Walk A Mile (in a surrogate's shoes) over @ Organic Enchilada

So you stopped by to see me. How sweet.

Well I'm not here today, but I can be found over at Organic Enchilada in a feature called "Walk A Mile". Bethany was sweet enough to ask me to write about what it's like to be a surrogate.

Please stop by for a visit. She's a great gal with a great blog.

Thanks!

Mormon Surrogate

Singalong Saturday Rock Band Style with a little help from my daugthters

Let's get this party started with (Lego Rock Band) Pink- So What.



Want to play along?

Link up:

Flashback Friday Journal edition

Ok, I've been wanting to do a flashback Friday with old videos, pictures etc.

Well my bestest friend since I was 3 posted this on my Facebook wall:

July 16, 1991: "Dear Journal, Today was a fun day. Me and my best friend went to the mall. We saw some cute guys but we didn't want to talk to them because we already have boyfriends. My boyfriend's name is Steve. He is really nice but I don't know what he looks like & Jill's boyfriends name is Cameron. ...He's nice too, but we can't wait to meet them. Well I better go -K- BYE!!! Love, Stephanie "



I replied "Are you freaking kidding me? Who the heck are Steve and Cameron? Where did we meet them? And how old were we in 91? Let's see I'd be about 14 and you'd be 13? Oh geez. I was going to do this to you...now where did I put that darn journal/...diary?"




And then I actually found one of my journals and checked to see if I wrote anything the same day and found this:

Hmmm: Same date: July 16, 1991




10:55 PM



Hello! Or should I say goodnight? My brother has been in Logan, he was living there in a condo with his friend Page. They were there because they were going to go to USU. School for them didn't start un...til October, they went there early to find a job and work for 3 months before school started. They were there for probably about a month and it's a small town and they couldn't find jobs, so my brother moved back home and is going to go to a different college. Well anyway, when he was living there they had a cat. Her name is Love or Luv. Anyway he brought her home with us so now we have a cat. She is totally black with green eyes that glow in the dark.

(I freaking LOVED that cat)

Enough about that-------


Cameron is getting back Friday July 19th. 3 more days to go! I'm not ging to do what Gill did to me! I was going out with him and I went to Puerto Vallarta for a week and when I got back he was going with someone else! The scum-sucking pig couldn't wait a week for me, but I can wait a month for Cameron! When Stephanie writes in her journal she writes Dear Charlie- Maybe I should start writing Dear Rod, that used to be my nick-name! (because of my love for Rod Stewart)

Here are some other old nicknames:

Michelangelo

Splinter

Maggie Simpson

Marge Simpson

Joe McIntyre

Seniorita

Rod

and my most recent nick-name is Billy Bob



Love ya,

Jill

I ♥ Cameron 11:10 PM
 
I don't remember 1/2 those nicknames.. must have been just for a day and I still have no clue who Steve or Cameron are. They must have been some firiend of  a friend weird thing. We always had boyfriends who we had never met, but talked to on the phone. Kinda creepy/scary now that I think about it..
 
I read on and after a few months of being "rad as hell friends", Cameron was a complete and total jerk to me and said some really hurtful things to me. I don't believe we ever met.
 
I also read about liking 6 guys at the same time in 8th grade. (nothing new there)
One of the guys names was John. Well I don't remember liking many Johns, but I was an aide in 8th grade and there was a guy named John in that class and I later found out he had a crush on me and thought I was in high school. I also happened to end up marrying the guy.  I wonder....

Sing-along Saturday

I've been wanting to do this for awhile and as far as I know know one else has started Sing-along Saturday. Or as you can see it was supposed to be Freak Out Friday. (either way)

I did this video months ago and am now getting the courage to post it. (It was in April, before I cut my hair)

If you want to play along, this is your chance to dork out, have fun, or be serious about singing along. I will sing along in other ways too-karaoke, rock band, however you want to sing along.

I was kind of dorking out on this one. I'd like to start doing this once a week, feel free to join me.

I dedicate this first S.S. to One Cluttered Brain:







I'm going to go hide now from embarrassment, but it's all good...

Attention Please: Guest Post By One Cluttered Brain

This is my 1st guest poster. Take it away OCB-



It is FRIDAY! YAY! And do you know what that means? I better start writing for Mormon Surrogate. *cough,cough* She asked me to guest post like 2 weeks ago is it now? *sigh* I hope this post makes up for my procrastination and crazy busy LIFE I've been leading lately! :)




I'm sitting here eating a ice-cream sandwich pop-tart and browsing Facebook and Twitter when I learned a very important fact. I need to start WRITING. I kinda had a deadline to guest post on this FABULOUS blog that you are reading right now. And when am I getting it done? Just now, as we speak. I have a few tips for you on blogging and twittering, and what NOT to do, what to do...and so forth.



Are you following me thus far?



Good. We can begin. *AHEM*



* Blogging. Blog only when you feel like it. Because if blogging becomes a chore that you are not gonna want to do it very often. (So what does that say about me and my blogging habits? I just posted 24 blog posts in 24 hours for #Blogapalooza event Aug 17th and Aug 18th.) I got part of my blog turn into a book. Cool? I think it is.





* Twitter. Mention your blog posts when you update. Mention the cool peeps that you follow. Strike up conversation with the ultra COOL peeps on Twitter. Tweet out your cool giveaways that you are hosting on your blog. Log on at least once or twice a day on Twitter to see what is going on. NEVER, EVER just update Twitter with what you just ate all the time. That gets old real fast.



That sums up about what I do know. LOL.

But wait, Cluttered Brain you might say, That's it. This is all you are gonna post on this fabulous blog?



You WANT more?

I just can't please everybody now can I?

Perhaps I should share a video I just made?

I mean, videos are THE BEST WAY in my opinion, to get people's attention. And I happen to think I make some awesome videos.

So here is goes. :)

Enjoy!





Once you get really good with blogging you might want to try vlogging! It is wonderful and FUN and allows you to make so many wonderful connections!

This is all i have for you. :)

If you want to read MORE about me, head on over One Cluttered Brain. (http://oneclutteredbrain.blogspot.com)

What I meant to say Wednesday

We took the kids to see a movie on Saturday. We didn't go to our usual theatre for what we thought were good reasons.

1) We were already headed in the direction of the other theatre

2) We needed to come back home and get dressed for a wedding reception and we live 30-40 minutes from anywhere

3) The wedding reception was in the same direction as our usual theatre, so that seemed silly to go that way just to come back home, just to turn around and go back that way

4) Because of the above reasons, movie times seemed imporant as well and this other theatre had what we wanted to see at a time that would work for our plans

5) Did I confuse you yet?

We decide that the Sorceror's Apprentice at 2:10 would work perfect. We get there about 1:50. Yay, we have time for popcorn. My son and I stand in line and go through the silly little line maze even though we were the only ones there.  We order 2 drinks and a large popcorn. By then hubby and our 2 girls walk in and catch up with us. We brought paper bags to distribute popcorn for everyone. The bucket is now pretty much empty and hubby and I don't really have any. My 10 year old daughter notices that there's a coupon on the bucket for 1 free refill. We go back to the line.

There are 2 registers, so I stand behind one lady at the register I was previously at. She and her bratty children are taking FOREVER!!!  Not only do they not know what they want, but when they do decide, that particular item is "out" so they have to choose something else. One of her kids gets popcorn and drowns it in butter.. Then an older lady cuts over and gets butter for her popcorn while the 1st lady keeps ordering stuff.  It's now 2:08 and hubby and I are giving each other looks. I say to dh, "Yeah I guess this is why we don't come here!" I'm debating on whether or not to go get our seats and come back to get the popcorn in a minute. I suggest this to hubby. (We LOVE our usual theatre because they have reserved seating)

A manager notices us and asks if we've been helped. I say, (fairly rudely and annoyed) "Yeah, we just wanted to get our popcorn refilled."
He replies, "Well the line is back there and points to the rat maze. There are now 2 families in the line.
I reply, "Well I guess we'll just try to get to our movie then." Hubby throws in a few cuss words and that we are NEVER coming back here again and we head to our movie. By the time we walk in it's 2:20. They are still showing credits. Movie started late, so we had plenty of time to get the popcorn. I just didn't think it was a law to stand in the maze especially when there's no one there!

I pretty much said what I wanted to say, only I would have added that it's ridiculous that they don't have a line JUST for refilling your popcorn!

Five Question Friday

Playing along from: http://fivecrookedhalos.blogspot.com/


1. Are you a neat sleeper or a messy sleeper?

Messy! I am ALL over the place. I toss and turn, and according to my husband I steal the covers.






2. Fill in the blank. I wish I was more ________________.

Organized, clutter free. It started (the disarray) when hubby and I moved in together. So it's all his fault!




3. What is something that you wish you had been warned about?

My husband's medical history. I had no idea what I'd be dealing with having an ADHD child.
(of course it probably doesn't help that he's possibly bipolar from my side of the family- shhh!)




4. What was the best thing you ever found at a garage sale/flea market?
When we lived in Florida we went to a pretty cool Flea Market where we found this rockin HUGE mauve desk and divider. Funny, I totally forgot about that till now. It must have been a heck of a deal, because we had no money back then. (we don't now either, well hubby makes more, but it all goes to bills, etc. no leftovers)





5. If you could have any meal brought to you right now, what would it be?
 
Well, since it's early in the morning, scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls (w/ cream cheese frosting) sound good! Make that an omelette with spinach, mushrooms, cheese and ham. I'll still take the cinnamon rolls too. Thanks!    :)

What I meant to say Wednesday

We have been saving our change/coins in an effort to fund a family vacation this Fall.  I usually take the coins to coinstar. However, I thought I'd save a few dollars and roll them and take them to the Credit Union.

I couldn't find the rollers at the dollar store last week, but I found them at Walmart on Monday. YAY! So I roll what I can evenly roll into their proper wrappers. I had $28.00= 2 ($10 quarter rolls), 1 ($5 dimes), 2 ($2 nickels), 2 (50 cent pennies). Do the math, it adds up right?

My son and I drive to the C.U. We go in, since we have rolled coins and that's the rules. I park, get out and drop a roll. I try not to say anything nasty, but I'm getting a bad feeling and getting irrated for some reason.

 I open up an account for our vacation money we've saved so far and hand the teller the rolled coins. She looks new. She says to me, "You don't have to roll the coins, we have to count them in our machine anyway."

I say, "Oh ok" and kind of giggle.

WIMTS: "Are you flipping kidding me? You mean I could have saved $2.45 + tax and not bought these stupid wrappers? You mean I didn't have to stay up an extra 20-30 minutes last night wrapping all this dirty money and re-counting to make sure I was right?"

The teller proceeds to pour the change into the counter. It takes forever. She comes back and tells me I'm 2 pennies short.

I say, "Oh, well I have 2 pennies here" and I hand her 2 pennies.

WIMTS: "Um yeah, I don't think so because I counted those and I'm pretty good at math and I double-checked and everything."

She mumbles something about $18.00. I think, clearly she must have failed math and how did she get a job here? We go about doing other business and I ask, "Did you say there was $18.00 in change?" She says, "Yeah $18.48." I say, "I brought in 2 ($10 quarter rolls)". She says, "Well the machine counted $18.48" I then have a conversation with my son and we decided that I either left a roll in the truck or dropped it with the other roll. He backs me up that there was $28.00 in change! She can't do anything about it because the machine is always right!

WIMTS: "Look, why the hell did I waste my time to roll all these coins just so I could come in here and be short $10.00? I could have taken them to coinstar and left with more money! Give me back my coins, apparantly your machine can't count and you're making me feel like you think I'm a liar!"

I really hate it when technology is STUPID!

My son had $4.00 in nickels that he rolled that morning. We tell the lady that we would like the $4.00 as cash back. She takes his nickels to the machine. She comes back after 5 minutes and says, "Oops, my bad. I found your other $10.00 and 2 pennies."  HA!  She had to empty out the machine in the middle of my coin process because it was full. Well I guess she didn't check it very good. She did apologize, but I was still irritated. What if she hadn't noticed and we had left? I would have felt like I was crazy or like they were WRONG and I would have been trying to figure the whole thing out. I certainly would have gone to coinstar next time.

WIMTS: "Oh well then, I see your machine is only as smart as the teller that operates it. So I'm not a liar am I? I know how to count, huh? Thanks for wasting my time and starting my day off all S*****!"

My 100th post! 4 years ago today.... (August 1, 2006)

My first surrobaby was born August 1, 2006. I thought this would be a good time to share her birth story. I was living in San Diego at the time and the Intended Parents were living in Northern California.

Both of these shirts are my designs. Surrogacy humor rocks!

Hubby and I thought it would be funny to put a temporary tattoo on my pregnant belly. When I went into labor, they thought it was a real tattoo and they thought it was pretty cool!

Please ignore the close up of my stretch marks...

Here's the story as I told it to one of my online surrogacy groups:

I don't know what details to give..(this will be long!)


I went to Balboa with minor but farily consistent contractions at 7:30 pm Monday night. Waited in the waiting room until 9 pm. (in the meantime called IP's and decided they should take the 9:15 flight just in case!)

Was seen and monitored for awhile, then sent home because I wasn't dilating. Dr. stripped my membranes one last time. They told me to go walking and come back in a few hours. By then it was 11 pm and I decided I'd rather sleep. So I went home, tossed and turned abit.. kept having contractions, nothing I couldn't handle. About 2:30 in the morning they seemed to die down and I thought I'd get some sleep and maybe things would pick up later in the morning. But then about 3:30 I was having contractions about every 2 minutes and they wre starting to hurt. So I got out of bed.. told hubby we better get back to the hospital. (actually he woke up and asked if I was ok because I was wimpering)

I was afraid I wouldn't make it to the hospital, because the pain I was feeling was the level of pain I felt when I asked for the epidural with my last baby. (I cried the whole 20 minutes on the freeway, I was death gripping the door handles on Johnny's truck) I thought I'd die walking into the hospital and going up the elevator.

IP's had arrived and had settled into their hotel. I had to have hubby call them because I was in so much pain, and in tears and couldn't quite breathe. He let them know that we were headed back to the hospital and they should hurry over.





We got to the hospital about 4 am. I was dilated to 8.


I let them know I was in pain and wanted an epidural. I had to fill out paperwork and they had to wait for labs to come back.

As I'm waiting they give me oxygen, and I'm laughing/crying through each contraction.

They talked me into just getting on with the baby pushing since I was now a 10. AHHHH!!! I was a little nervous, but figured I could do it knowing she was a small baby.

Well it hurt like hell!!!! At one point I thought I had pushed her out.. and then they're telling me to keep going. About 10 minutes later they say they see her head. I was going nuts... I couldn't breathe, hold my legs and push at the same time. I felt out of control. At one point I felt like I was pretty much hypervenitaling.

And yet everyone says I didn't seem that way at all.

I was told how strong I was and how good I was doing. She was born at 5:29 am! 5 lbs 13 oz. 19 inches long.

I didn't cry like with my own kids. I was just happy to be done.. I wanted the dr. to leave me alone, I wanted to breathe! But he was tugging at the placenta and finishing up things down there.

The baby was wisked away to her mommy and after I was cleaned up and covered the father was brought in. (per both of our requests) He was surprised how quickly it was. He had barely had a chance to sit down and thumb through a magazine.

I thought I had the birth plan typed up just as I wanted. I had mentioned that I wanted the intended parents to bond with the baby right away, but that I didn't want to feel left out or pushed aside. Well I did end up feeling that way. But I was so tired, I didn't care at the time. It hit me a bit later.

I was so happy that my husband, kids and mom were there. By the way, there was no confusion about the baby with my kids. They knew from the beginning that she was not coming home with us, that she was not ours.

I was finally able to see her and hold her at 10 pm last night. (the day she was born.. remember she was born at 5:29 AM) I was new to the situation, and I didn't want to intrude on the parents. Everyone else had held her but me. My friend and my mom both told me that the mom wanted me to come and hold the baby!

When I got there the mom said she was being cranky. She handed her to me and she immediately closed her eyes and went to sleep. I've never seen a baby sleep that sound before. The mom said she must be so comfortable with me. I felt kind of bad, but at the same time it was a special moment for me.

Holding her was not the same as holding any of my own babies. I did feel proud and happy, but more for the parents. I felt like I was holding a close friend's baby. It did not feel like I was holding the baby that I had carried for 9 months and recently gave birth to. It probably helped that she looked nothing like me, lol.

The parents were extremely grateful and loving every minute of being new parents.
(you don't get to see them, sorry)

Christine (SweetMama) came to see me at about 8pm. That was nice.(she brought me food from Arby's)

She got to go see and hold the baby.

Emotionally I am doing so good! Physically, not too bad! I think I'll heal rather quickly.

It was really cool that everything was so different from my other pregnancies/deliveries.

For one thing, I didn't throw up as much during pregnancy. I only gained about 27 pounds (compared to my usual 35-40) I went into labor on my own (only did that with my first) my Dr. usually induces me at 39 weeks, however this was not my Utah Dr. this was the random on call Dr. at the Navy hospital.

And................. this was the first time I had a baby natural!!! I am proud of that!   :)

Also she was born face up, all my babies were born face down. And she was the smallest baby!! My smallest was 6 lbs 10 oz. And I've never had a baby born in the morning.

I'm home from the hospital! (I barely stayed the 24 hours, I didn't feel the need to stay any longer)

I think that's it!

Jill

P.S. My mom had flown in to help out and a few days later we went to Disneyland.

What a way to celebrate!!!   :)

We moved back to Utah about a week or 2 later. Yeah, I know, I'm crazy!