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.