Cravings...

Just so I don't forget....
One of the symptoms I've been having since becoming pregnant has been food cravings. I get them and I get them bad. I think they are rather amusing, but are also a big pain as some of them aren't the most convenient. Lucky for me, I have the greatest husband who has never denied me my craving indulges and a family who has dropped everything to come pick me up and take me down to the ghetto to get my taco fix. Below are some of the items I've craved since being pregnant:

1. Pickles: This wasn't a normal craving for pickles. It happened the week after conception and I didn't even know I was pregnant yet. I ate almost an entire jar of pickle spears and was drinking the juice out of the jar when I realized it wasn't normal. People don't drink pickle juice!
2. Crispy beef from P.F. Chang's
3. Sizzling rice soup from Abbicus Inn
4. Corn on the cobb from Kentucky Fried Chicken: I have never once craved their corn on the cobb. In fact, I normally don't even like it all that much!
5. Barbeque
6. Spaghetti with meatballs
7. Tacos from the original Garcia's
8. Buffalo Wild Wings
9. Nachos from Taco Bell
10. Oranges
11. Bananas: I didn't get to see this one through to fruition. I bought them and when I went to put them on my cereal seeing and smelling them made me puke.
12. Yogurt
13. Cottage cheese with Lawry's season salt on saltine crackers
14. Mango gelatto
15. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Some of these cravings I think are so funny. I mean, corn on the cobb from KFC? Really? But I have thoroughly enjoyed each one of them...that is until I've puked them up and never want to see them again!

Week 10 Ultrasound Pics

Our doctor wanted us to have two ultrasounds during the first trimester since we having twins. Below are the pictures from that visit. If you look closely in the third picture, you can see why the ultrasound tech thought she tell the baby on the left is a boy.

Groens...soon to be a party of four!

Eric and I have some very exciting news....we're expecting twins!! I'm officially 12 weeks pregnant tomorrow. I had my 12 week doctor's appointment yesterday and since everything looked good, I'm spilling the beans! The official due date for our bundles of joy is July 1st, 2009. We've learned that the average gestation for twins is 35 weeks, so they will most likely arrive in early to mid June.
The first trimester has been pretty rough. I've been incredibly sick and can't wait until the "morning" sickness wears off. That terms still gets me. There's nothing "morning" related to it! I can tell it's getting a bit better, though. It really takes a strong smell now to throw me over the edge. Just a few weeks ago, I would throw up in the morning as soon as I woke up and then usually whenever I would eat anything or drink too much of something. I've been so grateful to have taken the last few months of work. I have no idea how I would have been able to work feeling like this. But now that the nausea is beginning to wear off, fatigue has set it. I get so tired just by doing normal everyday things. Just by taking a shower and getting ready for the day I get so worn out!
At our doctor's appointment yesterday, we got to see the babies again with the ultrasound, but the printer wasn't working to take home a picture. Baby A (the baby closest to the cervix) always does flips whenever we see her (I have a feeling she's a girl, so until I'm told otherwise, I'm calling her a "she"). I think she has a personality like me: very type A and energetic. She's always moving around!
Baby B (who we think might be a boy) seems to have a personality more like Eric's. Whenever we see him, he's just hanging out and only seems to move around when he has to. At our 10 week ultrasound, there was a really good shot of Baby B's butt. The tech was looking at it for awhile and said that although it was really early to tell, she thought she could tell the sex. I thought what I was looking at was the umbilical cord, but she said that if it was it would turn colors when she brought up a red square on the screen. That was so exciting.
We just love our doctor. Eric got a chance to meet him yesterday and when I told Dr. McKernan that Eric was a medical student, he introduced himself as Paul McKernan (yep, they're on a first name basis!) and would use real medical terms when we were looking at the babies. Eric really appreciated that. Dr. McKernan tells us every time I see him we have the best type of twins you can have. They are fraternal twins (so separate egg, separate sperm) and have separate membranes and are in excellent positions in the womb (sounds weird calling my uterus a womb, but I guess it is!).
We feel so blessed to already have these two in our lives. We can't wait to meet them!

Chloe's 4th Birthday Party

Last weekend, Eric and I joined the family to celebrate Chloe's 4th birthday. Chloe is the daughter of my cousin, Maria. She and her husband, John, had the birthday party at Enchanted Island at Encanto Park. What a perfect idea for a bunch of little kids!
They have amusement park rides for children and a train that goes around the park that adults can ride on, too. It was fun to watch the little kids on the rides and we were delighted to celebrate the birthday girl's day with her.

Chloe's brother, Jackson

Chloe riding one the rides

Jackson on the train

Chloe opening up presents

Chloe blowing out her birthday candles

Maria, John, and the birthday girl!

Congratulations, Aisha and Atif!!

My dear friend, Aisha, got engaged! In her Pakistani culture, there is a special ceremony where the couple gets engaged. Aisha's family, as well as that of her fiance, Atif, joined the couple when he gave her her ring. A definite date for the wedding has not be set yet, but it will most likely be in June of 2009.
Below are a few pics that I've "borrowed" from Aisha from the ceremony. She looked absolutely beautiful! Aisha, we are so happy for you and Atif! Congratulations!!

Second rotation...check!!

Last week, Eric started his general surgery rotation. That means he's already done with his OBGYN and family practice rotations. Family practice was again all the way out in Chandler, AZ, so Eric had another long commute. The practice he was at wasn't very busy, but it was a good experience. Eric was able to see some rare cases and since the practice wasn't very busy, Eric was able to learn alot from the doctor and be able to perform OMM (osteopathic manipulative medicine) on the patients.
Eric also can scratch family practice off the list of medical areas. He thought it was aggravating that the doctor had to know so much, but really couldn't do much. He just had to know what specialist the patient needed to be referred to. So Eric knows that he wants to specialize so he can be really good in one area.
Generaly surgery is going well. He's at Del Webb Hospital in Sun City, AZ. The doctor he is working with is great and was nominated as one of the best docotors in the US in 2007. Everyone is working with so nice and although he's not too thrilled with holding retractors for four hours on end during surgeries, he's been able to see some really cool cases. He saw one where the patient had gall bladder disease and the gall bladder was stuck to all the surrounding organs and tissues. He said it was a pain for the doctors to detach everything (and even bigger pain for him to hold the retractor for 4 hours) and remove the organ, but definitely cool to see!

Our living room is finished!

With our painting for our living room being finished now and hung up, it's really motived me to finish painting the living room and the kitchen. I've been wanting to paint the big wall in the living room red and make that our "accent" wall (haven't I been watching my HGTV??!!). I never had the guts to do it (must be that conservative side of me), but my mom came over and said she had a surprise for me. She came over with a gallon of red paint that was given to her. It was a tomato red color and I thought, "Well, that's not going to work." The red that we needed was a deep, purplier red. Mom said all we have to do is pick out the color we want it and take it to Dunn Edwards and they would recolor it for us. Isn't that cool? I didn't even know they could, let alone would, do that! Mom just thought, we've got this Dunn Edwards paint, it's not the right color, there's no reason they couldn't change it for us. I would have never thought of it!


So mom and I got out my many different paint samples and picked out the perfect one: Ralph Lauren's Venetian Red. We took our paint, our color sample, and went to Dunn Edwards. When we got there, an older man help us. He explained that they could try to match our color, but because of the colors already in the tomato red, it wouldn't be exact. Mom just explained that we weren't asking for miracles, just a color close to the one we wanted. He came back and we were so thrilled with the color. He probably thought we were such lunatics since we were so excited about a paint color. But to us, it was taking a gallon of paint that was just on hand and probably wasn't going to be used and changing to a color to finish our living room-all for FREE!


My wonderful mother who hath no fear of paint nor color thought of this. I just can't believe how perfect it turned out. It really pulls the room together and makes the painting and furniture pop against the wall. We just love it. Thanks, Mom!!!!!

So...we have a bug problem.

About a month ago, I finally called the bugman out to the house. We'd been seeing more and more bugs since it's been getting warmer and when we got back from vacation, it was out of control. I would find spiders, crickets, silverfish and earwicks everyday! And by my standards, anything more than one is way too many! We were told that we needed to keep having it sprayed during the winter even though there were no bugs because it would help keep them down when it was bug season (and especially because we live right next to a wash), but who really wants to spend money to have bugs killed? Even more, who wants to spend the money when the bugs aren't even there?

Well, boy, did we learn our lesson! The bugman came and and sprayed, but it hardly made a dent. Every night, we would still hear crickets and our cats would sit staring at the dishwasher (the bugs would come in through the plumbing). And in the morning, our precious cats would leave us presents all over the house. For whatever reason, I thought that cats would eat crickets. But nooo, our precious kitties would just play with them and pull off their legs off, leaving dismembered cricket bodies and legs all over. If I would walk around the house without shoes on, I risked stepping on a cricket leg! Ugh...!

Well, I ended up having the bugman out again last week. The owner showed up and did a really great job and our problem seems to be under control. So learn from us, trust the bugman, he knows what he's talking about!

A dismembered cricket-notice the missing back, right leg...

The missing leg...found across the kitchen. Gross!

One up...one down!

Eric finished his OBGYN rotation last week. He's already done! It was definitely a tough one, though. Eric is glad, however, that he had his first rotation in a hospital setting. He will now be prepared for his surgical rotation next month. Just knowing what he's supposed to do in the hospital, how to work the computer systems and how to get through an on-call night will be a big help for this future rotations.
This month, Eric is doing his family practice rotation. It's so cool that Eric knows what he likes about each rotation and what he doesn't like. With OBGYN, he didn't like the on-call nights. He liked delivering babies, but knew that it wasn't for him. Now with family practice, he can tell already that it's too slow paced for him. Also, he can tell that he wants to specialize in an area. Instead of having to know about everything but not really be able to do much, he'd rather be the expert in a certain area.
This rotation is going to be much easier than the last as well. It's still about the same commute, but there is no on-call nights and if there are no patients, Eric gets to go home! Oh, and there is no shelf exam at the end (the standardized exam the students take after each rotation). So he should have one easy month!

Our Vacation *Warning: Long Post!!*

Eric and I went on vacation at the end of June. We went back to Illinois and had a great time visiting with friends and family, going up to the cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and just spending time in our old romping ground. The trip was so much fun and we had a great time spending time with each other as well.

We got there on Friday, June 20th and stayed in town for the weekend. I was able to squeeze in a girls' night out with my college roommates. We had so much fun. I really miss those girls!

Danielle and Me

Michele, me and Lisa

The next week, Eric, his mom and I drove up to the UP. It is always so relaxing to go up there. Since Uncle John and his family were staying in the kids' cabin, Eric and I stayed in Grandma and Grandpa Fase's coach house. It's a bedroom and bathroom they built above their garage and it is so nice! I wish I'd taken a picture of it now. Grandma used a lighthouse theme in her decorating and it is just so cute!

While we were there, we enjoyed visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Fase during "wine time" every afternoon, our annual day trip on our anniversary to Marquette, MI and visiting all the local waterfalls. It was just a lovely visit.

The view of Steven's Lake from Grandpa Fase's deck while we played skipbo.

We stopped on the side of the road on our way to Marquette to go down to the beach

Isn't Lake Superior so beautiful? Here is the pier in Marquette. We just love this town and always go to the same restaurant when we are there, The Vierling.

Here are a few of the pictures of the waterfalls and other places we visited the next day.

Eric and me at Munising Falls

Here's the view of Miner's Castle on Lake Superior. It was SO pretty!

At the end of the week, we drove back down to Chicago and saw the Jersey Boys Broadway show with Eric's Mom and Dad. Now, Eric and I might have been a little young for the show, but it was still enjoyable and I couldn't believe I knew all but 2 songs! If you don't know about the show, it's the story behind Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and how the group was formed. It was such a fun show and we had "Walk Like a Man" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" stuck in our heads for days afterward.

Towards the end of the vacation, Eric's dad flew us down to Peoria, IL to go fishing. I'd been fishing many times before in my life, but I'd never caught a fish. It was so much fun! Eric's dad always fishes on some company property that was built to be a landfill but ended up not being used. So it's this beautiful land with a few lakes and tons of wildlife and now they let farmers graze their cows on it. And did I catch a fish? Umm...yes! Within a few minutes of being on the lake, I'd caught one! We fished for a few hours and I caught 9 fish! Eric's dad kept saying it was because he'd given me the special lure because he only caught one fish and Eric didn't catch any. On our way back, we chased some rain storms to wash the helicopter and then when we got back, Eric's cousins, Mike and Lizzie, wanted a ride with "Uncle Woger" so dad took them up. It was so fun to see Mike so excited. Below are some of the pictures from the fishing trip...

We had so much fun on our vacation and can't wait to go back to see everyone!

My husband actually did that???!!!!

So, the big news in the Groen household today is that Eric delivered a baby! He did it! My husband!!!!!!!! I just think that is the coolest thing ever.
He has been getting really good at delivering placentas and taking cord blood, but yesterday he really put his skills to the test and delivered the baby. I'm so proud of him!
He was also on call with a doctor who really enjoys teaching. Most of the doctors just tolerate the med students and really only teach when the students bug them enough, but there is one that Eric just started working with who really loves teaching and is really challenging Eric. With her, Eric got to practice suturing during a ceasarean and got to help out with a tubal ligation. Too bad yesterday was Eric's first day working with her and he only has a week and a half left in OBGYN, but I know he's definitely going to be making the most of the time he has left.

My very talented mother

Among my mother's many talents, she definitely excels in painting. She just finished a painting for Eric and me of Amsterdam. When we went to Europe a few years ago, we had such a great time in Amsterdam and fell in love with the city. When Mom told us she would paint us a picture, we thought it would be perfect to have a street scene like one we had seen while we were there. We gave her a picture of what we wanted and told her to take her inspiration from that, but to also add whatever she wanted to it. We just love the final painting and can't believe we have it to hang in our home!

Thanks, Mom, for our beautiful painting. You are so talented and we just love it!!!!

Here is the picture we liked.

Here is the final painting! Isn't it great? Mom added the leaves on the trees, made the buildings more colorful, added flower boxes to the windows, and even added a little bird on the ground. It's hard to show all the details in a photo. We just love it!!Mom signing the painting...

Here is the painting hanging in the spot it was made for...our living room. Now, we just need to finish painting the walls!

My new hobby

For my birthday last month, Eric got me a new camera. It is so cool. It's one of those kinds where you can change the lens. Although I'm not expert enough to need to have all the fancy lenses, I had a great time experimenting with all the different settings when we went on vacation. Below is a few of my favorite pics:

Our cat, Kitty....
Random flowers....

Okay, so Eric says this is a weed, but I still think it's pretty....

Steven's Lake in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Congratulations, Dr. Laura!

At the end of May, I went to Chicago for Laura's (Eric's sister) graduation from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine. Eric couldn't go because he was taking the medical boards the following week. I flew in on Friday and helped my in-laws throw Laura a party on Saturday. Grandma Fase and I assumed our roles as party decorators and had a ball decorating with latex gloves, bags of candy blood and gauze. The family even dressed up in medical scrubs. We had awesome pork chops from Hog Wild (I love that place!) and had so much fun seeing everyone.

Grandma and I decorating....

Visiting with friends and family...

Uncle Mike Jr. pretending to be a proctologist...this was sooo funny!

Laura and her awesome cake Aunt Sue made...


Then on Sunday, we went to the graduation ceremony held at Navy Pier. It was in a ballroom at the very end of the pier. The room was just gorgeous with windows looking out to the lake. The ceremony was beautiful. We were so happy for Laura and proud of her.

Laura with Mom and Dad G....

Laura and me...
Laura with the Groen grandparents and the Fase grandparents...


The entire crew celebrating after the ceremony at Carmine's...

It was a packed weekend, but so much fun. I was thrilled to celebrate Laura's accomplishment with her. We are so proud of her! Congratulations, Dr. Laura Schrader!