the mundane adventures of miss jess

Infertility stories

2013-05-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

My friend Livia has been posting stories related to infertility this week. Our story is on her blog as well. I have loved reading through all the posts and seeing all the different (but familiar) experiences. Whether you have gone through infertility or not, I think learning more about it and increasing your awareness can only help. So thank you Liv for spreading the love and awareness; I think we can all glean something from it.

So please go check out her blog and read a few of the stories. Here is the link: http://www.livwrites.com/search/label/infertility

♥

Love you Mom!

2013-05-12T16:15:00.003-07:00

For those of you following me on other forms of social media, you may already know about this. So I'm sorry for the repeats. On Thursday my mom was rock climbing at a rock gym that she goes to every week. A winding mechanism on a slack line broke, and struck my mom in the face and hands. Let's just say she got kind of jacked up... she had 4 broken bones in her face, broke both of her hands, and had multiple lacerations. Apparently it was her wearing her glasses that saved her eye from sustaining any damages (it was swollen shut, but the eye is fully functioning). On Friday she had back to back surgeries to put plates in her face and pins/screws in her hands. So far she is recovering well and is headed home today. We all really appreciate your prayers and support.

I'm sad to see my mom all banged up on mothers day, but I'm so glad that she wasn't hurt more seriously. Thankfully though, my mom is one tough cookie! I mean hello, she rock climbs in her spare time :) My mom is amazing, and is also a wonderful grandmother. She is always so sweet and patient and fun. I could not have asked for a better mother. I love you so much mom! GET WELL SOON! ♥

Five whole years

2013-05-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

These pictures are completely out of order. But they're some of my favorites of us. If I was super organized I would know where all my pictures of everything was located...but that's one of my goals haha.

It's been a great five years. We've done a lot. We've lived in three different places, and owned and sold a home. We graduated from school and we got real jobs that are actually in our field. We paid off all our student loans. We've seen Beyonce and Britney Spears in concert (one of those was clearly better than the other hahaha). After being told we wouldn't be able to have kids without IVF w/ICSI, we had Henry. Then about a year later we were blessed to get pregnant with George. I've just become a SAHM. And most of all, we are happy. Thank goodness, right? ;) haha. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH JUJI!!! Happy anniversary :)

moving on...

2013-04-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

Jules, from this lovely blog, posted the above picture on her Instagram the other day. And I loved it so much, I had to steal it. It was another confirmation of what I've been working towards lately...

One of my friends posted this on her Facebook page a few weeks ago and it was what I needed to hear that day. When I read this, the things that resonated with me were title, position, and income. Again, another confirmation of what I needed to do...

I've also found a few good quotes in some books I've read lately (maybe I'll find them and use them for a future post...) that all kind of relate to taking control of your own happiness. And doing what you want to do in your life. And guess what? I'm not happy working at home in my current position. The hours were too long, I was forced to ignore my child all day in order to accomplish my high work load, and I was constantly stressed out. While I'm grateful for this time I've had working at home, because it has helped me sort out my priorities more, I've had enough.

Now that we've paid off all our student loans/medical bills, we are blessed to be in the position where I don't need to work if I don't want to. And I don't want to anymore. I want to stay at home and play with my son. I want to be able to go out to the playground with Henry and be carefree and FUN. I also want to have time (and energy) to pursue my other interests. I haven't even done anything with my sewing machine since we moved. I've barely even read a book. These past few months I have just become more and more stressed, and it has been a complete revelation to realize I don't need to put myself (and my family) through this anymore.

So last week I put in my two weeks notice. It was freeing. It was like a weight lifted from my shoulders. I am more excited for the future and for all the opportunities I will have because of this. And I am happy. Happy with my decision, happy with my life, happy with my family, just plain HAPPY. And it's awesome. I am so grateful that I have made this choice, and for a supporting husband, family, and friends who have helped me so much. Cheers to happiness ♥ It's definitely something worth fighting for.

baby bump update: 19 weeks

2013-04-09T19:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't talked too much about my pregnancy yet on my blog. Probably because I've been so busy with work lately, and we had so many people visiting I had to blog about those first :) Yesterday marked 19 weeks pregnant. I got an ultrasound on Friday, and got to see little George--my midwife's office even called me yesterday to say they looked over all the ultrasound pictures and everything looked good.

19 weeks. Pretty sure my pants are unbuttoned in this pic. I need Josh to find my maternity clothes soon.

So that's a big difference with my last pregnancy: this time I'm seeing a midwife. I went and saw an obgyn here in Cedar (w/decent google reviews), but didn't really get awesome vibes from him. Not knowing who else to go to in a new city, I decided to do a google search for midwives. I found an amazing one whose office is in the hospital, and she also delivers in the hospital. Once I found out she delivered in the hospital (I don't want to do any home birthing, that frightens me!), I was sold. On my first visit with her she chewed me out about my eating habits. I was feeling so sick that it was hard for me to eat, and I was popping Zofran twice a day. She talked to me about improving my diet and increasing my food intake, and explained how that could actually help my nausea. While she was very blunt/direct, it's what I needed to get my butt in gear. And since then, while I'm still somewhat nauseous, I've only had to take a Zofran once or twice in the past 2 weeks, and only threw up once. Gigantic improvement! While my morning sickness hasn't been as bad as with Henry (thank goodness!), I still was throwing up usually once a day.

"hello, mommy and daddy!"

sorry if 3d freaks you out, but here he is all smushed in there :)

Oh, I'm also planning on delivering without medication...... Ahh! While it makes me super anxious, I think it will be a better experience than my epidural experience with Henry. I'm going to take a hypnobirthing class starting in June. So wish me luck and send good thoughts my way when that time comes ;)

All in all, so far so good. While I've gone through specific food-obsessed phases, I haven't had any bizarre cravings. At my last appointment I had only gained 4 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm sure it's increased since I've been forcing myself to eat more/better. I've already started having to get up in the middle of the night to pee, and have to pee a lot more often than when I was pregnant with Henry. It's funny/weird how even pregnancy can be different. We'll have to wait and see how different the actual children are from each other! We are so looking forward to getting to meet this sweet baby in person, and we're just about half way there. Thanks again for everyone's kindness :)

Uncle BJ came to visit!

2013-04-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

Uncle BJ came to visit us this weekend, and we had a lot of fun. Henry and BJ became BFF almost instantly, and played with eachother the entire weekend. Here are some cute pictures from the visit (there will be a full photo dump on Henry's blog shortly).

they each had their own controller

BJ took Henry to check the mail

there was lots of playing with blocks

Thank you so much for coming over BJ, we loved having you! And thanks for being so sweet to Henry :)

Easter

2013-04-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

This Easter was brought to you by Mok and Pok. We got Henry a new outfit, and a cute little Easter basket. His outfit was a little big on him...we got 18 month sizes, but then the shirt is untucked it's a little large. The pants seemed humongous, and then later I noticed the tag said 24 months. Oops!

No candy for this dude! We did get him some cookie treats though :) And a toy train and some Elmo "eggs"

He was so happy with his basket. It was adorable.

It was cute to see him carrying it around, and holding it up to his face to "give it love"

Even Jay-Z got to have some fun with Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. I posted a lot more pictures of Henry over on his blog. It was just too cute to see him all decked out in his new clothes and enjoying all the little parts of his basket. My favorite of it all though was seeing him carry it around and hold it to his face while saying "Awww". So precious. Thank you so much Mok and Pok! And I hope everyone was able to enjoy the day with their families :)

grandparents visits!

2013-03-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

Whoa, it's been busy up in here!!! Last Saturday was my birthday (I turned 26), and my parents came up to visit from Arizona. They haven't seen Henry since Thanksgiving, so it was about time we got together again! I stole some pictures from their camera, but I don't think I got them all :( boo!

"What you lookin at?"

my mom and me :)

Henry loves climbing the stairs and peeking through the rails

having fun with Grammy

Josh decorated our townhouse for my birthday. Isn't he so cute??

My parents left Monday, and then Josh's parents came on Tuesday. Henry was spoiled!!

birthday cookie! i love it when my birthday continues past the real day haha

Mimi got to come to swim class with us (see Henry's blog for more pics from that!)

Henry snuggled with Mimi

there were walks outside

and trips to the park!

slide!

swinging with eachother

chillin with Bear

Mimi and Bear got him a cowboy hat!

i love this picture :)

swinging with Mimi

Mimi put together Henry's wagon. He was really excited.

Cruisin!

he loved it

we found a horse that my parents had visited w/Henry before

and fed him carrots!

It was so fun to spend time with both sets of Henry's grandparents! We had an aboslute blast, and we were definitely sad to see them go. Thank you for visiting Grandpa and Grammy and Mimi and Bear!! We love you ♥

eShakti dress review

2013-03-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung! And to celebrate, eShakti was kind enough to send me another dress to review! They have a whole spring clothing line, that is filled with fresh, springtime clothes to welcome the new season!

I decided to go with a knit green dress that is both spring-y and will be comfortable while I'm pregnant. While it is basic, it is still cute and perfect for the season. And sometimes basic pieces are the best because you can add more elements/accessories to the outfit, it acts as a great building block to your outfit.

Go check out eShakti to see all their wonderful new pieces. And remember, they offer customization for a mere $7.50, if you want to tailor your look--and the first time you order customization you get it free! And the nice thing is that eShakti offers sizes from 0 to 36w. Holla! Anyways, they are worth checking out. I have only had wonderful experiences with them so far!

Henry has something to tell you...

2013-03-24T11:30:00.003-07:00

Henry is going to be a big brother, to a little boy we're naming George, due September 2nd!

Yes, we have defied science for a second time. And we are absolutely thrilled, of course! We are so excited to have two little boys running loose around here :) They must have been absolutely determined to make it in our family, because there really isn't any other explanation. Thank you to everyone who has been so sweet and supportive to us, we really appreciate it!

grease lightning!

2013-03-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, I promise this will not turn into a nail polish blog...haha. I just wanted to share my last manicure I did that I was really proud of. All my practicing with nail stamping is finally starting to pay off. But if you are a real nail blogger, don't look. Because this is still amateur hour!!

My sister got me this awesome yellow color for my birthday, and I am in love! Then I thought it would be perfect to pair with lightning bolts. This past weekend we went up north and saw all of Josh's family (minus BJ of course, boo), and Lila asked "why is one of your fingernails black?" It was really cute, just picture a little girl saying that in a sweet little voice. I said "just for fun!" She's only 5, so we won't worry about the fashion details toooo much yet ;)

Now, who wants to come to Jessie's Nail Shoppe?! Haha!

5 things i've learned in the first year of motherhood

2013-03-09T15:49:00.002-08:00

The other night I could NOT go to sleep. And somehow in my insomniac brain I started to think of how I've been a mom for over a whole year now, and what I've learned in the process.

1. Baby sleep is one of the biggest mysteries ever in the entire history of the Earth. Why else would there be five million different "methods" just on how to put your baby down to sleep?! Everyone has an opinion and a method to their own madness, and really it all boils down to figuring out whatever hybrid method finally works for you. Thankfully I found the website Troublesome Tots, which has helped guide us through multiple sleep dilemmas.

2. Even though I always promised myself I wouldn't become one of "those" moms whose facebook gets overrun by baby-dom.....it totally happened. Like, immediately. Oops? I guess what I've learned about this is you just need to accept your own craziness, and embrace it. Obviously I am obsessed with my son. And I own it now. I figure that if people don't like it, they can block my baby-obsessed feeds from infiltrating their facebook newsfeed. :)

3. It's a little more complicated to go out than it used to be. We've only seen a handful of movies since Henry's been born. We used to go almost every single weekend. At least going out to eat isn't that different, you just need to bring a packed diaper bag and roll with the punches. I already always carry huge purses, and now I also carry around a huge diaper bag. I look like I'm going on vacation every time I go out ;)

4. People give lots of advice. Mostly unsolicited advice. Even from complete strangers. It's interesting... haha. You just have to learn to be polite, and be open to learning new things. Some people do super cuckoo things with their kids, but you might find that something crazy works for you and your kid too. Having a kid makes you a lot more polite to other people, in this aspect, because it's like an ongoing test to politely/graciously accept all the advice that will be coming your way.

5. I never knew how amazing being a mother would be. I figured it would be pretty cool, but really hard, and I was worried I wouldn't know how to handle it all. I've learned that I am a lot more capable as a mom than I ever thought, and I'm pretty proud of that. Ultimately, I am amazed how much I can love a tiny little person. I seriously love his guts!! He's adorable, hilarious, sweet, stubborn, and perfect. I love that he calls for me when I'm not around, and that when he sees me (in the morning when I get him up, when I walk back into a room that he's in, when I come back from running an errand, etc) his face lights up. And all the little hugs and sweet attention that comes from him. Thats love, yo. ♥

I am in love with being a mom. I truly hope that all my friends are able to experience this amazing journey. And in my opinion, it's even that much sweeter if you had to struggle to get here. Even when I'm being driven crazy and want to scream obscenities, I still love the crap out of that little munchkin. And after a few deep breaths, a sneak of chocolate (for me, not him), and a little bit of Elmo time, everything is better once again. I can't imagine my life without Henry, and I am so grateful to be his mother. ♥

eShakti discount code extended

2013-03-07T18:48:00.002-08:00

The eshakti code I supplied previously had a technical glitch, so the 20% off code has been extended until March 20!

Enter the discount code YRSTRLYDER at eShakti to get 20% off of your order!

Also, the spring line is now on the site, so there are tons of cute new looks to get us excited for spring! yay!

eshakti.com

the fine print:
Code has to be entered in the 'Promotional Code' box. No Minimum Order Value. The discount code is not case sensitive. The code can be used any number of times until the validity period. This code can be clubbed with any other gift coupon or gift card in the same order. This discount code is not applicable on our Overstock category. Not applicable on previous purchases.

Again, happy shopping!!

how we paid off all our debt

2013-03-04T20:54:00.001-08:00

Well, we've had some people ask us how we went about paying off all our debt... So I figured I would write a post about our personal experience, rather than emailing each person and having jumbled responses to different people. If this is completely boring to you, come back later and I'll talk about beauty supplies or something ;)

First of all, Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball Plan is what we shaped our goals around. Before we planned to do this, we were trying to make higher payments on loans with higher interest rates. But we really weren't being very aggressive about making higher payments, and were mostly making minimum payments on all our loans. The main problem is we didn't have a definite/clear goal, and steps to work up to that goal.

To give a background, here is what we had in debt:

6 medical bills (infamous kidney stone of 2010, and having a baby)
5 student loans (Josh)
5 student loans (Jess)

This list could look very different for you. There could be credit cards, store accounts, second-mortgages, whatever. But what it comes down to is debt is debt is debt. Boo. Also, side note: we did not include our mortgage on our list of debt. If we were planning on living there for the rest of our lives, then I might. I haven't looked into what little Davey thinks about that, but mostly because I didn't want to get involved ;)

So the first step you need to take is to save up an emergency fund. Dave Ramsey suggests a $1000 emergency fund. We saved up a bit more than that so we'd feel more comfortable (considering that alone would be our mortgage payment!). The second step is to write out every bill you have, and the amount. Then organize the list from lowest amount to highest amount. Tackle your list, starting with your lowest bill, and work your way up. You can make minimum payments on all the other bills while making larger payments on the lowest bill.

i guess this is what a debt snowball looks like. gimme that money!!

Since Josh and I are both working full time, we did a little math... We made sure we could pay all of our regular monthly bills (mortgage, Dish, internet, groceries, etc) with just one of our paychecks. Since Josh makes a little more than I do (INEQUALITY IN THE WORKFORCE, WHAT!?! haha just kidding...mostly...I gave up a raise so I could cut my hours a little bit after having Henry), we chose to keep his whole paycheck to go towards our monthly expenses. My entire paycheck went to childcare and paying off debt. To make this easier for ourselves, we set up an auto-transfer to our savings account every week (that came out the day after our paychecks were deposited) of the total amount we set aside to go to loans. When it was time for us to make a big payment on a bill/loan, we would transfer that amount back to our checking account, and make the payment. That way the extra money was untouchable to us. Out of sight [of your checking account], out of mind...

For single-income families, it might be a bit more involved to figure out how much to set aside strictly for loans. You would have to be a lot better about doing a monthly budget, so you could know a definite monetary amount to allocate just to debt. Just figure out how much you need for all your monthly bills, giving a little lee-way for extra expenses that might come up, and think about what kind of lifestyle you want to have. Dave Ramsey would say every single extra penny needs to go towards debt. But what do you define as "extra"? We like to go out to eat at restaurants on the weekends and hang out with our friends. (And I like to buy candy...what?!) This factored into our monthly bills, as this is not something we wanted to give up. Shopping trips to the mall or Ikea, however, were virtually cut off. So do your budget, make some hard decisions of any "extra" things you can afford to include in that budget, and then take all the rest of your money and put it towards debt.

Once you start crossing off bills on that master list, it feels awesome! It really does make the overall goal feel that much more achievable, even if you only paid off a $300 bill. Stay consistent with your goals, and communicate about your progress with your significant other (if applicable). Talking about your accomplishments with another person increases your enthusiasm and drive, so feel free to remind eachother how amazing you are at life. Because, for reals, you're getting out of debt. You're taking control of your money and your future. Therefore, you ARE amazing at life. ;)

Best of luck, friends!! And of course, I am not an expert, nor am I pretending to be one. I am just someone who has experienced this, and would love to be your cheerleader. Some great resources for your financial journey that we liked are Dave Ramsey's website, and Suze Orman's website. They both have tons of tools, advice, and links to additional resources. Feel free to ask us any questions, although like I said--I'm no expert!

eShakti discount code

2013-02-26T15:02:00.000-08:00

Remember how I did a review of eShakti, and ~~how I awesome I look in their clothes~~ how much I like their products? Well I asked them if they could offer my readers any sort of deal, and they actually did! And it's a good one, too!

Enter the discount code YRSTRLYDER at eShakti to get 20% off of your order! This special deal is valid from 2/26/13 through 3/10/13.

how could i forget to post this!?!

2013-02-23T11:46:00.000-08:00

As you may know, we sold our house last month. Amazingly, we made a little bit of money. It was almost exactly how much was left on our student loans.

So...party time... WE PAID OFF ALLLLLLLL OF OUR STUDENT LOANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE COMPLETELY OUT OF DEBT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!

It doesn't even seem real, that after being so focused on paying off all our debt, it's actually happened. All the money we make now is OURS. We are planning on staying in line with Dave Ramsey's financial steps, so we can feel more secure about the future. I'm really glad that we have come this far at such a [relatively] young age, and it makes me feel more comfortable with my goal of staying at home with my chillun.

Cheers to the future! And yay for crossing that resolution off my list :)

ps: I really hope this doesn't come off as braggy or boastful, because I don't mean it to be that way at all. This was just a huge goal of ours, and I am so happy we've actually achieved it. It was such a blessing that we were able to sell and make money on our house, and we are so grateful for that. And thanks to everyone for cheering us on through this endeavor, we appreciate it :)

caviar nails

2013-02-23T11:05:00.002-08:00

I tried caviar nails. I just did my ring finger on each hand. I painted the nails black, and then poured the "caviar" beads over them. Then you kind of smush them down so they're all level, and you're done. I wanted to add a clear topcoat to prolong the wear of these, and I applied it on a little too thick on my left hand (you can see below). Afterwards I applied a thinner layer to my right hand, which looked much better. It has a cooler-looking effect without the clear coat (as seen in the first picture below), but I was worried they would all fall off a little too quickly.

I had someone ask me about the wear, so I'll just share here too. After a full day, about 5 little beads had fallen off of each nail. You couldn't really tell though, unless you were looking super closely. By the second day, a few more had fallen off. Then I started picking them off haha. I think that you could wear these 2-3 days.

pre-clear coat: you can see i missed a spot...but after the topcoat you can't tell

i did the clear coat a little thick on my left hand, which made it look funky...

What do you think? I might do it every once in a while when I want to mix it up, but I probably won't do it regularly. Overall though, I liked it!

houndstooth happy

2013-02-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

I recently got a nail stamping set, and some plates from Bundle Monster. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's ok. Basically you can get little metal plates with designs etched out, and you can fill the designs with nail polish and stamp them onto your nails. Which sounds easy, but it's much harder in person. After doing my research online, the main theme was practice practice practice. So I've been trying to practice, and this was my first decent attempt. Definitely far from perfect/amazing, but for the average joe like me, I'd say not too shabby ;)

I LOVE houndstooth, and it's one of the main reasons I wanted to try nail stamping. I mean, who doesn't love houndstooth, right?!

So the houndstooth doesn't match up perfectly, blah blah blah, whatever. It transferred over to my nails so that's the most important thing :) haha. I am pleased with the outcome. The next thing I'm going to try is caviar nails! I'm a little late on that trend, but who cares. I'll let you know how it goes. Have you been doing anything fun with your nails lately? I will say if you want inspiration, there are like a billion nail art girls on Instagram--I follow a bunch of them and it's awesome. [Confession: they're totally taking over my instagram! haha]

eShakti dress review

2013-02-18T20:26:00.004-08:00

I was contacted by eShakti to do a product review. After looking into their company and at their clothing selection, I [excitedly] agreed! eShakti is an online clothing store, with the option to customize your purchase so it will not only fit you, but all the preferences will be to your liking! Have you ever looked at a piece of clothing online and thought "oh, if only that had [fill in the blank]" - longer sleeves, a different neckline, a different length, etc. - "I would totally order it!" Well...this website offers that. This customization allows you to alter a piece of clothing to match your size, shape, and style! They have sizes from 0-36w, so there are styles for every type of woman!

Now, tailoring can be very expensive. Basic tailoring can start at $50. So you may think this service could be very pricey. However, with eShakti, the customization only costs an additional $7.50. That is amazing!! Also, they have an incredibly fast turnaround. After I ordered my dress, I got it in the mail within a week. I was very impressed.

I ordered the Ruffled tiers chambray dress, and had it customized. I added a short puffed sleeve, and I love the way it came out. Here are some pictures so you can see how adorable it is in real life :)

how the dress is shown online

and how it looks on me

i love it!

you even enter your height, so when you say you want it to hit knee length, for example, it will actually hit at your knee!

Henry approved

he was also happy he got to be in some pictures with me :) haha

he also loved my shoes ;)

The verdict?? I think the dress is fabulous. It hits at the perfect length, so when I'm going to church and Henry is climbing all over me, it won't ride up and show things I don't want to be seen haha. I love the sleeves, and I love the collar. I don't have a lot of dresses, so this is a wonderful addition to my wardrobe.

I definitely recommend this website, and I am very pleased with my dress. I love the customization options, and I think it is a unique, yet needed, feature. They have a great selection, so go check it out right now! Thank you eShakti, I had a great experience :)

pack it up!

2013-01-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to blog more. But right now we're packing my entire house so we can move. It's actually really stressful, mostly because I don't actually want to move haha. In case you don't know, we're moving for work. I have to keep reminding myself that we have jobs... I really am truly grateful that we have good jobs. But in a perfect world, those jobs would stay in one place forever! ;)

this isn't super relevant, i just like these comics

Anyways, bear with our craziness. Hold your horses, and don't run away. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stalling time in the near future to sneak in another post or two! (and yes, I'm stalling right now. I need to pack my kitchen. grrrr)

beautiful

2013-01-21T19:01:00.002-08:00

I hope that everyone has seen this already, but if you haven't: please watch it. Beyonce does such a wonderful job (as usual), that I got chills.

There's really nothing else to say about it, except that I love this. ♥

Shabby Apple Winner

2013-01-21T18:32:00.001-08:00

First of all I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who entered my giveaway! I hope to be offering more of these in the future. Now, without further ado, the winner is...

(personal info blacked out so she doesn't get weird stalkers!)

Congratulations Livia! I will be hooking you up with my Shabby Apple peeps so you can get your gift card!

Shabby Apple Giveaway!

2013-01-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

I was generously contacted by Shabby Apple to giveaway a $50 gift card to their website! In case you aren't familiar with this company (gasp! how could this be?!), Shabby Apple is a clothing company that sells lovely modest and vintage-inspired clothing. They have all kinds of adorable dresses, skirts, tops, accessories, etc. I've picked out a couple pieces that I would consider getting if I could win this giveaway:

The Promenade Blouse

I love this cute red blouse, and I don't even normally wear red! The cute center panel that hangs down is just so perfect!

The Francine Skirt

I am obsessed with this high-waisted pencil skirt. The bow is just the icing on the cake, in my eyes.

So how can you win $50 towards Shabby Apple? Just follow these rules below, my dearies:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Official Rules: You must complete the two mandatory entries. You must have a US shipping address (sorry, international friends!). I will announce the winner within 48 hours of the giveaway closing (Monday Jan. 21 at 12AM).

Good luck!!

PS: Shabby Apple has a current 20% off promotion with the code NewYears. Offer expires 1/31/13. Yippee!

happy 2013

2013-01-11T21:00:00.001-08:00

i've been thinking about what my goals are for this year, and what kind of year i want to have. my ultimate goal is happiness.so i've been thinking of ways to improve my (and my families) happiness:

+get completely out of debt (just that final 16% to go!!!)

+build up savings to be comfortable without my income (have enough $ to live 3-6 months)

+become a stay at home mom (or a work at home mom if that opportunity arises and works out well)

+eat healthier. i've been trying to cut out high fructose corn syrup (once i found out there are traces of mercury in it, that kind of made me freak out haha), and it's amazing how it is EVERYWHERE!

+become more organized/less cluttered. moving from a house to a townhouse is definitely going to help in this area!!

+work towards living a greener life. this is something i'm always working on, but i haven't been as active about it these last couple months.

+read more! i got a kindle for christmas, and it is awesome. also, my lovely mother-in-law shares books with me, so i have tons of books to choose from!! i'm like a kid in a candy shop :)

also, i am purposefully not calling these "resolutions", because that term is old. everyone knows people hardly ever follow through with their new year's resolutions (hence all the jokes/memes/ecards/etc). but "goals" are different. they seem more long-term to me, at least in my mind-set ;)

have any of you set any goals/resolutions/ideas/or whatever you want to call them for the new year? sharing is caring! and then you can be held responsible for it later (i feel like theres a word for that, but i canNOT think about it for the life of me!).

...and a happy new year!

2012-12-31T20:41:00.002-08:00

This has been a really fun year. It FLEW by!! Of course the biggest highlight of this past year was seeing Henry grow up. [I still can't believe he's one...].

Other highlights:

+Maternity leave! I got to spend about three months at home with Henry after he was born. I didn't go back to work until the beginning of March. That time off with my little snuggly buddy was amazing. Going back to work was really hard, but it was for a good cause.
+I turned 25...weird
+Lots of visits to see my family in arizona, or vice versa (one of the most epic visits caught on film here)
+One of my best friends, Sarah, got married and i was a bridesmaid. Coolest couple ever.
+Our city was on fire. Frightening.
+I dyed my hair purple. And then cut half of it off.
+I flew in a helicopter for the first time.
+We visited our bffs Emily and Dave in ohioooo
+Our bffs Jeff and Darci had their second baby, Warren, and i'm kind of in love with him (shh)!
+We spent thanksgiving in arizona
+We all got spoiled for Christmas
+This year alone we've paid off 84% of our student loans and medical bills. PHEW!!!

as usual, i've grown a lot this year. as shown by me dwarfing this recliner...

I haven't really thought of new years resolutions yet... I just know I want to become a stay at home mom this year :) And hopefully, in the meantime, finish paying off the remaining 16% of our student loans. If I come up with any more [resolutions, not debt], maybe I'll do a new post on it ;)

Hope your New Years is fun and safe!! HAPPY NEW YEARRRR!!!!