Baby Daddies

Yesterday I had a Wic appointment. It was my first one and I left being extremely grateful for my husband!! After I had to hear all about these girls boyfriends and baby daddies I walked away so grateful for marriage and Tim. I am just so glad that I don't have to worry about whether or not Tim's going to want to stay with me after we have this baby or if he will help me take care of our future little one. I am blessed.

I have a guilty pleasure of watching that teen mom show on MTV and that show gives me these same feelings. My favorite girl on that show is Macy. You can tell that she loves her son a lot and wants the best for him. But it's also extremely obvious that what she has to do by herself is hard. I think it is such a blessing that I was raised by a family that takes values marriage so highly, and even fights for it. Marriage is not easy but I wouldn't want to go without it. Single moms are so brave and are probably way under appreciated. To see the girls in the Wic office be so willing to be a single mom just blew my mind. Haven't they ever seen teen mom? I can only imagine how hard it would be to do this without Tim.

Third trimester

I'm starting to get nervous about my third trimester. Everyone says that the second trimester is the best and that has definitely been true. I don't even really feel pregnant. I sleep great, I don't even have to wake up in the middle of the night to pee. I don't get sick, I can still move around, I still have clothes to wear. It's been a really nice change from the months of morning sickness. Squirm's kicks are getting harder but it's still my favorite part of being pregnant. Unfortunately for Tim I know I've been hormonal. It's like I'm PMSing every other day. I get annoyed at dumb things and I have no sense of humor. It's frustrating because I know my attitude sucks sometime and I try and keep my mean comments in my head but sometimes they just pop out. Tim has been way too nice.

Some third trimester symptoms:

Acid reflux (although once I pop a tums it goes away)
Oily skin
Moody
My boobs are finally getting bigger!!! Which also means they are sore, always.
I get tired really early
My belly sits pretty high so if I'm sitting for too long it gets uncomfortable. I have to lengthen out my torso when I'm sitting so my bra doesn't dig into it. I always forget until it starts hurting.
Sometimes I can't quite catch my breath. I'm just not able to take a full deep breath, it's a really weird feeling.
I'm still not used to my belly and when I try to look down I can't see past it, it makes getting dressed harder, I have to look in a mirror.

Those are the only symptoms I can think of right now. Nothing too bad and i'm trying to enjoy the easiness of everything while I can.

Peace

I finished my Christmas cards, late. I have been so busy. I've been helping my Dad at work and its Christmas time so we have been doing a ton of extra things. But I finally finished them and I'm really excited to send them out!

Tis the season

Christmas time means shopping. Shopping for gifts is hard for me, I over think things and I hate it. This year I have been trying really hard to get a good deal on all of my gifts. When I buy something for a good price I feel even better about my purchase. There have been a couple of sites that I visit everyday and check out what deals they have. This is really easy to do with my phone, I can always find a spare minute to just pop onto the site and check out what deals they have. My sister, Jasmine, is my inspiration for this madness. She is so good at finding an amazing deal! Since I live so close to her I guess it has just rubbed off on me. I have to correct myself because its really not madness yet, I feel like I have things under control. I have been spending some extra time online but it's only because I have been trying to find Christmas gifts.

Some of the sites I have found really helpful:
(In order of helpfulness!)

Slickdeals is a popular site, many of you probably already know about it. It is a huge forum where people list different deals they have seen, online or in-stores. They have a main page which lists the most popular deals but they also list really good less popular deals on the right hand side. I definitely go on this site everyday, sometimes twice.

Ebates I debated on putting this site first. It is very helpful because it is a way to earn money back for online shopping. Basically you get a small percentage, like 5%, back for things you buy online. They'll send you a check or deposit it into your paypal. There are links to every store you can think of including eBay (but not amazon). I find it useful when I'm buying stuff online; it's an added bonus and it super easy to use!! Also when I buying expensive things like plane tickets its a nice bonus for basically doing nothing! I don't mind getting an extra $5 here and there. When you first join you get $5 and when you refer a friend you get $5. So the link here is connected to me, so if you decided to join go through my link and I'll gladly appreciate the $5!!

Woot is a forum and it has a special deal each day. I generally just look at the main daily deal each day.

Dailysteals is a lot like woot. It just has one random deal that changes each day. Another fun one to look at.

Offermatic is a site I just found. I'm still pretty skeptical and not sure it is worth the trouble. An article I read called it the love child of mint, groupon and blippy. I already use mint and I sometimes check groupon. Basically this site asks for your info like mint and then looks at where you spend your money and offers you relevant deals like groupon. The first three "offers" I got were coupons to Macy's, Safeway, and Fandango. Fandango was the best offer, full priced tickets ($12) for $6. A pretty good offer but I'm not familiar with Fandango and Regal theaters just started doing movies for $5 all day on Tuesdays, which is a great price! I'm gonna try this site and see how it goes, maybe it will be good. The article kinda raves about it....we'll see.

These sites are fun but I've been trying really hard to get good prices on my Christmas gifts and just make sure that I get the best deal for my money. Oh the things you have to do when you're a student......my previous post is a perfect example of the things I do to save money. The real trick is to make sure it is really helping me save money and not helping me spend more on things I don't really need.

Holiday cards

Lately, I have been in the mood to make special decorative cards for the different holidays. I've never really been a crafty person but my Mom has a craft room filled with everything I could need and it makes it really easy. My Mom has a lot of cute ideas and I pretty much just copy things I've seen. I love making them.

Since I've been really into to cards I've been thinking about sending put Christmas cards. I have been trying to decided between making custom Christmas cards our buying some online. We recently did family pictures and we got a lot of cute pictures. A couple days ago I saw on the Facebook feed a little blip about Shutterfly. Basically, if you do some qualifying things they give you a coupon code for fifty free holiday cards. I really like Shutterfly especially because when you first sign up you usually get some 4x6 prints for free. It's a really easy to use site. My sister is really into to making books out of her photos and they always turn out really nice!! They have lots of cards on their website so it was hard to choose one for example they had: Christmas cards and Christmas photo cards and even cute Happy birthday cards. That's mostly what this post is for but I figured I would write a little update anyways.

PS I would really like your address so I can send you a Christmas card. If your family I have your address and if you live in the same place you did when we got married I also have your address but for everyone else please e-mail me your address. My e-mail is Froncej@gmail.com.

Jeans

Oh maternity jeans.....why do you hate me? I have two pairs of normal jeans that still fit me but I know they aren't going to last much longer. I tried the belly band and it didn't work. I've looked at old navy, gap, and motherhood maternity. Each store just stresses me out. It is annoying! I'm used to wearing skinny jeans but every pair of skinny jeans feels like denim colored leggings. I kinda feel like I have to settle for jeans that look nothing like my style. I guess it's only four months but I've never been one to choose comfort over style, and I have the shoes to prove it.

I couldn't help but think of this SNL skit.

Food

I love food. I really love food. The things I have been craving: cheese. Grilled cheese, Mac n cheese, Cheetos, these little pizza roll things, and pizza. I've always liked cheese and I didn't even realize the trend at first. I've been going through phases where I eat the same thing for about two weeks straight. First it was taquitos, then salami (nitrate free of course), mac n cheese, grilled cheese with pickles, and now these really really good pizza rolls. They are sold at Costco only at Christmas time so I've had to eat them while I can. I also crave pickles, cheeseburgers, and dr pepper. Soda has been my weakness the last couple of weeks. I want to drink three a day but I've been trying really hard to only have one every other day. It's extra hard because I've never been a big fan of water. I'm so glad I can eat whatever I want unlike the first trimester when I lived off of toast and soup.

Names

I still have 114 days left of this pregnancy which is about 4 months and we have been thinking a lot about names. I never knew that this would be so hard. Me and Tim have hit a wall. I have picked a name that I LOVE! I REALLY love it. I need help. Tim has a semi ok reason not to like it but I just can't stop thinking about this name. I am trying to move on but it is really hard and every other name I hear just isn't good enough. So I wanna know should I just get over it or should Tim get over his reasons? Here's the story:

The name I like is Rella. It sounds just like it is spelled. Now you have to say it out loud a couple times...Rella, Rella, Rella. It is Rella like Cinderella. When I was a gymnastics teacher I heard this name and I have loved it ever since. I love that it is unique but its not super weird. Also its part of a princesses name which is awesome! Really what girl doesn't want to feel like a princess? So its unique, pretty, and Tim hates it.

The reason he hates it: When he was in high school or something I guess he played a video game that had zombies. So his friends would imitate the zombies by making a relllllllllalala noise. He says to him each time he even tries to say Rella he has to change his tone of voice. Ugh I am so annoyed writing this post. Kinda dumb reason, right? He'll forget about it, right?? He'll just replace these memories with ones of his beautiful daughter, right?

Its not like its an ugly name, its pretty and feminine. So I have been trying to think of other reasons to help me get over this name.

1. The name Bella is really popular right now so everyone will probably just think her name is Bella instead of Rella. People never really listen, people always think my name is Jennifer. Crazy right?!

2. Well I don't have another reason. That's it.

What should I do? Give up, move on? Has everyone been ruined by the zombie story? Is that what all of you are going to think now if we do name her Rella? I have to admit I just keep falling more in love with the name as I write this. HELP!!

Halloween

I am still a little behind with our posts. This year for Halloween everyone left us. My family went to Southern California. We were invited but Tim is in school and its pretty impossible to take any time off. Our ward had a trunk or treat activity a week before Halloween. The night it was planned for had a forecast for rain. So instead of doing the trunk or treating outside they moved everything inside. When I found this out I begged Tim to do a Haunted Hallway for the kids. Basically, for those of you who have never experienced a Haunted Hallway, its a creation Tim and his roommates did each Halloween in college. They would convert their apartment hallway, which was very long, into a mini haunted house. It was always really fun and I thought the kids would love it!

Surprisingly, Tim was very reluctant, possibly because he wasn't used to creating something for 8 year old's. We set up our Haunted Classroom in two primary rooms and it was a pretty short and very dark maze that the kids had to go through and earn their candy. It involved crawling, walking through creepy fishing line hanging from the ceiling, and being scared multiple times. At the very end when they thought all they had to do was grab their candy and run for the door they were scared by the "dead guy" aka Tim hiding under the a tarp or "sleeping in his grave." Seeing the scared faces was just so fun!!! I loved it because I got to hide behind a corner and scare each kid! I loved seeing the scared faces!!! It was a huge success and I think Tim was really glad I made him do it considering we won the contests for best decorated room and got a $50 Mimi's cafe gift card. This was our only opportunity to dress up so I was a witch and Tim was a soccer ref. I just really wanted to wear this super long wig which you can't really see in the picture, it made it really hard for people to recognize me which is always fun.

On Halloween we carved pumpkins, I haven't carved a pumpkin since we have been married. Unfortunately, we have a stupid squirrel that loves to eat pumpkin seeds and destroys any pumpkin that gets put out on our porch. After our candles melted our pumpkins became fair game for the squirrel and he didn't waste anytime looking for the seeds that weren't in our beautifully carved pumpkins. However, this still didn't discourage the squirrel because he ruined our pumpkins anyway. Stupid squirrel. My pumpkin is on the left, I cheated and used a cut out. Tim on the other hand did his all freehand and I'm glad I used a printout because I had no idea I was going to be displaying my pumpkin next to a pro's pumpkin.

Twenty five

This is a little late, oops. Last month I had my twenty-fifth birthday. I feel old, I had a fun birthday though. It has been a really long time since I have been able to spend my birthday with my family, so it was a really nice change. My mom took me maternity clothes shopping which was fun but I'm really not that big yet. I tried to take some belly shots but they were all so UGLY!! I included one because I don't know when I'll have the courage to take more. This picture was Halloween weekend.


My mom and I also found these really yummy cupcakes at some random bakery. I think I liked them so much because of all the coconut on the right one, so delicious!


Of course the real highlight of my birthday was my cake. Tim got me an ice cream cake from baskin robins. I love the frosting on these cakes and that is why it has creepy clowns on it!!! Tim went and found the cake that had the most frosting on it and that is the one he bought. I LOVE the frosting it is so delicious....Mmmmmm. It was a really good birthday.

On a random pregnancy note. I'm finally over the morning sickness and in the stage of not much going on. My belly is getting bigger but I don't really notice it. It doesn't get in my way and I can still wear my normal jeans. I have been able to feel Squirm move for about a month now and it is one of my favorite things!! I love it, definitely the best thing so far about being pregnant!

Best Birthday present!

This year for my birthday Tim got me the best present, and I also got it early which is an extra bonus! I am a very impatient person, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but most of you know this about me already. Last Friday Tim took me to go see an ultrasound tech so we could find out the sex of our little baby 20ish days early! I was so excited because when I'm looking forward to something I pretty much obsess about it. And you can say I was definitely obsessing about the sex of our baby, our ultrasound appointment was Oct 25th which seemed like FOREVER far away. It was such a great experience, not only did we get to see our little one but we also got to find out we are having a GIRL. I had a hunch it was going to be a girl for quite some time. The typical stuff like my dreams, intense morning sickness, blah blah blah. But for Tim I think this was quite a shock! Boys run heavily in his family! He basically thought it was impossible for us to have a girl, haha. I think it took a couple hours, maybe even days, for him to come to terms with this reality. It was very funny to hear him talk to his family about how we are having a girl, not a boy!


The ultrasound tech was so nice, she made the whole experience so much fun. She was so excited for us, our little Squirm moved around a lot and the tech thought it was the neatest thing. She really took her time to explain everything and she even would rewind or pause and point out little movements we might of missed. It made the whole experience feel so special! I love every minute of it. It was also a lot of fun because my family had no idea we were going to find out super early so we were able to surprise everyone with the news.

We got to take home 17 pictures and a video of the whole thing. Here are some of my favorite pictures:


In this picture Squirm is extending her leg, she was kicking a lot during this whole process.




In this one she decided to roll over so we could see her spine and her little bum, so cute!



In this one she is showing her hand, looks like shes waving. We were able to see both her hands and both legs, and even a glimpse of her little bum. It was so exciting. We don't really have any names picked out, it's hard for us to agree on anything. I guess there aren't any names we are just absolutely in LOVE with. Well actually there is one name I'm in LOVE with but I don't think Tim likes it very much. I'm not going to share it because if everyone hates it I'll probably cry, and that will give Tim validation for not liking it.

I don't even know what to say........

Wow! I've been feeling guilty for not posting and it just seemed harder and harder to try and catch up with all the stuff we missed. But we have internet again so I guess its time that I catch up. A quick run down of what has happened since my last post.

We moved to Portland: Tim went to school, I worked as a Gymnastics teach and was a sub at a daycare. I LOVED my job at the gym. I miss it tons. When summer rolled around we got ready to move to Dallas for Tim to be a tech....again, sigh. We were all ready to go and then last minute, literally 3 days before we moved, we decided to move to Folsom, CA instead. One of my sister was planning a summer wedding and another sister was pregnant and due in July. I really wanted to be involved in the family festivities! As some of you know, from experience, working for summer sales makes it very hard to get any time off, and I just couldn't risk missing these awesome events. So Tim found a job, thanks to my Dad, with my brother painting and doing odd jobs for a property management company. It was a lot of long days but they were their own bosses which was really really nice. I on the other hand couldn't find a job so I stayed busy helping with various weddings. Then in July we found out we were pregnant! I found out the same day my sister had her second baby, Bridgette. For the rest of the summer I had horrible morning sickness and was pretty much a bum. Now that summer is over Tim is back in school and I am kinda feeling better, which means I don't throw up everyday. Well there is a little preview in to our recent activities. No one probably even checks my blog anymore because I haven't updated in so long. Oh well....