgot to mention in my last post that Trey's Dad got to go to an ultrasound with us! We just happened to have one scheduled the day he arrived and we were so excited to get to share a part of the pregnancy directly with our family as we have felt the strain of being far away from them through this amazing time in our lives. The technician was really kind this time and answered all of our questions. At that point (Dec. 11) the babies both weighed a little over 3 pounds which made me feel a bit more validated about being so sluggish. After all, I am carrying the weight of a normal full term baby plus all of the extra fluid and goodies that go along with having two babies.

We had my favorite ultrasound moment during this scan. I was asking about the position of the babies. The tech said one (the girl who is lower) was breech and the boy (who is up by my ribs) was mostly transverse. He did have his head angled down so that both babies were face to face. She zoomed out and it looked like they were looking right at each other. ADORABLE! She said she couldn't get a picture because the babies were getting too big. I don't exactly understand that but I guess they just don't have the equipment they do at home.

The weekend prior to this picture Trey's Dad was in town. I had started to feel a little tickle in my throat and throughout the week it turned into a full blown cold. I felt awful and could only sleep sitting up. It was strange because normally when I'm sick I feel better when I sleep but I awoke every hour through the night and when I would get up in the morning I felt much worse than when I had gone to bed. On this day I had to get dressed to go to the doctor and it happened to be on the day I turned 32 weeks so I sucked it up and took a picture to document this moment in my pregnancy. Hopefully I won't be sick the rest of the pregnancy. I am sad to say, I gave Trey my cold.

28 Weeks!

2009-12-23T19:37:00.001Z

November 30, 2009

I can't believe I am in my third trimester! As soon as I hit that mark, I relaxed a lot. With a twin pregnancy you hear so much about complications. Between that and all the change we had experienced over the past few months, it had been hard to really relax and enjoy the pregnancy. I definitely wasn't super obsessive but the load, figuratively only, felt a little lighter passing that mark.

On this evening we had our Thanksgiving friends in town and we went to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad. It was a great performance!

Tourists Again

2009-12-23T19:19:00.000Z

While our friends were in town for Thanksgiving we got to be tourists for the week again. Trey took most of the week off and I tried to walk around like I wasn't 28 weeks pregnant with twins. I think I did pretty well but I am officially done with that! I am glad I was still up for the challenge but it was definitely the last week I was up for adventures such as 6 hours of shopping down Oxford Street or touring the Tower of London and St. Paul's.

That look on Trey's face means "I'm freezing." I didn't really notice. Babies are good heaters.

About this far from St, Paul's (which is where we were heading)...

is Tiffinbites. My new favorite restaurant in London. You can get a DELISH Indian rice, veggie and meat for £8.50. Here is the site for any tourists interested: http://www.tiffinbites.com/

Thanksgiving

2009-12-23T18:55:00.001Z

Whoa, I am really late putting this up.

We were blessed to have friends visit us this Thanksgiving. We were really excited to have been able to find all the necessary ingredients for a full, traditional Thanksgiving spread. Here are a few pictures...

That's a lot of food for four people! Don't worry we managed to eat most of it over the following week.

Frozen Dinners

2009-11-18T18:23:00.000Z

One of the things on my long list of to dos has been to find a way to prepare six weeks of frozen dinners for after the babies are born. Basically, Trey only gets 5 days of paternity leave from school and gets no leave from work so we have been trying to figure out ways to streamline parts of life that are somewhat controllable.

Cooking here in general has been an adjustment. When a recipe calls for a stick of butter, I have to think: “let’s see… that’s half a cup, where’s my conversion chart… OK, half a cup of butter is 110 grams… butter here comes in a package of 250 grams… I guess I can just eyeball it… what is the next ingredient?” I know I could get a scale and if I didn’t have to share the kitchen with college students, I might invest in some more useful kitchen equipment. That is the case with a good recipe which contains items available in the grocery stores here. (For those interested in the conversion chart I have been using: http://www.veg-world.com/articles/cups.htm)

Finally, I had decided to start from scratch. It just seemed easier. Buy cooking magazines that actually call the ingredients by the names they use here and give measurements in metric units. That made life so much easier for a few weeks. Then I began hunting for cookbooks geared towards making dinners ready to freeze such as those featured on http://www.savingdinner.com/. I didn’t have much luck.

Finally, I figured I better just start asking because I, apparently, was not putting the ideal search terms into Google. First I tried the dietitian at the hospital. She said that sounded like a fabulous thing for them to know about and she would look into it. The next day we had a meeting with our Pastorate (what they call Sunday School here except it is more like what we call cell groups in the States.) There was a lady who had made a delicious key lime banana pie. The previous meeting she had made these cupcakes that I swear could have come from a store. I asked her if she liked to cook and we started talking. It turns out she had some American recipes which called for “a stick of butter” and was thrilled that I could reveal that a stick of butter was a half a cup. She said she had all of her recipes scanned in and would be happy to email me the ones which were her favorite for freezing. I could have hugged her but we’re in Brittan so I didn’t.

Finally, today I had coffee with two women from the twins club I joined. One was about to pop at 36 weeks pregnant and one was 20 weeks. One of them mentioned they had ordered homemade dinners which were ready to freeze from somewhere called Cooks. Everything went into slow motion. I turned to her and asked her to repeat that information. She said there was a shop where you could place your order online and either have meals delivered or run in and pick them up. They were made with fresh ingredients and you just popped them in the oven for 40 minutes. THIS was the answer. It had to be. We simply do not have the freezer space for six weeks worth of meals anyway. I immediately went home and looked it up and it looks perfect! The website is http://www.cookfood.net/ and it seems like my prayers are answered.

I can't help adding that after our coffee I walked out of the apartment and across the street to Harrods to drool over the handbags from Vogue in person. Even though a diaper bag is the only new handbag in my foreseeable future, a girl can still dream right?

Ultrasound Update

2009-11-05T06:21:00.001Z

Baby B (boy) who is sitting on top.

Baby A (girl) who is lying on bottom.)

If you have heard about our last ultrasound, you will understand why I was very wary of this scan. It was with the same consultant who had previously been so rough and hostile with me. I returned to her this week for my 25 week scan because she could not get the measurements of one of the babies’ face. I just hoped that last time she had been having a bad day and prepared myself to be stern if she did anything I was uncomfortable with.

When we were called into the room I immediately stated that we would like pictures of both of our babies this time. She said fine and we began the ultrasound. She was able to get all the measurements this time and still said she is almost 100 percent sure baby A is a girl but she is positive baby B is a boy. She actually told me a few things she was measuring and apologized when she had to push hard because one of the babies was turned away from her and there was no wand beating this time around. Overall, she was still pretty disconnected but she did seem to be in a better mood.

The babies were both moving around a lot (which I could have told you without the ultrasound) but they are again lying transverse (they are stacked horizontally across my midsection.) Baby A is very low and her head is about even with the sharp point of my hip bone. Baby B is floating around up under my rib cage. I also did not need the ultrasound to tell you they were stacked this way because it is a LOT harder to walk and move with them in that position. They feel a lot heavier than when they are side by side. Baby A started to slide up to my right side yesterday which made me very hopeful but Baby B did not get out of her way and after sitting cramped for a few hours she slid back down to her more spacious accommodations about four inches below him. We all need to pray they turn to a vertex vertex position (both head down) before it gets too crowded for an easy delivery. If they stay in this position I will have to have a c-section.

At the end of the ultrasound, the consultant asked us to step outside while she typed up her report. A few minutes later she entered the crowded waiting room and handed me the report and ONE picture of ONE of my babies. I just want to make it clear that these pictures are printed attached to one another in a minimum set of four. She literally had to tear off the picture and throw the rest in the trash. I looked at it for a minute then looked back at her and said “could I have a picture of my other baby also?” She said “I’m sorry, I only got this one.” I think everyone in the waiting room was looking at her and Trey and I looked so disappointed (I am literally thinking “and are you going to be there to explain when I have a 10 year old twin that asks ‘where are all the ultrasound pictures of me in my baby book’?”) She says hold on a second, turns, goes back into the room and returns with a lovely picture of our baby boy. VICTORY! Hopefully I never have to have a scan done by her again!

Third Trimester!

2009-11-05T05:44:00.000Z

The home stretch! I can’t believe the babies will be here in about three months! I still feel totally unprepared. So far we have no way of getting them from point A to point B and we only have a place for one of them to sleep. Thanks to eBay they both now have lots of clothes up to three months. I did make one retail purchase of some baby blankets, receiving blankets, towels and washcloths. I need a lot more blankets, some bottles, hygiene things and a first aid kit and a ton of other little things but I have a list so that always makes me feel more in control of the situation. The one thing I haven’t been able to find here are the plain cloth diapers that everyone at home uses for burp rags.

Trey and I have attended a few things for the twins clubs we joined. We first went to a Halloween party with the social club. We decided to volunteer as we thought we would feel strange standing around while everyone was watching their kids. They put us in charge of serving drinks (which was mostly keeping the children out of the Winter Pimms punch as it looked so delicious with its cut up pieces of fruit and cinnamon sticks. It was a really nice idea of them because there was a constant flow of people we could talk to. I even met and exchanged numbers with a lady who has 9 month old twins that literally lives around the corner from me. She gave birth at the same hospital I am going to and had lots of reassuring information.

The next event we attended was a lecture from a local author on multiples. We were really excited about it but it was kind of a bust. The speaker’s strongest qualification was having three year old twins and most of the information we already had. It did succeed in making us feel quite overwhelmed as they talked about how you really need to lean on your family and ask them for help over the first few months and how to make the most of your government grants, neither of which we have access to. One thing that was quite helpful was when she talked about having to be assertive with your healthcare. She told a story about how after her c-section she had one baby laying beside her and the other in the nursery. She called the midwife to come help her lift her baby in the middle of the night and the midwife responded “I’m already busy with your baby in the nursery.” She responded “well, I have another one here beside me and would you have me let her lay there and cry all night or would you come lift her so I can feed her?” She also talked about having to break the rules. For instance, most of the children’s clinics do not allow you to bring prams in. She recounted an experience where she was asked to remove her pram and she told the receptionist “excuse me, I have two babies, would you like to hold one so I am not in need of a place to put one?”

Most recently, I attended a coffee break at one of the mom’s homes I me through the twins club. It was amazing to be around three other moms and get to pick their brains. The woman who set up the coffee invited two of her friends that had the two prams we had been interested in. With the limited space in London there aren’t many on display. I got to push them both around but ultimately still am torn. One also gave birth at the hospital I am at. It was just really refreshing… and interesting with three sets of twins.

Ill Fated Ultrasound and Midwife Visits

2009-11-05T05:43:00.000Z

I wish I could make this shorter but, for all those interested in my experience with NHS care over here…

We had an ultrasound scheduled shortly after my 21st week of pregnancy. We had been disappointed at a previous scan because at 16 weeks many of my friends had been able to tell the sex of their baby and when I asked if we might be able to find out I was told the policy was the sex wasn’t divulged until the 20 week scan. (Note the difference between, no, we can’t tell but no we DON’T tell.)

The 21 week ultrasound was to be a bit different because it would be performed by a “fetal medicine specialist” due to a great deal of concern from the consultant (twin specialist) that I had missed the opportunity for Down syndrome screening during my move to the U.K. With a single pregnancy the screening can be done until 16 weeks but with twins the cutoff was 14. This did not particularly matter to me because all it would do is give you an idea of the odds and help you determine if you would warrant an amniocentesis which I had already decided I didn’t want. (In my totally nonmedical opinion, a twin pregnancy is high risk enough I didn’t want to throw a large needle into the mix.) We thought that having a doctor doing the scan was fantastic because it was going to be very thorough and they would be taking all kinds of measurements so SURLEY we would find out the sex of these babies.

We waited outside a scan room reserved for multiples and high risk pregnancies. Under NHS you are held to a strict time table. If you have one baby, you get a 15 minute ultrasound. If you have two babies you get a 30 minute ultrasound and if you are having a fetal monitoring scan you are given 45 minutes to an hour depending on how long it takes to take the babies measurements. The woman in the room before me looked very sick and was wheeled out of the room. When Trey and I were called in one of the first things I said was “we are so excited to hopefully get to find out the sex of the babies today!” The consultant (specialist) responded “Oh, I don’t think that’s very likely” in a cold disconnected manner. I just thought “well, I have been praying for these babies to be turned the right way for four weeks and I just drank the first Starbucks I have had since moving to the U.K. so we will just see how likely it is.” She then asked me why I was seeing her for a scan that day (you always have to tell the doctor why you are there… love the preparation.) I replied with the details about missing Down syndrome screening and she said again “so why are you here to see me?” I again said that my consultant had made the appointment and so I followed her instruction. She responded “And who is your consultant?” in a hostile tone. I told her to which she gave a humph and moved on. The whole conversation all I could think was “oh thank God my consultant it is not you.” I still have yet to actually lay eyes on my consultant. I see a doctor that works with her for my antenatal visits.

I lay down and she began looking at the babies without a word. I said, “I assume you see two heartbeats and both of the babies look OK.” She said “yes.” After a several moments of silence with her clicking around taking measurements I began to ask “…and what is that… and what is that… oh OK what is that…” expecting she would take the hint and eventually begin telling me what she was measuring. Instead after several exchanges like this she said “please don’t ask me any more questions.” Finally upon seeing what was clearly a girl on the monitor I said “can you at least tell me what I am looking at there?” No response. Towards the end of the ultrasound she announced in the most uninspired, disinterested tone I think the words have ever been uttered: “I think we have one boy one girl.” And that was that. After a lot of prodding she could not get the measurements of the boy’s face and proceeded to take both hands around the ultrasound wand, bang it onto my stomach and yell “I cannot get this baby to show me his face!” She hit me so hard I felt it for two days and had a cut next to my belly button. At the end of the ultrasound when I asked for pictures, she gave me one picture of one of my babies and threw the rest in the trash.

So that was bad and it completely freaked me out that she had banged on my stomach so hard but the whole time I was thinking, she is a doctor, she knows what she’s doing. I decided I would ask my midwife about it in the appointment I had with her the following week. I hadn’t actually been to the clinic where my midwife team practices so I set out early. I had a hard time finding it and was almost late which really gets me flustered. After I sat in the waiting room and was called back to my appointment I was surprised to see that the midwife I had spoken two twice was not who was assessing me at this appointment. I thought that the same midwife saw you through your prenatal care and came for the birth. The midwife took my notes (you keep your own medical records here and they call them notes) and began to look through them. She looked at the page from the previous midwife’s notes and said that they needed my blood type but the test the midwife took was inconclusive. If you have read my previous entry about the adventure to take my blood you already know what happened there. I explained that the midwife sent me to the phlebotomist and not to worry, the blood tests were performed. She said well, I don’t see your blood type here and if you are negative you will need the Rho- GAM shot. I explained that I was a negative blood type and would need that. She said she would go check the computer for my blood test results. When she came back she still could not find them (she was also very flustered.) I told her I had seen my blood type in my notes and could show it to her if she would just hand them to me. She said never mind, she would just take my blood and then she would know if I would need the shot or not. I replied “Listen, you aren’t going to be able to draw my blood so just trust me. My blood type is in my notes. It is negative. I only know about the Rho- GAM because when I met with the consultant three weeks ago, she explained… as she was looking at my labs… that because I was a negative blood type I would need to get it. Now, if you will just hand me my notes I can show you where it says…” she walks out of the room and goes to get the equipment to draw blood.

She comes back into the room, ties both my arms, unsuccessfully poking around for a vein, and then asks me where were they able to draw your blood last time. I pointed to a vein in my hand. She ties off my forearm and sticks the needle into the desired vein. Nothing comes out so she begins to prod and dig at it. She does this for quite a while until my skin begins to bubble up behind the needle and turn slightly blue. She is still digging away when I say “Um, that will be enough thank you.” She pulls the needle out, bandages me up and says “do you think you could get a copy of your labs when you go to hospital next?” At this point I am ready to scream. She then hands me a piece of paper and begins to go over the glucose test I will need to have performed. She tells me to come back to the clinic November 20th and we will do the test there. I read the sheet and it lays out a timeline, basically drink the liquid and in exactly one hour have your blood drawn. It specifically states that if you don’t have your blood drawn exactly one hour after drinking the drink the test is inconclusive. I take it upon myself to say to the midwife “don’t you think I should do this at the hospital?” She says that it is usually performed there. I reply “you just saw how well I give blood, don’t you think I should be at the hospital where I can go to the phlebotomist to have my blood drawn after the test so I don’t end up taking it twice?” She concedes and writes me orders. The whole time I am thinking “why am I the one telling you this?”

Now the appointment is winding up and I told her I had several questions. She literally says to me “we don’t have time for that.” I am fighting back tears at this point and say in a chocked voice “well there are some things I am concerned about and I don’t have anyone else to ask.” She allows me to ask one question where I asked about the consultant hitting me in the stomach during the ultrasound. She talked to me about my rights and when I started to ask one question she asked me to go take a urine test. I go to the bathroom and completely fall apart. I am sure she thinks I am taking forever and when I pull myself together and go back to the exam room, as she is testing my sample, I decide to ask my other questions. “We don’t have a car and the hospital requires you leave with the babies in car seats, can my husband push the babies home in the pram? Will someone going to talk to me about my options for the birthing process…?” She does not answer, tells me my test results then leaves the room. I sit, not knowing what is going on when in she comes pushing a pram and followed by a woman with a tiny baby. She is profusely apologizing to the woman saying “I’m so sorry, I know you have been waiting a long time, I am so very sorry, come in and have a seat.” She then looks at me and says “Sarah, I trust you can see yourself out.” I leave the office and again burst into tears (I have never cried so much in my life as I have during this pregnancy and I sincerely hope this persistent symptom resolves itself after the babies are settled into a routine.) I cried all the way home, even through the grocery store that I stopped at on the way.

By the time I got home I resolved the only way I was going to get through this was to take it upon myself to make sure Trey and I became educated. Within the week, I had enrolled us in two twin clubs; one called TAMBA, the Southwest London Twins Club, a parenting course at our church and scheduled a tour of the maternity ward and the NICU at our hospital. TAMBA is more educational and focuses on advocating the rights of parents of multiples within NHS. They also host classes around the city with guest speakers as well as a prenatal course specifically designed for twins and multiples which I dished out the £139 (OUCH) for. The Southwest London Twins Club is more social. The moms bring their babies for coffee breaks to each other’s houses and attend holiday parties as well as quarterly meetings. Hopefully, we will be able to build our confidence in ourselves enough to know what to expect and reduce the stress associated with the healthcare system here.

There are No Bugs in London and the Streets are Filled With...

2009-09-25T22:52:00.000+01:00

I was telling this story to my Mom the other night and she suggested I post it. It happened the first night we stayed at our house here in London.

I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. In our current living situation, going to the bathroom means walking out of our room, into a public hall that is in view of the front door and foyer, next door to the bathroom. (I still have not gotten used to having to put a robe on to go to the bathroom and knowing that I might run into someone in the middle of the night, though I haven’t, still freaks me out a bit.)

Anyway, I look to my right and on the floor by the door is this HUGE black bug. HUGE, like two inches long. I immediately turn around, wake Trey and tell him to deal with this situation. (I don’t do well with bugs and once held a cricket hostage in our bathroom sink with Lysol in Oklahoma for 10 minutes because I knew Trey was on the way home.) So, Trey walks off to handle the situation by the door and I finish the journey I originally set out on. When I return to our bedroom I ask “Did you get it” he replied, simply “doorstop.”

The next day, we were sitting in the queue waiting to enter Buckingham palace and one of the students asked how we slept. I said “Great, I only woke up once! Didn’t you sleep well Trey?” He said “Yeah, except for when you got me up in the middle of the night to chase down the doorstop.”

Wales!

2009-09-19T23:03:00.000+01:00

I just wanted to add a little tip to the posts I put up from Facebook. The albums I post here are public so you don't have to be a member of Facebook to click and view the pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=159271&id=697335714&l=354a2316d9

If you click on the pictures you can read our comments which will technically be our "blog" as Trey helped me with remembering the historical details. Here are my superficial comments:

We LOVED Wales. We could see ourselves living there. It had everything you need including huge department stores, a Staples and quaint shops in this quaint, adorable and city full of character. The people would literally go out of their way to help you if you looked lost. The public transportation was sufficient and the prices were so much lower than London. There was one downside to our trip and it was the hostel… whoops, I mean hotel. We stayed at the Etap Hotel Cardiff Centre. It was awful. It is owned and run by the same company that runs Motel 6 in the U.S. and the U.K. already has lower standards for hotels. You walked in and it looked clean and sufficient. They you tired to get comfortable anywhere and it was impossible. The bed was literally comparable to a table with some towels on it. I woke up at one point and thought “oh thank God, its morning!” only to look at my cell phone and realize it was 2 AM. I then woke up every hour until 6:30 at which point I begged Trey to get up and get ready so we could go downstairs to the lobby until we had to leave. Even with the exhaustion of the night before the city made it all better. We were particularly enthralled with Llandaff Cathedral which got its own Facebook album. Unfortunately, our nice camera died almost immediately after we arrived so the pictures aren’t the best quality. I am just grateful we bought a camera that would fit in my purse (it also takes video which our Nikon D60 doesn’t... just splurge and get the D90 people, you won’t regret it.) Ultimately, it is a shame that this country isn’t as well travelled as much of the U.K. because it was just fantastic.

Lastly, here are the pictures specifically of Llandaff Cathedral.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=159291&id=697335714&l=62d1038c64

The Highlight Reel

2009-09-19T23:00:00.000+01:00

OK, I am disastrously behind and I am setting aside my perfectionist ideal of going back through the calendar and detailing the events of the past few weeks. Instead I am just going to do a timeline and hit the highlights.

Friday, September 4, 2009 – We went for an ultrasound. I was 16 weeks and desperately hoping to see the gender of the babies. Unfortunately, the NHS policy is that they don’t examine for gender until 20 weeks. I don’t think it would have mattered because one of the babies had their back turned and one was lying on their side so we saw the profile. They are transverse which they have been since 9 weeks. (Transverse means one on top of the other lying horizontally across my midsection.) Both of their heads are on the same side, my right and their feet were on my left. I had been worried because I had only felt movement on my left side but that explains it. They aren’t head banging in there. They were measuring perfectly the same which is a good sign and the signs still point towards fraternal twins.

Saturday, September 5, 2009 – I came down with a viral infection and holed up in my room until Thursday. I think I only left the house once to go to the doctor (a general practitioner “GP”) because of the twins they wanted to be cautious. They just told me to take Paracetamol, which is just Tylenol, sleep and use Vicks and steam. We also told them that both Trey and I wanted to register with that practice. The way it works over here is you have to have a GP to be treated when you are sick or to be referred out for any other service. They sent us home with our urine sample tubes and set an appointment for when we came back from Wales.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 – I missed the play “As you Like It” at the Shakespeare’s Globe Theater because I was sick. You had to walk about two miles between tube stops and getting to the theater then you had to stand for the two hour play. I was not up to it. Trey went and hopefully I can convince him to put his thoughts here on it.

Thursday, September 10, 2009 – I had another doctor’s appointment with the specialist. This appointment really should have been scheduled for after the ultrasound in the first place. She just told me what the ultrasound tech told me and that everything did look normal. I did write down my questions though and get the opportunity to have them answered. If all goes well with the pregnancy they won’t require me to have an epidural although the do still recommend one because there is a risk of the second baby going into distress and having to perform an emergency ultrasound. If I opt for an epidural I will get to stay awake through the birth of the second baby, if not, they knock me out for the cesarean. My midwife – who I still am having a hard time understanding – will attend me throughout the birth as well as the consultant who will supposedly be in and out. We still haven’t figured how exactly we are going to get the babies home as we don’t have a car. We need to find someone we can borrow two infant car seats from because there is no use in buying them to use one time. We are literally talking about Trey walking the babies home in the stroller and me taking a cab if we are all healthy enough to do so… that sounds so surreal to me.

Friday and Saturday, September 11-12, 2009 – We took the train to Wales. For more specifics on the trip to Wales, I am just putting a link to our album on Facebook which mostly has historical references to what we were seeing so I will also include in that post my superficial thoughts on the city of Cardiff which is where we spent most of our time.

Sunday, September 13, 2009 – This day was mostly spent resting after all the walking we did in Wales. The walking is getting to be pretty hard on my body and while I have more endurance, I am experiencing a lot more pain from it. We did go to church that evening at Holy Trinity Brompton, the Anglican Church we’d visited earlier. We liked it and stayed after for more information. They gave us some email information about their cell groups which they call Pastorates. They don’t have traditional Sunday School. Instead, you meet with a small group every other week in someone’s home. We have since been assigned to one and have emailed the coordinator but haven’t heard back about the details yet.

Monday, September 14, 2009 – We went to register with our GP today. When we got to the counter they were not enthused about registering us foreigners. They kept expecting us not to have all our documentation even though I assured them that before we moved to the UK I had registered with a hospital for maternity and everything was there. Finally, begrudgingly, we were registered. (Part of this process included producing urine samples from both Trey and myself and this was instructed to be done at home before we came in so we had to carry our samples through Kensington on our walk to the doctor. I still can’t get over doing stuff like that.) We both saw a nurse who took our family histories and I appeared to either be dehydrated or having blood sugar issues so for the third time this month I had my blood drawn for a random blood sugar test. Also, for the second time, the blood pressure machine produced an error so they just asked me what my last blood pressure reading was and wrote that down… sounds good enough right? Fortunately, my blood pressure has been around 110/70 so I wasn’t worried about it.

Thursday, September 17, 2009 – Oxford! Our neighbor, Roger, who is like the epitome of what you could ask for in a Brit, is an Oxford graduate and graciously volunteered to escort us to and tour us through Oxford. I will do the same thing I did with Wales with an album with commentary, however, the bonus bits are that we walked… for 8 hours… excluding breaks. Roger has a magic alumni card that got us in most anywhere we wanted to go. His college was Magdalene which was one of the three colleges that vies for the title of the first Oxford college established in the late 1100s. It has the most grounds of any of the colleges and was absolutely stunning. There is this massive park that has deer and “cosmetic cows” as Roger calls them saying they are only there for looks and serve no real purpose and a trail that wraps around the outskirts of Oxford shire with a magnificent view of all of the towers of the colleges. It was stunning and not something you see if you are just walking around the town. We felt very fortunate and at the end of the day, very tired. We arrived home around 8:30 and Trey was sick as a dog. I sent him home and got to walk some more to the grocery store to pick up soup and Orange Juice. I picked up dinner for myself also but never got to eat it because when I arrived home Trey handed me the laptop and said he was sorry but he couldn’t stay awake and the school had finally emailed us our contract for which the needed a response for by tomorrow. The contract was wrong and I ended up working with the school until midnight to resolve the discrepancies that had us in a panic. They were very generous and accommodating as they have been throughout the whole process and, ultimately, everything was fine and there was no need for panic. I guess it was just pregnancy hormones combined with complete and utter exhaustion.

Friday, September 18, 2009 – If I had my druthers, I would not have gotten out of bed. I have been experiencing a lot of pain when I have been walking like we did in Wales and Oxford and it takes me about three days to fully recover. However, I had a follow up doctor’s appointment at 8:40 in the morning. They wanted to draw a fasting blood sugar reading because my readings had been high at the last appointment. My random blood sugar had come back normal and they had credited it to dehydration. I was graciously allowed to produce a urine sample at the doctor’s office this time and I still appeared to have high levels that were either indicating high blood sugar or dehydration. I went ahead and had my blood drawn as I hadn’t eaten since the previous day and they wanted a fasting blood sugar test. The results should come in sometime next week but I really think it is dehydration. I haven’t felt jitters or any of the normal high blood sugar symptoms but I am thirsty all the time. Other than that appointment, I holed up in the house and caught up on email with the school. We are still trying to work out issues with taxes and method of payment as well as finalizing that pesky contract.

Saturday, September 19, 2009 – Today I finally got my full day of rest. I just uploaded pictures which gave me the opportunity to go back over details from the Wales trip we loved and talked to friends and family on Skype. We went out for dinner with Kathy from our office to the Texas Embassy. Now: if you are only in London a few days, don’t bother and just wait for the Tex-Mex at home. However, if you are here long enough to get homesick and it becomes a worthwhile expenditure; the $27.00 fajitas are totally worth it. I could have cried because it felt like I am home. BIG TIP: I have been dying with the tiny glasses of iceless water they give you here. When you go to a restaurant and you don’t want to spend $5.00 for a refill of your coke, go ahead and order a large – empty - glass of ice along with a pitcher of tap water. If you ask for your tap water to be refilled they look at you like you are annoying, however, they don’t mind washing the extra pitcher. They usually also put lemon and ice in the pitcher which they do not put if you just order a glass of tap water. You will feel weird at first when you order it but with all the walking you are doing while you are here you will thank me after your meal. I have literally ordered water and gotten a tumbler. We then all went to the Haagen-Dazs café for a wonderfully expensive dessert. This is the second time I have been full since I have been in London. I absolutely do not know what to eat here and everything is so expensive we have been eating a lot of soup and bread.

OK, you are officially caught up and I am sorry I have been delinquent!

Too Much Information

2009-09-10T14:26:00.000+01:00

Gentle Caution: This post might contain too much information. I am going to detail my first hospital visit in the UK for a prenatal (henceforth known as antenatal) appointment. You know we all go through this stuff and I don’t think it is anything too touchy but it was too funny not to include and just too real life in general. I have delayed posting this simply because it was going to be a long one and I needed time to digest everything that occurred in the past couple of days. Plus, Thursday night I got to talk on Skype to my Mom which meant I was up until 1:45 at which point it was already Friday so “I” (read: Trey) decided to sleep instead of update.

Also, if you just want to read the really weird part, it is the one called “The Blood Work”

On Thursday, September 3rd I awoke excited for our first doctor’s appointment. It was at the hospital where I would give birth and I had yet to physically locate it although I had Google-street-viewed it several times from home before we moved. The hospital was about a mile away from my home so naturally we looked up how to get there on the tube or bus because surely pregnant women don’t walk to the doctor, right? Taking public transportation would require walking a block to the tube, walking down a flight of stairs, standing waiting up to 10 minutes on your train, taking the tube one stop, exiting the station by going up two flights of stairs, walking two blocks to stand and wait up to 10 minutes on a bus, riding a bus two stops and walking a block the rest of the way to the hospital. Estimated travel time: 45 minutes. So the day of the appointment we got ready, ate a rushed breakfast and headed off on our first ever walk to the doctor. We left at 9:25 for our 9:40 AM appointment. We barely made our 15 minute mile all the way back to the doors of the antenatal clinic.

THE HOSPITAL: was in some ways very similar to the hospitals we are used to. You walked into a huge open space with a reception desk and as we walked to the antenatal clinic we passed a drink and snack stand, a coffee shop, places to sit and wait or meet for lunch and large escalators that ran to the upper floors. There was tons of light flooding in and there were huge sculptures and artwork on the walls. It was a similar feeling to walking into the grocery stores here. It looked the same at first glance but as you got closer everything was just a little different. Things just look a little more organic and not quite as shiny, catchy and new. We turned into the clinic and went straight to the reception desk. We were supposed to arrive 10 minutes early and had actually arrived at the scheduled time of our appointment. I apologized for this and was told not to be silly then asked for my records. I handed the man at the desk a copy of my records from the U.S. as well as copies of our hospital registration forms. Registration forms include copies of a passport, visa, and a utility bill proving that you reside in the area for the hospital you are claiming you are zoned to. We don’t pay our utility bill, our employer does, so they allowed us to present a bill with their name and a letter from them stating that we did live at the address and the bills were paid by said employer. You have to provide this because you are zoned to a hospital the same way you are zoned to public school in the U.S. and people try to be sneaky if they don’t want to give birth or be treated at a particular hospital. Upon being presented with these documents the reception clerk looked at me like I was from Mars. He said “don’t you have a [sheeshenslobben]”? (Omitted because I still have no comprehension of the word he used to describe my U.K. records.) I replied that the midwife had said she would send something over and we had just moved here a week ago so it was our first time to hospital. A light bulb went off and he reached over to a cart and handed me a copy of my records then sent me to the waiting room immediately behind us. (Note for later in the blood work section of this post that I alerted him my name was wrong on the records. They had my maiden name. He replied by saying “O.K.”)

THE DOCTOR: We waited with about 10 other women many of whom were there just to have blood drawn and eventually a tall blond woman in plain clothes with an American accent called me back to the exam room where my consultant “specialist” (at least that is who I think she was, she might have been a Physician Assistant or a doctor on the consultant team but not the main consultant because she kept referencing the consultant…) was waiting. She was a shorter blond that looked about 30. Both women would have looked more appropriate on T.V. than an exam room. They sat facing a long desk pushed up against a wall. We sat next to the desk with our backs to the wall facing an exam table and curtain that shielded the patient who was being examined from the door with the window. It was a slight bit smaller than exam rooms in the U.S. but felt quite a bit smaller with four people in there. They began by asking what my doctors in the states had told me about what to expect with a twin pregnancy. I described briefly the complications they said I might expect then the U.K. doctor went into detailed every complication I had read about. They called them by different names such as In Uterine Growth Restriction vs. In Uterine Growth Retardation, and how they would test for them throughout the pregnancy. It was all information I had heard before. They then felt around my tummy and sent me to take a urine test.

THE URIN TEST: OK, here is where things started getting a bit… different. First of all they handed me a vial, not cup because it was about twice the size of a vial one’s blood goes into and sent me off to the bathroom. Once inside I looked everywhere for the permanent marker to write my name on it but there was not one to be found. I also looked and tried lots of knobs looking for the holder where the magic lab elves takes your sample, process it, and send you your results a week later. There was no such receptacle. (As a side note, you should know that the toilets here even at the hospital are a good foot shorter in the length of the seat than the ones at the hospitals in the U.S.) So I took my vial, acquisitioned my sample and, having nothing else to do with it, wrapped it in paper towels, washed my hands and carried it out of the bathroom, down the corridor with all the patient rooms back to the room where my doctor, my doctor’s student and my husband were sitting. I awkwardly announced that I was holding my pee… in my hand… and couldn’t find a receptacle in the bathroom. The student of the doctor assured me I had followed procedure, put gloves on, took my sample over to the sink about a foot away from my husband, and opened it and STUCK THE TEST STRIP IN IT!!! Right there in front of all of us she was testing my pee!!! She told me the preliminary results and that they would send it to the lab like normal medical professionals. For the rest of the visit things returned to normal then I was sent for blood work. I had an opportunity to ask questions but I couldn’t think of any because I was so distracted.

THE BLOOD WORK: OK this is where it really gets different. I was sent back to the waiting room and instructed to take a ticket for the blood work. My number was called quickly and I went back to a normal room where you give blood. The only thing unusual here was that there were some hospital workers taking inventory of birth related drugs in a cabinet about two feet away from me. The technician tried a couple of times to take my blood but was unsuccessful. She then kindly called upstairs said I had already waited in antenatal and could they put me to the front of the line if she sent me upstairs. After securing me a spot at the phlebotomist where I was assured all the equipment was kept for difficult veins like mine. She assembled all of the test tubes into this wide mouthed aluminum cup and stuck various stickers around the outside of the cup. Trey said the cup looked like the bottom of a jiffy pop container. She handed this to me and directed me upstairs. I walked through the wide, open, sunny lobby and rode the escalators upstairs. I found the blood lab and walked into what I had pictured when I heard stories about NHS care. The room was quite large for a waiting room and had chairs zigzagged all through it with lines of patients waiting for blood work. I went to the desk at the front of the room and said I had been sent from downstairs. They allowed me to sit in an area right outside of the door where I could see people’s blood being drawn.

I was called in quickly. I sat down in front of one of four techs drawing blood. They were super sanitary. For every patient they changed a plastic apron that went from their neck to their knees. They then put hand sanitizer on before putting on plastic gloves. The gentleman made a valiant effort to find a vein and right before he was about to stick a needle in my wrist, like where you take your pulse which didn’t seem like that great of an idea, another technician, the only female in the room, stopped him and called me over. She found a spot on my hand and drew my blood then stuck the stickers from the cup onto the blood. I pointed out to her that the stickers said my maiden name and I kept asking for it to be changed to my married name. She went and got her supervisor who asked me why I hadn’t told them downstairs at the antenatal clinic. I replied that I had and they hadn’t done anything about it. He then said his concern, which was my concern, was that the blood would be sent off with the current name and come back with no matching record because my name would have been changed in the meantime. He appeared frustrated with the antenatal clinic and as he was ripping stickers off of my blood he told me to take my blood back downstairs and ask them for new stickers with the correct name. I then walked… with my blood in a plastic see through baggie… down the escalator through the sunny lobby with the food carts and the waiting visitors and the gift shop and the artwork back to the antenatal clinic. I informed the reception clerk that I was in need of new stickers per the blood lab’s instruction. We proceeded to go through the extensive name change process. I told him my name was Medley. He printed out new labels with “Melody” on them. I said no, “Medley” and he corrected the labels. He gave me two pages of labels a little smaller than Avery 5366. I stood there, blood in one hand, labels in the other, at the desk thinking “what am I supposed to do with these.” He prompted me to put them… on… the… blood. I removed my blood… in the waiting room… peeled new labels and stuck them on my blood then returned my blood to the baggie. He then prompted me to drop it into a hole in the desk I had not previously noticed. Like a square cut out hole. It was not covered up, everyone’s blood was just thrown in there. Like if it struck me I could have just grabbed a bunch of blood and gone running out of there. Like there were pencils, a stapler, pamphlets, and a hole for blood. I dropped my blood in and went to hand him my medical records. He rejected my advance and told me I would need to correct my name throughout my medical records and bring them for my next appointment. Silly me, you keep your own records in the U.K. Trey and I then took labels and covered up everywhere my maiden name was mentioned with my brand new labels with my current name.

The rest of the day will be detailed in another blog because frankly, this one deserves to stand on its own.

Slowing Down

2009-09-02T23:05:00.000+01:00

The longer we’re here the more free things we look for to do and the more we are trying to cook in. Yesterday morning we got off to a slow start but in the afternoon decided to take our first trip to the National Gallery. As it is free, I anticipate we will make many trips in the future. To get there we took the tube to Leicester Square. It is interesting in itself. It has a lot of restaurants and a couple of theaters. We were there on a work day so there were lots of people on their lunch break. I got excited when I saw the Haagen-Dazs Café that I had gone to when I was here at 17. I had tried to send Trey when he was in London last summer but we couldn’t find the listing online and I couldn’t remember exactly where it was. We had been keeping our eyes out for a place to stop and have a snack after the museum so it was perfect.

We then walked to Trafalgar Square. It was our first sighting on this trip so we gave it the obligatory look around. It was about to rain and I keep thinking of all these places “I’ll go back and take pictures when the sun is shining” but we did take a few. When we got inside the gallery we grabbed a map and worked out our strategy. The museum is divided into periods and as it was free we decided to look at it progressively over time because who has time to do stuff like that right? We picked our favorite period to start with (18th through 20th century) and worked our way around that corner o the museum taking our time. We noted our favorite paintings all the way through and have determined to go back and see various periods on various days then rent those audio tours and hit our favorites as there are 40 plus hours of commentary available. We toured it and it was wonderful just to walk around for free and take in all those famous works of art. We followed it up with a brownie ice cream dish at the Haagen-Dazs café. We split it because it was a whopping £7.10. We then hurried home in the rain. After a bit we went to the grocery store. We had intended to make sandwiches, however, bread here molds quite quickly and we were dismayed to find our loaf had been lost. We were starving and after wandering around finally decided on a bag of microwave risotto from Uncle Ben. All I knew was that I knew the name and wanted something familiar. We then watched a movie (Gosford Park) in the T.V. room downstairs then went to bed for a fitful night of sleep.

Today we woke up by the skin of our teeth and had a big day doing things for the house. There were several things we had collected that we needed, lots of dishes, replace a molded shower curtain, a step ladder, etc. We went to a store called Homebase. It was like Home Depot meets Home Goods. They had everything from cleaning supplies to lumber to bath tubs to bedding to furniture to picture frames. It was wild to be in a shop like that after all the small shops we had been in. It was only two miles away but we took the bus about a mile then walked about a mile. By the time we left we had acquired so much there was no way we were making it on the bus. We had 6 tea cups and saucers, 18 mugs, 24 place settings of dinner ware and an assortment of other household items. Apparently this is a common issue at the Homebound store because they have a phone that directly rings a car service. You just pick it up and it dials. A car was there fairly quickly and the driver even helped us unload. I rang the doorbell several times and got the students downstairs to help us carry everything… very nice… and we had it all downstairs in one trip. We spent the rest of the day washing all the dishes in the dish washer, so far we’ve done three loads and we’re not completely done! We walked, in the rain, to a closer grocery store which has better meat for dinner. It is called Waitrose. It is a little more expensive but sometimes worth it for the freshness. We got a whole chicken, some lemon and rosemary rice and found these bags of fresh cut vegetables ready to steam for about £8 plus we have leftover chicken to use for dinner tomorrow. I am still freaked out about how much more expensive everything is but I am getting adjusted.

One thing I am not getting adjusted to is living without our dog. I miss her terribly even though I know she is in good hands it just really gets to me that we can’t tell her why we left her or that we’re coming back. So, for those of you who pray for us (and we greatly appreciate your prayers) pray for me because I am missing her really badly and am a little homesick in general. I know we’ve only been here a week but we haven’t met any couples our age. It is great to have the socialization in the house that we have and it really helps, however, I miss the friendship of people in the same phase of life as we are. I am also eager to find a church home. Also, we found out they were looking for a Biblical Perspectives professor for next semester which is something Trey is qualified to teach so he has asked to be considered for that if you could pray in that area we would be so grateful.

Day of Rest

2009-09-01T00:15:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was Sunday so I took off blogging. Trey and I went with the students, professor and Kathy to a church called Holy Trinity Brompton. I got on their website ahead of time as Trey and I will actually be looking for a church home and they described themselves as a ” vibrant Anglican church in the heart of London, with a vision to play our part in the re-evangelisation of the nations and the transformation of society.” (They are also the church that began the Alpha divorce recovery program if you have heard of that.) We were told it was super casual but as I will only be able to fit in my pre-pregnancy dress clothes for a short time longer I decided to go ahead and wear my typical Sunday clothes. I did opt for my Cole Haan flats with the Nike Air in the heels as we were going to be walking the mile to church. About a quarter mile in, my heels began to attempt to break free from the bondage of the closed heel that had not held them from the time I left my job over a month ago. By a half mile I was bleeding. Band aids were tried, Kleenex was tried all to no avail. I was so frustrated I cried, thank you pregnancy hormones and leftover jet lag, which was embarrassing, as the timing of my tearful moments always tends to be. I walked on my tip toes the rest of the way which minimized further damage but has left me with one sore shin. By the time we got to the church and sat down I realized that my sole focus of the entire journey had been moving forward and I had missed all the scenery. The best way to see this city is just to walk it. If you are going less than three tube stops, don’t ride, just walk… with tried and true shoes I should say.

When we sat down the first thing that struck me was the juxtaposition of the stone walls, arches and alfresco painting surrounding the Alter with the mammoth screen suspended in front of the alfresco playing a praise and worship rock band concert. I couldn’t reconcile the mishmash of a cathedral with what I was watching on the screen. We sat on chairs lined up like pews but completely mobile. You could tell the entire hall could be cleared of the chairs. The church was super casual but there were people dressed up as well. There were several nationalities in the congregation and it was very easy to feel at home as the atmosphere was pretty “come as you are” despite the formality of the physical building. As the worship leader took the stage I was pleased to find that I knew the song. As the worship service progressed I actually only found two songs I didn’t know. I always like to listen closely to the announcements in a new church because I feel like outside of the Biblical teaching it is the best way to get a feel for the direction of the church. They had a week of focused prayer coming up with an emphasis on missions and a marriage conference for their focus group leaders coming up. The sermon was very basic and watered down. There was a passage read at the beginning followed by a list of tips for keeping your relationship with God authentic. They had open communion which we took (non-alcoholic wine for the pregnant lady.) I had never taken Anglican communion and I could tell when they handed me the bread and the cup I was supposed to say something but I did not know what that was so I just mumbled something indescript then asked Trey what I was supposed to say when I got back to my seat (regretting the whole time that I couldn’t go barefoot.) It was just “Amen.” Finally the time came for the end of the service (it lasted from 11:30-1:00) and that unfortunately also meant the time to walk home. Kathy offered to send me on the bus but determined to build calluses so I can wear my Cole Haan flats around Paris I refused, re-secured my band-aids, repositioned my Kleenex to a more prime, yet embarrassing, position and plunged ahead.

We stopped about two blocks from the house at an authentic Indian restaurant the only things I know I ate were rice and chicken in some sort of creamy sauce. There was flat bread that you break apart and dip in either a minty creamy sauce, a fruity mango sauce, or a chunky spicy sauce. Kathy also ordered a super spicy vegetable medley dish and a creamed spinach dish for the table. I loved the chicken and was full for the first time since we arrived but I have no desire to eat there again for a long while. We returned home and lounged around for the rest o the day.

Today we stayed around the house. I slept until 10 even though Trey got up for breakfast at 8. (We have a set breakfast from 8 to 8:30 AM Monday through Thursday because breakfast is paid for by the house and a student assistant sets it out and puts it away… have I mentioned how spoiled we are going to be when we get home?) We got up and met with Kathy about house issues. We had a lot of questions and we still have not gotten a signed agreement for our employment nor has the school been able to figure out our peculiar tax situation therefore we have not begun receiving our living stipend so we are currently living off savings (hold your breath!) We began doing laundry which can be a juggling act in a house with 9 people and one washer/dryer. We did 6 loads today and it was only our clothes. We still need to do our sheets and towels. I was really wishing we had gotten it done earlier because today it was 81 degrees which you really feel when there is no AC around and you have worn all your summer clothes. Laundry took us until 5:00 and by then I was starving. Trey and I decided to go to Hard Rock and let a few people know. Within about 5 minutes we had a group of 5 going, so fun! We took the tube down there and had a great American dinner. Everyone had burgers except me and I found some chicken mac and cheese on the menu. The big draw for Hard Rock is FREE REFILLS!!!!! Oh how I miss them, oh how I enjoyed them. Promptly when we sat down I told our waiter just how excited we were for them and he kept our cups flowing. It was probably one of the top mini-moments of the trip so far. I am already adjusting to the smaller portions and could not even eat half of my dinner. Trey took home half of his burger. We were all so stuffed we decided to walk the two miles home which can actually be faster than taking the tube home. I was quite excited as this journey took us past some of the nicer shops including… duh duh duh duh… Harrods! We got to see the lights pop on just as we were walking past and all the lovely window displays. The walk home did a lot for the fullness of our bellies. This evening our first little bump in the road with cleaning and household responsibility occurred. Of course, I can’t go into details but I did want to mention that everyone came together and we all seemed to move forward as a group and reach a point where I think everyone had a happier outlook. Off to bed we go!

To the Market We Go… The Camden Market

2009-08-30T00:26:00.001+01:00

Today we went to experience the Camden Market. It was the farthest I have yet to venture since coming home from the airport. We are in Central London which is Zone 1 of the tube transportation system and the market is in Zone 2. We had to take two tubes to get there and because it was Saturday the tubes run more slowly and there is generally construction so the station we came in on was only outbound and would not be making return trips into the city. Fortunately we were with Kathy and she was able to tell us how to get to the tube station on the opposite side of the market.

When we arrived I was like, well great, waste of a day. I could have done this when we were in New Orleans. It was just punk clothes, touristy things (even I Love New York shirts) and drug paraphernalia. We got to the Camden Lock and got to see a boat coming through which was nice, that part of the area was pretty and then we moved into the part of the market I really enjoyed. They had all kinds of jewelry and many other things. One thing that I am dying for actually is a scarf as cliché as it sounds. There was one booth I found that had 100% silk cashmere scarves for £12 and I will have one before I leave I am just waiting for a good shopping buddy to visit. We toured around them for about two hours and then went through the food part of the market. There were so many things that looked delicious and we settled on this Turkish place after we sampled some of their amazing chicken. It was a great meal with couscous and salad. It was supposedly super cheap but it was still £13.

When we were done at the market we meandered to our newly discovered tube stop (on the Northern line) alone and managed to find our way to the Piccadilly which brought us home. When we got home I slept about 3 hours and Trey took a walk around the neighborhood. I don’t know if it is the jet lag or what but I am still really tired even though I am sleeping all night. I have also finally been getting a little achy for my family and my dog and I can’t really think about poor Anna not understanding why we’re gone without getting upset.

We had found this burger place in a book my sister-in-law had given Trey for graduation called “Not for Tourists” (which is a great concise guide) that we wanted to try. It is called Byron’s and is across the street from our tube station. When you come to visit us and you get homesick, this is where we go. This place was pretty modern inside but it played mostly oldies, had great burgers, fries and shakes and really hit the spot. They raise their own cows in Scotland; the meat is sent to the store in cuts and ground on location. The ground beef is served within 24 hours and served on a roll, man, it was a good burger. The shakes tasted like they had real chocolate, not syrup, in them and are huge (as they should be at £3.25 a pop.) We then walked through Boots (a drugstore but it has upscale stuff like Clinique too) and a shopping center that has our closest, but not cheapest, grocery: Waitrose. In the center were some booths and shops as well as a Super Cuts. When we got home it was about time for our last orientation meeting with the students and now I am calling it a day.

Making it Feel Like Home

2009-08-28T23:24:00.001+01:00

Here is a picture of the house, the little mark on the column is just where I erased the house number.

This morning the midwife came to our house. It was strange to see a medical professional in our home. She even drew my blood while sitting on my bed. It was mostly going through medical background and going over my health plan. I will meet with a “consultant” who is a specialist next week sometime and we will do some more blood tests there. A consultant is basically someone who specialized but did not get an M.D. prior to specializing as we do at home in the States. I will also need to get a General Practitioner, a GP, as they are the ones who received an M.D. and who coordinate your care. For instance: if you had a bladder infection and you went to your midwife, she would diagnose you then send you to your GP to get a prescription. Communicating between all of these parties and relaying the information they give you is your responsibility.

The rest of the day we spent unpacking. Trey was literally losing his mind to unpack. He spent the summer packing our belongings followed by a series of loading, unloading, packing for our road trip, unpacking, living out of suitcases at my Mom’s house, unpacking for the garage sale, packing the storage items into my closet at my Mom’s house and finally packing for London. I have never seen the man have a desire to be organized especially when I really didn’t care. I mean come on, we’re in London! We can live out of a suitcase until you start school! However, today the students went to use their London passes today so we pretty much had the house to ourselves. We didn’t leave. We ate here, rested and are officially unpacked. Every belonging has at least a temporary home and we no longer have suitcases or boxes in our room. I have a happy husband. The fun thing is, we still had conversations and interactions with 9 people as they came in and out of the house from their day’s adventures. I have been surprised at how much I am enjoying all the opportunity for social interaction. Tomorrow we go to the markets! Who wants a scarf?

Bonus Bit: Today I turned on the T.V. for the first time this morning to watch the news. We get 6 channels and only 2 of them seemed normal. One was some REALLY strange game show with people riding these funky exercise bikes and having to jump off to answer questions, the next was the same game show in German, one was a kid’s show (Thomas the Train) and the other two were like Good Morning America. That is just a summation of the 20 minutes while I was getting dressed but I don't have a good feeling…

Neighborhood Walk

2009-08-28T02:03:00.000+01:00

When I heard we were going on a neighborhood walk with a neighbor who has lived in the house to our left since the ‘70s I thought “how nice, a leisurely stroll around the surrounding blocks of the neighborhood, we will learn the best places to take our cleaning, get a cheap dinner, maybe some back roads to the tube.” I was wrong. Although spectacular and amazingly informative, the walk began at 9:30 AM and we reached our end point… not our home… at 1:00 PM. We only went 1.9 miles; however, this seemed to be done in concentric circles. I had to stop literally moments before we were done. We have been walking since we got here and I just reached my limit. I now have shin splints. This officially ends the complaining section of this entry. On to what we learned:

The first stop on our tour was just across the street. There is a government subsidized Holiday Inn which took out about a full two blocks of homes and can be seen from the entire neighborhood. We learned how to be good British citizens abhorring capitalist driven expansion and how to literally shake our fists at the monstrosity. Before construction Holiday Inn promised to compensate the neighborhood with equal gardens to the Ashburn Gardens they removed through construction. This was not done and all of the grounds were gated off. We were instructed to deter family and friends from staying there and shake our fists from wherever we could see the building for the rest of the walk. We also saw the homes of John Lennon, T.S. Elliott (whose last wife is in her 90s and still resides there, John Stewart Mills, Charles Booth (the brother of William Booth who started Salvation Army), Lakshmi Mittal who lives across the street from the Kensington Palace on the same street as the Russian, Israeli, Romanian and Finland embassies. We learned how to detect the more wealthy homes by the fact that you only see one doorbell. We also found the nearest public gardens where you could sit and read as well as a rooftop garden you can visit when there aren’t events going on and a restaurant above the gardens with a patio area that overlooks the city which is a very rare opportunity. We toured several chapels in the area and there was one, St. Mary Abbot constructed in the 1600s with stone vaulting. The highest level of vaulting was lost in the bombing and had to be reconstructed with cheaper material but you still get a sense of the beauty. It has the tallest spire in London and is the church Princess Dianna attended.

After the walk we Trey and I stumbled to the nearest restaurant that caught our eye (called “Giraffe”) and spent way too much money on lunch. The English gave a good go at some Tex-Mex inspired meals. Trey had Quesadillas (they do not pronounce the y sound much like the South we just left) containing goat cheese, spinach and mushrooms while I had spicy grilled turkey enchiladas with corn and black beans. They were spot on with a brownie and ice cream for dessert. We will go back for dessert but it was £24.00 (about $40.00) for lunch so we won’t be eating there often. We caught the bus back to our street and a nice local taught us how to identify your stop and alert the driver you wanted to get off. It was my first ride on a big red Double Decker Bus. It dropped us right near the tube stop we had been using to travel from and we raced home because we were sending the students on a scavenger hunt while we had a meeting with Kathy and our professor for the semester.

We had rest time after that and rest we did. Trey and I both fell asleep which is why I am now blogging at 12:30 in the morning. When I got up I checked my email and found that the hospital I am zoned to had emailed to let me know that “the midwives” would be coming to my house for my appointment the next morning at 9:30 AM which will be good because the students will be gone for the day. The school gave us all something called “The London Pass.” You can buy a 1, 2 or 3 day pass which allows you into a ton of major sites. The one day pass is about £40.00 BUT if you just go to the Tower of London it can cost up to £27.00 alone and only takes two hours of your day so you get your monies worth. If you are coming to visit, I can help arrange one for you and give you suggestions on how to use it if you are interested. It also lets you line jump which I know is terrible but it is terribly awesome when you only have one day. You can find discounts on lots of popular restaurants as well. We also learned about a great guide called “London for Free” so let me know if you are coming on a strict budget and I will get you a copy. It really made a difference today just to walk around with a local and hear the history. Everywhere you go is so rich in it.

In the evening we met with the students and got their results for the scavenger hunt. They were competitive but had a great time with it. We also learned where you could get tea and scones for £5 per person (which is great compared to high tea at Harrods which is £28 per person. The students also got to meet a graduate who had stayed at the house a year ago. She is now living in London under some sort of work program. Trey and I had missed dinner so we walked to our nearest grocery that was still open, Sainsbury’s, and got dinner for a much more reasonable price than lunch. We bought a frozen pizza for £2. It was delicious and much more economical than our pricey lunch. Now we are unpacking -- and by “we” I mean I am pointing out where I want my things to go while Trey unpacks… I am one lucky woman.

We are Tourists

2009-08-26T22:49:00.001+01:00

Parlaiment

We woke up late this morning. Breakfast was to begin at 8 and we were to be leaving with the students at 9 and we learned that the buzzer on our alarm is not loud enough to wake us up. We made it down for a quick breakfast and headed off for a tour of Buckingham Palace. We took our time going through it and were the last ones to finish. You can set your own pace and it took us an hour and a half. The state rooms were gorgeous and we really enjoyed all of the art collections. Both mine and Trey’s favorite room was the music room and we were surprised to see there was only a baby grand piano. The audio tour was disappointing. There wasn’t a lot of history in it. It mostly directed you through the rooms and called your attention to the details. Unfortunately you could not take pictures inside the palace so I have none to share. As you exit the palace you find yourself looking out onto the beautiful gardens. Prince Charles has said if he survives his mother and becomes King, he will open the gardens to the public and move the permanent residence of the monarch to Windsor. There was a café so we got a bottle of water and sat outside to enjoy the only sunny part of the day. (It was “spitting” – quoting a child I heard coming out of the tube the rest of the day.) We walked leisurely through the rest of the gardens and found our way home for the first time on our own.

We made it home around 12:00 and had a lunch/rest break until 2. Trey and I caught up on email and ate some of the food leftover from lunch yesterday. We met with the students and headed to Parliament. This tour is a must see if you are at all interested in European history or government. We had a great tour guide and the tour was cram packed with history with a straightforward picture of London’s democracy. One interesting thing we learned was that the word “commons” from the house of commons comes does not come from the idea that the people are common but from the from the French word “communauté” which stand for “community.”

We headed back to our house and stopped at a pub with the students on the way home. Trey had Fish and Chips and I had a “jacket” (baked potato) with cheese and a salad. (We drank water and Pepsi for those of you who are wondering.) We then walked back to the house and met with our neighbor, Roger. He is Oxford educated and taught there for a number of years. He now teaches English as a second language and has a passion for London and students. He meets with the students every semester and offers his wide breadth of knowledge of the city to those who wish to glean from it. He has won a special place in Trey’s heart by promising to arrange a private tour of Westminster and St. Paul’s libraries. They are not open to the public but he has had some of the monks in his classes who are willing to let him in. He talked about the sites to see and knew the answer to every question from where to sit when visiting the boys choir in Westminster to the best way to get in the front row at the Globe theater to where does J.K. Rowling live. The only question that stumped him, and we shot questions at him for two hours, was when a student asked where they could find a karaoke bar. After he left, we went over some housekeeping issues with Dr. Brammer and Kathy, I had a banana because a potato is just not enough for dinner when it doesn’t have some barbeque pork on it and now Trey is unpacking. (Oh the sacrifices I am making to keep you updated.) I can’t believe I have kept up until almost 11:00 and that I can’t make it another couple of hours to give my Mom a call on Skype but I MUST go to bed! Have a lovely evening to my loved ones in CST.

The Detailed Version (scroll below for the short one.)

2009-08-26T12:42:00.000+01:00

We woke up in Houston at 5:30 AM CST on August 24, 2009, finished packing and headed off to the air port. We went in two cars. Trey rode with his parents who loaded their luggage into their SUV and I rode with my Mom. We got to bring one 50 lb bag for free but the second for each of us was $50.00. We had prepaid this when we checked in online so we were able to check in curbside and head to security where Trey went straight through but I had to get a full pat down. Right when we got to Starbucks for breakfast I realized I had forgotten my sweater so I had to promptly leave the secured area to search for it. I found it in the parking lot near the curb side check in and, thus, got to go through security twice.

We did ultimately get to have our Starbucks and made our way back to the gate in plenty of time. Our plane to Atlanta was very, very small and both Trey and I had to check one of our carryon bags each. This sent me into mild hysterics as some of you may recall I had had a piece of luggage stolen earlier that year and learned the FFA did not reimburse for any item “deemed valuable.” I carefully packed all of my jewelry, 2 years worth of contact lenses, a retainer etc. into my carryon to avoid another snafu and now they were telling me I couldn’t take it on the plane with me; thank you pregnancy hormones. I managed to pull myself together before entering the cabin of the plane but not before a Stewardess had the opportunity to see… so embarrassing. Our flight was pretty quick and uneventful after my breakdown.

We landed in the Atlanta airport – which is very spread out, about half a mile between each terminal – and road the train to our next terminal. We had about 4 hours to spend so we ate a leisurely lunch, toured around the duty free area, asked for an upgrade to business class (they were completely full, I asked if I could purchase a discounted upgrade and nothing was available) and meandered to our gate. We sat at our gate for about an hour. There was a flight ahead of us heading to Rome so it was pretty crowded. Once their flight departed it still seemed like so few people were around for a completely booked flight. Trey decided to make a currency exchange and when he walked by the desk saw there was no flight info up. He asked the stewardess where our flight was and she said it had been moved. There was no announcement, probably because we were the only people making a connection from Houston who had the old gate number. He ran over and got me and we began to hurry to our new gate. They yelled after us that boarding had begun. The gate was probably about three blocks away (we had to go back through the main concourse) and when we walked up all of the students we would be hosting along with their professor were standing there wondering where we were. Ultimately, probably due to many of your prayers, the mistake was corrected and we boarded right away once we arrived at the new gate.

Our plane to London was seated so that there were two on the outside of each and 4 across the inside. Trey and I had our own row in the back cabin of the plan about two rows from the main bathrooms in the center of the cabin. They had some movies available we hadn’t seen, one of which we had both been dying to see, Wolverine. We promptly started our movie thinking we would watch it through dinner then go to sleep. Wrong. We ate dinner which was pretty much the plane food you expect and the lights in the cabin remained on with very active passengers and the lights were not turned down until about 4 hours into the flight. By then we had watched another movie. At the end of the second movie we both wrapped up, I got my sleep mask on and we got positioned for sleep moments before a passenger behind us launched into a series of full blown sleep apnea snoring attacks and the guy in front of us decided it was the perfect time to catch up on his crossword puzzles. Between the two it was a lost cause. We gave up and watched a third in flight movie (The Soloist.) After that it was time to get ready to be stuck in your seat for descent. We got a small breakfast before landing and arrived at Gatwick 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We sat on the mat waiting for a gate until our scheduled arrival time. We grabbed our carryon bags, assembled with the students and headed to customs where we stood in line for an hour. The customs officer gave Trey the full inquisition, I guess because our visas were for three years. When I went through he didn’t ask me anything but our address so I asked “what you don’t want to hear more about my husband’s line of study?” He replied “No thank you, I almost fell asleep the first time through.” Once through customs we did a quick exchange for the cash we had on hand, bought some bottled water and headed through the second phase of customs which was quick because we had nothing to declare. We met Kathy, who would be guiding us through the orientation process so we would be equipped to guide the students by ourselves for the next rounds of trips, and loaded our suitcases onto a waiting bus. There was an enormous amount of congestion which turned the hour and a half bus ride into a three hour bus ride. I was about to come out of my chair by the time we arrived at the house. The bus blocked the street at our house so we had to throw everything onto the sidewalk and rushed it into the house. (Pictures to come soon; it is on the to-do list right after unpacking which we won’t have time to do until Saturday. I could be doing it now but my feet are tired from all the walking!)

Our room is small but large compared to the student’s rooms. It is probably about twice the size of my college dorm room. There is a queen bed with a night stand on one side and a small table on the other side of the bed just to your left as you walks in the door. Across from the door (and the bed) is a large built in wardrobe which contains two armoire sized closets for hanging clothes which flank a built in three drawer dresser, a T.V. atop that, some open shelving atop that and across the top extending the whole wall are high cabinets. They go up about two feet from the ceiling. (The room has 20 foot ceilings which do a lot to make it feel spacious.) Next to the built in is a vanity area containing more storage. On the intersecting wall there is a narrow desk below a large window. The window is barred (the bars have a lock and key so we can open them up in an emergency) and remains open as there is no central air in the house. There are nice two inch blinds as well as heavy curtains which we keep closed often as you would otherwise be able to see in our room from the kitchen. Our room opens above the courtyard which is not as poetic as it sounds because there are a lot of pipes, roofs and building we face but it is still nice and lets in a lot of light. There is a small chair for the desk and no matter where you put it, it blocks something (my hopes of getting a glider for breastfeeding are being dashed but are not yet crushed.) One of my favorite things about the room is the high ceilings which are surrounded by about a foot and a half of deteriorating but beautiful molding. In the center of the ceiling is a ceiling fan which has another set of beautiful molding about a foot and a half in diameter. (The ceiling fan was very nice to have with no AC. When we arrived Kathy had left us some beautiful flowers along with a note welcoming us to our new home and a schedule of the week’s events. It made us feel very welcomed and more at home.

Our room is on the ground floor along with the parlor, great space for reading with a large bay window and a piano, the office, the stair case, one guest room, our bathroom and our shower. To go to the bathroom, we have to leave our room and immediately after turning left the two closest doors are the bathroom and the shower. I am already missing the way my toilet flushed back home. You sometimes have to pump the toilet to get it to flush. The sinks all have the old style faucets with the hot water coming out the spout on the right and the cold coming out the spout on the left. Our shower is kind of a half shower, half tub hybrid.

We had about 45 minutes to put our things away and get settled before meeting downstairs in the kitchen for lunch which was provided by Samford. We had sandwiches and chips and, so far, I like the bread here much better. It seems denser than bread in America. We went through the first phase of orientation which included distribution of our cell phones (you can “top them off” and are like a pay as you go phone but we will probably rely mostly on Skype and calling cards as two quick calls home cost us about £3.50.), learned how to run the dishwasher and the system in the kitchen, the gate code, talked briefly about safety and the schedule for the week. We were then given about 20 minutes before a neighborhood walk to the grocery store and to the tube station to purchase Oyster cards. At this point we had been up for 24 hours and I opted out of the walk and took a 2 hour nap as I was getting dizzy and starting to get a headache. Trey went on as filling the day with activity is a tool to help the students keep from succumbing to jet lag. He came back what felt like minutes later and told me I had five minutes before we were leaving to make a practice run on understanding the tube and hit a few highlight stops.

The rest of the day I was pretty well a zombie. Trey did better than I did until dinner but at dinner was literally falling asleep at the table. We briefly walked around the outside of Parliament, took a walk down the Thames River, walked to Westminster then took the tube home. We had an hour break before community dinner at a restaurant right down the street which I failed to catch the name of but was perfect for the end of the day. I had ¼ lemon and herb chicken, corn on the cob, garlic bread and Sprite. Trey had a chicken pita, rice and Dr. Pepper. It is kind of like a fast food place but a lot tastier. You get your menu, walk down and order then they bring the meal to your table. It is one of the few places you can get free refills and all the ice you want and I have a feeling it will be a local favorite for Trey and I. It is only about a block and a half away. We ate with Kathy, the 5 undergrad students studying here for the semester, the professor and her daughter and a pharmacy student who will be here through October. Walking home from dinner there was this beautiful Porsche convertible who had turned down a two way street and a Bus who had turned down the same street going the opposite direction. There were cars lining the street so there wasn’t enough room for them to pass each other. The driver of the car was up out of his car and the bus driver was out of his seat and they were yelling at each other. Being from Texas my first instinct was to get out of there as fast as possible before someone was shot but everyone on the streets just stopped and watched… like it was a little street theater. We returned to the house about 8 PM and went to our rooms. I began typing this blog and we went to bed around 9. We slept through our alarm and woke up, late, at 8 AM on August 26th. but that’s for another entry. Sorry for so many mundane details but I wanted to remember these first few weeks so I will try to update every day. I will probably slack off as we get settled into a routine. We love friends and family back home and I am sure we would miss you if we’d been given the time to think about it!

We’re Home! (The Reader’s Digest Version)

2009-08-25T17:58:00.000+01:00

I am going to try to be pretty detailed in the next post for the sake of our memories and per my Mom’s request but here is the reader’s digest version: Woke up at 5:30 AM CST and left Houston 10:30 AM CST – connection through Atlanta – arrived in London 6:30 AM GMT (that would be 12:30 AM CST.) We flew into Gatwick and physically arrived at our house at 10:30 AM GMT due to some VERY bad traffic. Once at the house we unloaded, had orientation with the students and lunch. I took a 2 hour nap while Trey went around and the students found out where the bank, grocery store and other neighborhood spots as well has how to purchase an Oyster card. Met back at the house and did a practice run on the tube before letting the students loose on their own. We hit Parliament, took a walk down the Thames River, walked to Westminster then took the tube home. We are now on an hour break before community dinner at a local restaurant. I am very grateful for the two hour nap, it really revived me, and poor Trey will sleep well tonight.

One Week Until London!

2009-08-17T14:42:00.000+01:00

One week until we move to London! We are so excited and so sad at the same time. We thought it would be a great idea to come home to Texas for a few weeks and spend time with family but after a full two weeks home, I can see why I never wanted to leave. Houston is a nice city but I just love the people here and now, after having been married to Trey for 5 years, I get to come home to a family that has quadrupled in size.

On another sad note, last night we began transitioning our sweet puppy, Anna, to her foster parents for the next few years. My two sister-in-laws are going to take care of her while we are gone. Anna will be very happy with them but I will miss her terribly. She is our little cuddly ball of fun. Whenever there is tension she runs to the source and tries to comfort them, she is always game for a walk and is by far the easiest dog I have ever known. I just keep thinking how much fun she would have had in a house full of students but really it would just be for me and that would be selfish.

Beginning now I am going to try to be better about updating this little blog on a more regular basis. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Our trip went better that we could have imagined. We got to see t of family old friends, new babies our college campus and TONS of oil rigs as we drove through West Texas.

It's Official!

2009-07-02T15:20:00.001+01:00

Yesterday we received our Visas in the mail! After the paperwork was done (which took Trey days) it was actually a quick turnaround even for our area. From when we sent off the paper work we had them back in about two weeks. Trey got a visa when he went to Kenya last summer but I had never had one before. It was basically just an intricate stamp on a random page of our passport. From what I understand it is good for the four years that Trey will be in school and then up to three additional years if he is doing academic work in the country. I can't imagine we would stay in London for 7 years but I guess you never know. I would imagine our families would kill us.

We also had our plane tickets booked. We are flying from Houston to Georgia the morning of August 24, 2009 to meet the students and then flying overnight to London. We will land the morning of August 25, 2009 which, fortunately, is the date my visa allows me in the country. For whatever reason, Trey is allowed in the day before. It will be a long day of flying I wish we were able to just hop on the direct flight in Houston.

Our house looks like a disaster area. There are boxes everywhere and we are a little overwhelmed by separating out what is going to charity, what is going to garage sale, what is staying at various volunteer’s homes but at least little by little there is less out of boxes and more in them. We also have managed to bring home a trunk load of stuff things we’re keeping on both trips. Several boxes of books and all my china have made it safely to Houston for storage in our gracious parents’ homes. We have two packing weekends left then a restful trip to the beach then we hit the road! So excited!!!

The Opposite of Underwhelmed

2009-05-22T03:56:00.000+01:00

I can’t believe that in three short months we will be moving to London. Last night I was trying to picture our looming living situation and could not quite wrap my brain around it. It still feels like a fairy tale or someone else’s life. I think part of the reason is there is so much to do in the meantime. It isn’t so much that I am overwhelmed by the packing or the planning, but my desire to be fully present for all the exciting events in between.

Tomorrow we will drive to Houston for the weekend to see “the original” Beth (Trey’s beautiful older sister) graduate from Law School. In June we return to Houston for Trey’s little brother Sam’s wedding to “his” Beth. In July, Trey has a family reunion in Dallas (by the way we plan to drop off our belongings in Houston via U-Haul two days before that.) From there we will attempt to embark on a roughly 1,400 mile road trip. We want to see Trey’s family members who are unable to travel and our friends in Dallas and Oklahoma. We don’t know when our next opportunity will be plus Trey and I will both miss our 5 year college reunions during our time in London. It would be our first official vacation with no ceremonial obligation in our 5 year marriage.

I have been surprised to find that the details have not been the source of concern finding instead the sheer bombardment of experiences has stopped me in my tracks. (Not to mention the Lord seems to be so thoroughly taking care of the details he isn’t leaving me much to do; more on his provision soon.) Things including facing the decrease in contact with our families; the loss of the dog who has become more person to me than animal, the simple comfort of being surrounded by my own blanket, sitting on my own couch or eating off my own china leaves me wondering what is the Lord preparing us for?

All Better

2009-04-29T04:19:00.000+01:00

For the past week I felt it coming and then bam Sunday afternoon I crashed into whatever virus has been going around. Trey put me to bed at 5:30 PM Sunday and lovingly told me to “go ahead and sleep it off, don’t get up ‘till tomorrow.” I thought to myself “whatever, I’ll just take a nap.” I remember brief moments of consciousness and swallowing whatever foul tasting medicine Trey put in front of me.

When I awoke, it was to hit the snooze button on my alarm which went off at 8:00 AM Monday. I drug myself to the shower, got dressed and went to sit in front of the mirror, willing myself to blow dry my hair. When that failed, after Trey’s prompting, I summoned the strength to punch the keys of my blackberry into an articulately worded email to my boss which stated: “Subject: Sick / Body: Not going to make it today” thereby breaking my golden rule of never call in sick on a Monday or Friday. In my humble opinion this was not good timing as we had a meeting with Trey’s school coming up and I was supposed to lead Bible Study that night.

I moved from the couch to the bed and back again all day hoping to sleep off the disgusting feeling taking over my body. I finally gave in and texted that I would not be at Bible Study. It was fortunate that I was available to arrange the details of having Trey’s car fixed and coordinate schedules for the meeting with Trey’s school which was luckily postponed as I did not feel better when I woke up Tuesday morning. I called in sick again on Tuesday and spent the duration of the day drinking Orange Juice, focusing on healing and realizing how I would much prefer to stay sick than to return to work. That afternoon Trey came home and we went to pick up his car. I rode to the bank, transferred funds (still painful to think about) to our checking, rode to the dealer, paid (ouch again), ate on the way home with Trey then fell back onto my couch utterly exhausted from this grueling workout wondering if I would indeed be ready to return to work as promised on Wednesday.

Then, suddenly, at 9:30 PM I hopped up feeling 100% better minus the stuffy nose reminding me that I wasn’t at the top of my game. I ran around cleaning Trey following me all the while fussing that I shouldn’t over do it. Did I mention that Trey’s parents and my Mom were due next week? All that to say: the human body is pretty stinking amazing.

Introductions

2009-04-02T18:02:00.000+01:00

Trey and I have been married almost 5 years and we love each other more every day. (The picture is from the night we were engaged.) We moved straight from our home state of Texas to Oklahoma so Trey could finish undergrad then on to Alabama for a Masters of Divinity. Trey will graduate in May and while we don’t know exactly what lies ahead we are excited for the journey! I work in I.T. at a great law firm.

We still have a Texas shaped hole in our hearts and deeply miss our friends and family who live there!