30 Years

I feel I am one of the most fortunate people out there. I know that’s a pretty lofty thing to say, but that’s how I feel when I think of the type of people I have had for these 23 – almost 24 – years of my life as parents. My parents are not by any means perfect people, but to me they are the best I could have ever asked for – and I didn’t even have to! God gave them to me, and my brother, and we continue to reap the benefits of being raised by such godly people as we go from day to day in our own lives.

I want to be like them. I want to be kind and understanding like they are. I want to be firm in my beliefs, I want to devote my time to God. I don’t know how many times I have called my mom and asked what she was up to and she’d reply, “Just reading my Bible.” Or how many times I have gone back to Georgia to find God’s word open on the bedside, or on the desk, or on the table, having recently been read. My dad fills notebooks with his studies, and his dedication to knowing God’s word shows in his life, as well as in my mother’s.

I want to be like them because I was always surrounded by God’s word when I grew up, and I want to surround my children with God’s word as they grow as well. I love that they have the example that my parents have set.

As of today, my parents have been married 30 years. That’s 30 years of ups and downs, of joys and tears. I have learned through their example what a godly marriage looks like, that no matter what comes our way, when God is first in our life, we can make it through. They have always displayed care, love, and deep respect for each other in every season of their life together, even when hardships came, always putting the other above themselves.

I wish that everyone had parents like mine, but I sure am thankful to God that He gave them to me.
To my dad, who always knows what to say to me and when to say it… who can bring a smile through my tears with a well-timed text message… who has always taught me that love should be my driving force in everything that I do {I will never forget this!}…

To my mom, who has become one of my very best friends… who has shown me how to be a godly wife and a godly mother by her example throughout my life… who always has time to talk when I need it, and the right words to say when they’re needed {how you understand me through hysterical tears, I will never know, but I appreciate you!}…

I love you both. I am so thankful for you and I could never tell you enough how much you mean to me, how much you mean to Carl, and how much you mean to Benjamin.

I pray for MANY more years to be able to say “HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!” to such godly parents!

You guys are the best!
Happy Anniversary!

17 Week Update

I know I skipped last week… I’m really sorry, y’all! By the time I got around to remembering to take a picture, I felt so awful that I just didn’t feel like it. There was one specific day where I was very afraid that morning sickness had come back with a vengeance, but as it happens, it was just a fluke… thankful for this!

How Far Along: 17Weeks
Size of Baby: A 17 week baby is the size of a turnip… which reminds me of Charlie from Lost.

Total Weight Gain: –11. I thought I had gained one back, but it was a fluke.
Sleep: Getting better! SO thankful!
Symptoms: Sick one day, moody, tired, achy, and unfortunately my hypotension is back.
Cravings: Spaghetti O’s, Vanilla milkshake, Batter Up fries, and I’ve been thinking about mac N cheese…
Gender: We find out in a week!
Movement: Yes! More and more! Feeling some really strong kicks!
Maternity Clothes: I same as before! Leggings and dresses are my bff’s, but I have also still been wearing some of my pre-pregnancy jeans. Actually they are loose. Awesome..
Best Moments This Week: Feeling the kicks has been pretty awesome.
What I’m Looking Forward To: One week until we find out the sex of the baby!
Milestones: “Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — his/her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now, and s/he's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. S/he can move her joints, and his/her sweat glands are starting to develop.”

Let Go, & Let God.

Sometimes you just need a reminder.

Much love to all my friends! <3

Instacute.

It seems like the easiest way I have been able to chronicle what has been going on with us has been through mediums like Instagram… it’s just easy to take a quick snapshot and upload it. So here’s what’s been going on lately:

That’s all, folks!

15 Week Update

As of Friday, we are 15 weeks along! Things are really starting to move fast now that we’ve gotten past the feeling sick day in, day out phase of this pregnancy! My baby bump seems to be a phantom bump that shows up some days but hides others. Maybe I’ll get a more permanent bump once I start gaining more. I have finally started getting more excited about this baby – not to seem ungrateful but I was struggling to feel excited for a while just because of how terrible I’d been feeling. We have names picked out, I have nursery colors picked out, we have budget stuff mostly worked out, and we are less than 3 weeks away from the anatomy scan!

How Far Along: 15Weeks
Size of Baby: A 15 week baby is the size of an apple… which is one of the foods that make me wanna gag.

Total Weight Gain: –10
Sleep: Getting a little better, but still lacking!
Symptoms: Tired. Stretching pains. Belly.
Cravings: Mint chocolate chip, lemonade, and chow mein.
Gender: No idear.
Movement: Yes! Finally I am feeling this LO moving! There were a few little flutters but what I’m mostly feeling is full body movement, which is sooo strange. I almost forgot how strange it felt!
Maternity Clothes: I same as before! Leggings and dresses are my bff’s, but I have also still been wearing some of my pre-pregnancy jeans. Not bad.
Best Moments This Week: Finally deciding on how to do the nursery, and our doctor’s appt was last Thursday – everything looked great, and our anatomy scan will be Oct 25th.
What I’m Looking Forward To: I am making Chili for our Young Adult study tonight and I’m excited. Anatomy scan in 3 weeks, which I’m actually really nervous about!!
Milestones: Movement!

Frugally Preparing for Baby

So obviously something that is likely to come up on every new mother or father’s mind is how they are going to be able to afford all the new stuff for the baby. Unfortunately for us, most of our baby things from when Benjamin was a little tiny thing are long gone, due to the fact that we had to move pretty much everything into storage at one point and a lot of it just couldn’t fit. So, no crib, no baby clothes (who’s to say we’re having another boy anyway?), none of that little tiny baby stuff. Unless I’m forgetting that we have some stored somewhere, anyway. I know we have a few things here and there, but there’s obviously quite a bit that we’re going to have to get for this new baby.

Right now, we have 25 weeks (and a few days) to have what we need before the baby gets here. Of course, there are a few things that I’m still unsure of as to when we will need it… such as the crib. The baby will be staying in our room for a while after it’s born, for different reasons, the main one being it will be easier for me during recovery. So, there’s a possibility that the crib can be one of the last purchases, really…

There are a few things that I know I would spend the money on if I couldn’t find the stuff at a yardsale or consignment sale, or something like that, the stroller I mentioned the other day being one of those, and I guess that’s because I have my heart set on it! – and as a side note, there have been very few things I have actually had my heart set on recently for this baby, I guess because I have had a lot of other things to think about besides baby stuff the past month… and then before that I was too sick to think of anything. So this one thing that I do have my heart set on – because I would love to go on family walks with Benjamin and the baby and Carl and Zoe – I think I’m going to allow myself to splurge on if need be.

But I will be trying to save money in other ways. Here are the few that I have thought of so far, so if you have any suggestions to add, please do so in the comments!

• Feeding: I plan on breastfeeding as long as everything goes well, and for as long as I can. Benjamin nursed until he was 12 months. Of course, that wasn’t exclusive, but I do think it saved money anyway. And I know that not having to spend money on formula is really going to help.
• Diapering: I still have all of Benjamin’s cloth diapers and I intend to use them for this baby as well. I really need to fix some of the leg gussets – by the way, if I have any sewing friends in the area who want to help me do that, I would be forever grateful! I really am not the best at sewing – but other than that, they are just perfect still. I would like to buy some small sizes just so we don’t have to wait a few months to start using the diapers, but in the scheme of things, that will also be saving money, and lots of it!
• Travel: We have a carseat already, but depending on the condition of the cover we may have to buy a new one – cover that is. Not completely sure yet though!
• Sleeping: We have Benjamin’s pack-n-play still so that will do fine for as long as the baby is sleeping in our room. As for like crib bedding and stuff, once we have a crib, I’m going to skip all that because not only is it unnecessary to have in the baby’s bed, but it’s not particularly safe either {and I mean like the bumper and the cute little quilt and all that}. There’s no real need for all of that so I don’t really want to spend the money on it.
• Clothing & Toys: We look for deals for these and this is also what everyone loves to buy for the baby so I think we’ll probably be set on all this. Besides, the baby is going to have plenty of entertainment with Benjamin around, I assure you.

For the bigger things that we inevitably will need to buy, we’re going to do our best to space out the purchases so we’re not spending a ton all at once and wracking up a huge bill. We’re trying to cut out the nonsense stuff that we don’t have to buy, and instead focus on the things that we will need. Like a dresser. That’s one thing that we need to get.

I feel pretty good about the ways we plan on saving, actually. It helps a lot to put it all down in front of me instead of just having it going around in my head. Like I said, if you have anything to add, please do!

A day of ups and downs {but mostly ups}

I was so excited today when Carl found the double stroller I have been eyeballing for a while on Craigslist. Seriously, I was super thrilled, and Carl went ahead and sent the guy a message to ask about the stroller. Well, the guy said at first that it wasn’t available anymore… but then came back and said that if we really wanted it, it would be available after the weekend. Well, THEN I was really pumped… Carl and the guy fixed a day and a place and time to pick it up and pay, and then he was confirming the amount and said “$450”.

Wait, what?

Sorry, and no offense to anyone reading who has paid or is willing to pay that much for a stroller, but there is no way I would ever pay that much on one item for a baby. Ever. Not only do we not have that much extra money laying around for a double stroller, but I’m not going to pay that much, period. That’s ridiculous.

Turns out we weren’t talking about the same stroller. The one we had been thinking of had been sold already. Good thing we got that cleared up before we drove an hour to Tuscaloosa for a super expensive stroller that we would never, in our right minds, buy.

In case you’re wondering, this is the stroller I am eyeballing, and if anyone {reasonably close} happens to know of someone selling {reasonably cheap} one of these… or if you find one at a yard sale and it’s in good condition… seriously, tell me.

Anyway, so that’s the down part of the day.

We had more ups than downs today though. I had been feeling really down lately because I feel like I haven’t been doing as well as I could as a mommy and a wife {seriously… my house is a wreck and I just want to sleep all day}. I was thinking I could do something special with Ben today but the weather was gloomy & rainy. So instead, we played a video game together, which was actually pretty fun, and did other things like play-do and all that. Benjamin said I’m a cool mommy.

Last night we also decided on baby names, but we’re keeping those hush-hush until the baby is born. But it’s a huge relief to not have that on our plate anymore.

And then another huge UP is that we spent some time tonight with some really good friends at dinner! We had a good time.

All in all, even though we didn’t get that stroller on the cheap, today was a really good day. Only a couple more days till our next doctor appointment, and then we’ll schedule our anatomy scan, which will probably be in four weeks… which just so happens to fall on my birthday weekend… which is also the next time I am going to see my parents because my dad wanted to come down for my birthday! I’m so excited!