14 Weeks Bumpdate

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!  We had a nice relaxing one at home and my husband did VERY good. Here is my new Coach bag that I LOVE.

I can't believe I am already another week along!  Here is this week's Bumpdate. :)

I slacked again on my picture this week and snapped it last minute this morning before I left for work. I had to pull my cardigan up to show my belly so that's why it looks all bunchy. :)  Maybe eventually I will get some better ones!


How far along:  14 weeks (I guess I should put I am 14 weeks today but this makes me in my 15th week.. so not sure if I am listing right what week I am in? This tracking can be confusing!)

Size of baby:  Navel Orange - 4.5in, 2-3oz

Gender:  Find out in about a month

Maternity clothes:  Not yet, but thinking I might look around this weekend at some pants just to see..

Sleep:  Getting up a LITTLE less to use the restroom, other than that still sleeping pretty good.  My bedtime has moved a little later, to about 9pm :)

Symptoms: I have felt pretty good the past few days nausea wise, so fingers crossed that stays! Still really tired, and bad lower back pain but it's all manageable. I am using the restroom A LOT more during the day now and pretty much feel like I could pee (sorry TMI) ALL the time.  That is rather annoying but I guess I better get used to it since I am sure it'll only get more intense as the months go on.

Miss anything:  Cold subs/sandwiches!

Movement:   I don't think so, not yet!

Food cravings:  Still loving my tomato sandwiches and I have to have OJ every morning with my breakfast. I am also LOVING the Hershey Peppermint Chocolate bars.. sooo good.  Lance went to get me one the other night and came home with a HUGE bag of the same flavor of Hershey Kisses. Ah.

Anything making you queasy or sick:  I am doing pretty good on this. Nothing just from looking or smelling it.  If it made me feel bad in the past, I have stayed away from eating it.

Have you started to show yet:  So the day after I posted my bump last week, it literally went away. It is so nuts how from day to day it goes up and down. It's back now to about the same as last week, so probably a little bloat mixed in with baby right now. Nothing too crazy yet. :)

Belly button in or out:  In

Wedding rings on or off:  On

Mood: Happy/excited

Best moment of this week: Having a nice quiet last Christmas as 2 with my sweet husband.

Looking forward to: My mom coming in today for a week and getting lots of shopping in!

13 Weeks Bumpdate

Ok this is not the best pic since I snapped it this morning with my phone. I actually took a cute one last night next to our Christmas tree (Lance's idea, ha) but then I woke up this morning with this BUMP! I have mostly looked just kinda chubby with a gut lately, but this morning it actually looks like a baby bump. People at work were even like, "whoa, where did that come from??"  I am kind of nervous because I hear all these stories of women who didn't show until 20 weeks or so with their first.. hmm not me! I know when you are pregnant you shouldn't care about your size, but it's hard after being so aware of what you eat/weigh/gain to just let go of the fear. I did hear short people show sooner and can look a lot bigger, so here we go.. the beginning of my little (for now) bump!!

How far along:  13 weeks

Size of baby:  Lemon (which I think is weird since last week was a peach.. isn't a peach bigger?!)

Gender:  5 more weeks!

Maternity clothes:  Not yet, but those pants sure do sound comfy!

Sleep:  Still having crazy dreams and not sleeping too good. I wake up A LOT. I can fall right back to sleep thank goodness, but it is annoying. Also, I still have to get up to the bathroom around 4-5 times a night. Sigh.

Symptoms:  Still a bit nauseous at times, mainly at night. I've found peppermint helps some, so I have been eating LOTS of candy canes at work lately! I'm still super tired and still feeling blah a lot. Oh, and I forgot to mention before, bad chapped lips! I use Maybelline's Baby Soft lips in the clear all day under my lip gloss and it helps tons. I always forget things super easy now and just zone out, ha. Luckily my co-workers all know I am pregnant now!!

Miss anything:  Not at the moment!

Movement:   I try to sit still and concentrate sometimes and see if I feel anything, but not yet.

Food cravings:  I still eat the exact same thing for lunch everyday- tomato sandwich (light mayo!) on toasted bread, carrots and hummus, and the Little Debbie chocolate cake thing with the cherry creme filling. I have had this exact meal over 2 weeks and still love it! Ha  I think about french fries still, but try to be good and not get them. We have the sweetest man at work who brings breakfast EVERY SINGLE DAY to work for us. It ranges from donuts, Chickfila, McDonalds, Bojangles (yall don't have that back home and it's AMAZING!), and anything like that. Before I was pregnant I would never go get anything, but my self control is lower these days. Oops.  I don't give in everyday, thank goodness, but I sure do love those yummy breakfast biscuits!

Anything making you queasy or sick:  I had some ice cream the other night and that made me feel SO sick.  I've noticed that with milk too, so apparently this baby doesn't like dairy or really anything that's too sweet!  Then this morning I was making Lance's lunch and literally had to make his sandwich as fast as possible because the lunch meat was bringing on some massive dry heaving. Yuck!

Have you started to show yet:  Mentioned above! :)

Belly button in or out:  In

Wedding rings on or off:  On

Mood: Happy!

Best moment of this week: Seeing how cute Lance is rubbing my belly at night and talking to our baby. I can not wait to see him as a Daddy!!

Looking forward to: Officially entering the second trimester and hoping for this energy and great feeling I keep hearing about to happen! :)

Revlon ColorStay

I have mentioned this gloss in the past, and it is amazing.  I was never a big lipstick wearer, and hated how lip gloss came off so easy and left that nasty line on your lips.  This comes in great colors, REALLY does stay on a long time, and wears off evenly.  It normally costs around $8-9, but this weekend I found a great deal.  I was at Kmart (yes, we still have Kmart in NC and I love it!) and saw it for 75% off! First my reaction was excitement, but then it turned to fear they were discontinuing it like they do EVERYTHING that I grow attached to.  Most were gone, but they did have 1 left of the color I normally wear, and I grabbed 2 other colors that were similar.  I think I paid $2.14 each for these!  The last time I had to buy these was a few months ago because CVS had them on sale for I think around the same big discount.  I got 3 then too, so I really got nervous they would be gone soon.  I have googled and looked on Revlon and still see the product, so fingers crossed they don't discontinue my favorite gloss!!  Quite a while back they were getting rid of my favorite mascara, Sky High Curves, so I bought all the discount ones at Target, then found them at Goodwill for $1 each and bought all they had.  I was able to use my stockpile for over a year after it was discontinued! Hey, gotta get it while I can!

If you are looking for a new gloss to try, this is the one.  Hopefully it won't be gone anytime soon!

Five On Friday

Disclaimer: I try to proofread my posts many times before publishing, but I swear I have pregnancy brain already. I will spell things wrong, type the completely wrong word, and/or make no sense. Please do not judge my typing the next few months. :)

First, I have updated my layout a bit (new background and accent colors) so I hope you like the new look! (It is a lot different on the mobile version, so hop on a computer to see the real, cute design.) I still can't get on the trend of paying for someone to make me one of the really snazzy layouts, so for now I am sticking with what I can "make" on my own.

Now that I can FINALLY talk about pregnant stuff, I figured I would link up for the Five on Friday and do it a little prego style!  I am too early to actually buy any maternity or baby items, but that doesn't mean I can't still look around.  As you may have read before, I am a super discount Old Navy shopper, so I am hoping to rack up some great deals on Maternity clothes there when the time comes.  There is so much on sale right now it is killing me not to buy something, but since I have no clue what size I will grow into, there is no point. I promise I won't completely only talk about pregnancy/baby stuff on here since I am assuming it is not too interesting to those of you not pregnant or who do not have kids. Right now that pretty much consumes me, so I will try to venture out some! :)  Here are a few of my favorite maternity finds, with some cute baby stuff thrown in!

{One}

Love these!  They are on sale right now from $39.99 to only $15.99 here. Not sure if I would buy them online since reading the reviews. Most complained of tightness in the thigh area and let's be honest.. I'm a hips/thighs/butt girl when I am NOT pregnant, so I definitely don't need something that is tight in that area when I am pregnant. I think I will most likely try on stuff in the store (if it is available) and then go back and order online since I get better deals that way!

{Two}

I am a tank top lover. I wear one almost every under what I am wearing. Especially in the winter I love cardigans and open front sweaters, and a nice thick tank top is great to wear under. I used to wear cami's all the time but I got to where I don't like them anymore. Maybe it's the thinness or the tangling straps, but I have moved on to tanks.  These are regular price $12.94, but depending on the color, they are on sale from $5.99 to $9.00 here.  I am pretty sure I will own most of the solid colors, and a few designed, when the time comes.

{Three}

I LOVE this sweater. It is regular price $32.94, on sale today for $23.00 here. I'm not sure how quickly I will get into maternity clothes, but since it can stay cold in NC until March or so, I am hoping I will still have a few months to enjoy the cute winter styles.

{Four}

  

Ok, so anything with ears will be bought for my child. HOW CUTE?! I would just like everyone to know right now that I am going to be broke 100% of the time once this baby is born (and probably starting once we learn the gender). I love to shop and don't know how I will control myself with all the cute baby items. I'm pretty sure if it's a girl she will be a little Snooki because I love anything that's pink, glittery/sequins, and animal print. Don't hate.  The girl jacket is regular price $12.94 on sale for $6.99 here, and the boy's is regular $16.94 on sale for $7.99 here. I mean come on, how can I not rack up when baby stuff is so cute and CHEAP?!?

{Five}

Precious. I guess I can't get away with putting this on a boy, but I do love it! Regular $$16.94, on sale for $8.50 here.

So friends, family.. start shopping! haha :) Happy FRIDAY!!!!!!!

Oh, baby!

Surprise! Baby Rowland, coming  June 25, 2014.

This has been such a hard secret to keep, but I wanted to wait until we got the 12 week all clear from my doctor before making anything "public".  Lance and I found out on October 13, 2013 (exactly 2 weeks before our one year anniversary!) that we were expecting our little one.  I only told 2 close girlfriends and that was it for weeks and weeks.  I knew I wanted to wait until that first doctor's appointment until we told our families because I knew their excitement was going to be through the roof.  I would hate to share this amazing news too soon since anything can happen, especially in the beginning weeks, and I wanted to feel a little more secure in our announcement.  We saw our little one and heard the heartbeat on November 11, and it was so surreal.  I think the ultrasound tech was waiting for us to say something, but we literally both just starred silently in amazement at the screen!

I knew I wanted to have "fun" announcements for our families, so I had to wait until special days to work out my plan.  My dad's birthday was November 22, so we used this to announce to my family.  They are HUGE (and I mean huge) Minnesota Vikings fans, so I wanted to use that in some way with my dad's gift.  As I was searching baby Vikings apparel online, I came across this perfect little gift.

I was curious if they would understand what it meant, but Lance said it was pretty obvious.  Well, apparently it wasn't! haha  Since my family is in MS and there was no time coming up we would see them in person, we had to do their announcement over Skype.   I did record this, but since we were recording the computer screen, it didn't turn out the best quality.  So here we are, all anxious as my dad opens the gift. He opens it, reads it and kind of laughs and says, oh cool.  ((Sigh))  So I say, no READ it again.  He reads it again out loud- Nothing registering for him.  Then I ask, DO YOU GET IT???? At this point my mom's head pops over in front of the camera and says, Um I do??? and when she realized she was correct, the screaming began and then my dad FINALLY got it! haha  To say my mom was excited doesn't even cut it.  She was crying, screaming, etc.  It was too funny and such a great moment.

Next, we had to think of a plan for Lance's family.  We were going to VA for Thanksgiving, so I made him wait until then to share with his mom.  I was dying to tell SOMEONE in person!!!! For her, we just wrapped a framed picture of the ultrasound and told her we got a little something for hosting Thanksgiving.  Her reaction is priceless and I am so glad we got this on video! For some reason I can NOT get the video on my blog. I have emailed it to myself, well my computer won't open it; I tried backing up my google+ from my phone with all my videos and images, nope; tried uploading it to youtube from my phone, nope.  I'm not sure what is going on! :( So sadly I can not share this gem just yet.

Needless to say, EVERYONE in our family is so excited and over the moon.  On one hand I was so ready to just tell everyone else and not be "hiding" anymore, but then again it was nice to have our little secret. It's crazy now to think so many people know our news!!

When you announce you are pregnant everyone immediately asks how you are feeling. Let me just tell you, pregnancy has not agreed with me, AT ALL.  From about week 4 until around 11 1/2 weeks,  I was deadly miserable ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT.  I only threw up once, but the nausea was the most horrible thing I have ever dealt with.  I would suffer through work (which was so hard since no one knew I was pregnant) then cry most of the hour drive home, force myself to eat dinner, and be asleep by 7:30-8 every night.  Poor Lance basically did everything house wise because I was completely useless.  I'm not sure how he managed all my crying and misery, but we made it! I am slowly feeling semi-human again and it is such a relief!! I still feel run down, tired, dizzy, and all those fun symptoms most of the time, but I can handle that 100% versus what I went through these past few weeks.  When I would hear all these people say how they had no symptoms and loved being pregnant, I am not going to lie, I was so angry and jealous of those mean little lucky women! ha. It's so nice to finally enjoy things a bit more.  I still get nauseous every now and then, especially if I am not eating constantly, but that's manageable!  If you noticed I haven't been around much on Facebook, Instagram, or my blog.. it's because I literally had nothing to write or post about but sleeping and crying. haha  But here I am now, ready to share my journey!

I follow 2 blogs where the girls are pregnant and do weekly "Bumpdates", which I think are so cute! I will start posting these every Wednesday, and will normally add a pic, but since I don't have any bump just yet, I didn't take one this week.  Back around Thanksgiving I had some major bloat going on and was getting a little nervous I was going to be huge, but that has since gone down.  I am sure it'll start poking out soon though! :) So far I am still wearing all my normal clothes, I can just notice pants feel snugger around the button and hip area. All the maternity clothes look so cute and comfy, so I am definitely ready for that stage and all the fun shopping!

Here we go:

 Week 12 Bumpdate

How far along:  12 weeks

Size of baby:  a Peach

Gender:  Will hopefully find out in 6 weeks!

Maternity clothes:  Not yet

Sleep:  I sleep A LOT, but have recently started having some crazy dreams! They are so random and involve such a wide variety of people that have no connection.  Some mornings I wake up so exhausted from all my dreaming.

Symptoms:  Thanks goodness the nausea is going away, but I am still tired a lot, run down, light headed, and bad lower back pain when moving certain ways.  Things are getting better though!

Miss anything:  Not really.  Maybe just not having to be cautious with what things I can/can't eat.

Movement:  Nothing yet, but I hope soon since the doctor said yesterday I have a super active, bouncy baby!

Food cravings:  I've eaten a tomato sandwich (maybe 2 some days..) every day for about a week. SO good! Then I think about french fries 24/7 but have been trying to only give in randomly. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: The days I don't feel too good, if I look at food I start super dry heaving. (no fun)

Have you started to show yet:  Just some bloat at night. Mainly I just look like I had a BIG meal.

Belly button in or out:  In

Wedding rings on or off:  On

Mood: Happy/Excited

Best moment of this week: Hearing our little one's super fast heart rate yesterday and knowing everything is still going right in there.

Looking forward to:  Finally getting to share the secret with everyone and I am already so ready to find out the gender!!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I don't know about yall but I LOVE October- December.  The weather, the colors, holidays, everything is just great!!! This year (as every) as flown by and Thanksgiving is just in TWO days.  That is so crazy to me!  This year we will be spending Thanksgiving with Lance's family in Virginia and I am so excited to have the long weekend to eat, eat, eat, and relax.  We are leaving tomorrow night and hoping the rain won't be too crazy for our 6 hour drive.

I am going to be extremely sad once Monday gets here because for one, the holiday weekend will be over, but also because I will actually have a few 5 day work weeks in a row!  Since about the middle of October I have had quite a few Mondays off resulting in 3 days weekends (lovely bank holidays plus an anniversary thrown in), visitors in town giving me a half day, and now Thanksgiving making this a LOVELY 3 day week.  Once we come back I will have to work 3 full weeks (the horror!).  Then the week of Christmas I only get off a few hours early on Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day. Banks may have lots of "holidays", but it's a pretty crappy deal around the important ones when you only get the day of off.  Luckily this year I requested the day after Thanksgiving off early enough to get it approved!

Speaking of Christmas, my mom will be in town December 26- January 1, and luckily I had one little day left to take while she is here.  She gets here after work on the 26th, so I will only work that Friday, then off the weekend and Monday with her, work NYE, and back off New Years Day. Not TOO awful. Then, my goodness, it will be 2014.  How crazy! I can't believe a new year is almost here, but I have a feeling it's going to be a good one! :)

Now that we are mentioning Christmas, I can't leave out Christmas movies.  Yes, I am one of THOSE girls who loooooves Christmas movies.  ABC Family is my TV staple during the holidays. They even have a countdown to the countdown itself!!! Lifetime and Hallmark also have some good originals of their own, but I am more of a classics girl.

Elf anyone? :)

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving and eats LOTS of yummy food!!! I know I have my stretchy pants ready to go! :)

My Old Navy Discount Addiction

Happy Tuesday everyone!

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have a weird thing with trying to get stuff from Old Navy as cheap as possible.  Since I use my little Old Navy CC for my everyday purchases, I rack up some nice rewards and save them up to get a good deal.  I am not really keen on buying regular clothes online, just because I can wear a different size in every store (and Old Navy is bad about none of their styles really matching size wise).  With that being said, I have been pretty lucky when I did order "regular clothes" online, and even when I haven't- the return process is very easy.  Anyways... on this order I just went for some comfy lounge clothes since a lot of those type things were on sale.  I thought I would show my lovely order from last week (that should be delivered today.. yay!)

First off I grabbed this simple sweater because it looked really comfy, and I loved the color.  Just a little something to wear to work.  This is regular price $24.94, and was on sale for $15.00.

Next, I added a 3 pack of some undies.  No need to include a picture of that, ha, but these were $12.00 regular, on sale for $7.97.

3rd, I was looking for some comfy pajama/lounge around the house tee shirts.

  

The short sleeve was $12.94 and long was $12.50, both on sale for $7.97.

And lastly, I had seen another blogger talk about these sweatshirts as being so comfy, and great to lounge in.  I snatched up 2, $19.94 each, on sale for $6.97 each.

    

So, what did I pay for all of this? Well the regular total, with no sales, would have been $102.26. With the sale price my subtotal was $54.88, which means free shipping.  Then I had a $20 promotional code to take off, plus $30 in cash rewards.  With tax I paid total.... $5.22! And the funny thing is, the exact day I ordered, I was actually getting a credit for some tanks I returned, which was $4.22. So technically I only paid $1.00 for all the items listed above.  Is it weird I get a joy out of just HOW low I can get my order??

((I didn't think I would beat my last order, which was 2 pair of skinny jeans, some tights, and a scarf for $1.83.. woohoo!))

Happy Shopping! :)

Five on Friday- October Style

Happy Friday everyone! Since October is sadly almost over, my 5 on Friday will be an October Special. :)

ONE- Halloween

I love Halloween and dressing up, but didn't realize my wedding date would mess that up for a few years. Our anniversary is the 27th, so when that falls on the weekend it is normally the weekend Halloween is celebrated.  Last year was our wedding, and this year we will be in Gatlinburg.  Hopefully next year we will be back in the Halloween festivities.  Here is a little throw back from 2 years ago.  (Glitter) Bee & her Bee Keeper.

 TWO- Boots

Who doesn't love a good pair of cute fall boots? I have a light brown pair I definitely wear out, but have been wanting a new darker brown pair.  I have my eye out now for the perfect pair!

THREE- Pumpkin

I posted a Fall one before and mentioned my love of pumpkin flavor, but I have been slacking a bit this year.  I did see on an episode of Ellen (FAVORITE show) all the crazy pumpkin things this year. Waffles, M&M's, chips, dog treats, coffee, bread, yogurt, beer, poptarts, ice cream, everything!! Some things I don't think should be pumpkin flavored.  Anything weird you guys have had pumpkin you thought would be gross but actually turned out good??

FOUR- Weather

Love it!  It is starting to get chilly, but not to the bone cold. Here is our forecast for our weekend in Gatlinburg, yay!

FIVE- Love

And most importantly I love that October is the month to celebrate my marriage.  Cheers!

Happy last Friday in October!!!!

Marriage- One Year

Holy cow, in just 4 days will be our big one year! I am going to go ahead and do a little post about it now since I know I won't be on this weekend.  I am so excited for our mini getaway and spending some quality time relaxing in the mountains.  We leave for Gatlinburg, TN on Saturday morning to stay at a cute little B&B I found.  It got rave reviews and the breakfast looks AMAZING.  I also have our restaurants planned our for dinner, so let's just say this will be a FOOD trip!  Luckily it's only about a 4-4 1/2 hour drive for us, so we will have most of the day Saturday, all day Sunday, and then will head back after checkout on Monday. I plan on doing a lot of eating, shopping, site seeing, and relaxing.

I won't write a mushy post about my one of a kind husband, but I will include a link HERE if you want to go back and read my sappy Valentine's day one! :) Long story short, life is great and marriage is amazing.

It's crazy to think it's already (almost) been a year since that FREEZING day in October that we said our I do's. Despite the weather, it was the best day ever and I had a blast.  It was definitely my dream wedding.. my friends and family all together to celebrate the most important thing in my life. That day was 100% to me about the marriage and not the "wedding" part of it. Sure, I had a blast planning and decorating, but my real excitement was what would be at the end of the day.. Husband and Wife.

Here are a few pictures from our special day.  Sorry if they are a bit blurry, but I don't have the originals with me, so these are versions saved off Facebook.
 

So since we got married back in MS where I am from, our cake has been there in the freezer for the past year.  My mom went to UPS to check on the best way to send something frozen, and keep it frozen.  The guy told her to get some dry ice, bring it all in, and they would pack it up for her.  This was mailed last Wednesday, and happily I received it at work on Friday.  Well I was happy.. until I opened it and realized the bag the dry ice was in was EMPTY and had completely evaporated on the two day trip!!! From what I think happened, it lasted about a day and the last 24 hours the cake spent thawing out.  It actually isn't that big of a deal since now we won't have to carry the cake with us on our trip, and we get to enjoy a dessert that, honestly, will probably be way better than a year old cake at dinner.  We did eat a piece on Friday night and it wasn't bad.  The texture was kind of gooey, but the flavor was still good.  It is actually still in our fridge, but probably getting chunked soon.

Cheers to a Happy 1 Year.. and many, many more.

I love you Lance Rowland.