We see it everywhere, on TV, in the movies, in magazines, we are consistently being told what pretty is, how skinny we need told to be, and so on.  I know I’m a little slow to respond here but mostly that is because I wasn’t sure I had anything to say about this publicly. However its been a few weeks since this was broadcast and I’m still upset about it so I thought I would share. Did you all see the recent reports about the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch’s stance on who, and specifically what size of people where their clothes? Here are a few quotes from a recent artical on Elite Daily that re-published quotes from a 2006 Salon article.

“He doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people,” Lewis said. “He doesn’t want his core customers to see people who aren’t as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they’re one of the ‘cool kids.”

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told the site. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either,” he told Salon.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!

As if there isn’t enough pressure out there we need someone just straight out saying this??? Umm no! Now I will admit I’ve NEVER shopped at A&F, yes really never, and here is why:

• I’ve never liked their 1/2 naked people advertising campaign (if your selling clothes shouldn’t your models be wearing them?!?)
• I can’t afford them.
• Their stores give me a headache just walking by (from the pefume smell.)
• When I was looking in the windows in high school (when I was TINY) I was pretty sure I would be a size large….dumb.
• Now this ^^^

Without going on a complete rant, why would we support a company like this? I was excited to hear about students taking a stand and even protesting the company (reported in People Magazine.) All of this has prompted an apology from the company that you can find in this Huffington Post artical:

 “We look forward to continuing this dialogue and taking concrete steps to demonstrate our commitment to anti-bullying in addition to our ongoing support of diversity and inclusion. We want to reiterate that we sincerely regret and apologize for any offense caused by comments we have made in the past which are contrary to these values.”

This ‘apology’ is honestly the most upsetting part of this to me.  These comments were initialy made back in 2006, 7 years ago, and only recently brought to light again. Talk is cheap, if you were really sorry as stated above you would have made changes along time ago and yet on their website (I just checked) girls pants only go up to size 10 and shirts only to a size L. Why didn’t you take these ‘concrete steps’ you are promising before. This isn’t the first firestorm you have cause about the exact same topic….

So yeah, as I climb off my soap box I would just like to state that my daughter will never wear A&F clothing, she woudln’t have anyway honestly but not I will make double sure.

So what do you think of this whole controversy? Think is being blown out of proportion, agree with me 100%? Either way I want to hear from you.

We are going to start with hybrid diapers.

We decided that this was the way for us because at least till we get in the swing of things we didn’t want the use of strictly cloth to wear us out. We decided that a mixture of cloth and disposable inserts was still much better than strictly disposable. Here are the main reasons we decided to go with this option:

• Travel- We tend to travel quite a bit and while we know that won’t happen as often as it did before we don’t see it stopping. Neither of us really want to do a road trip with cloth at this point so having the option to switch to a disposable insert is a great plan.
• Daycare-We also know that she will be in daycare for 2-3 days a week and that it would be tough to find one that would work with full cloth (I know they are out there, but we have to keep in budget too.)
• Friends and Family- We don’t want to force those who love us to deal with them if they didn’t want to. If my in-laws are willing to watch her for the night, disposable inserts it is, no problem! Babysitter?, disposiables…you catch my drift?
• Newborn- Lastly the newborn phase, this is our first and I know that I’m going to be just a little overwhelmed I want to have the option to use whatever I need to in that moment and not feel like I must use cloth strictly for those first few weeks.

So the next question is which hybrid system?

I’ve heard of a few different system Flip, Charlie Banana (Target,) gDiapers, Best Bottom, and Gro Via. There are lots to consider between these brands but some of the major things are availability, and fitted vs one size diapers, and perceived effectiveness.

Fitted diapers are more like disposable because there are multiple sizes and you have to keep buying new sizes as your baby grows. While this is more expensive in the beginning, if you are planning on having more than one child these will get used less (since your child will grow out of them) and therefore they will last from child to child (in theory.)

One Size diapers- The benefit of these is that they are adjustable, I’ve heard they are a little hard to fit newborns but after that they just grow with your baby as you adjust them. This is a great option for us since we are only thinking we will have one child (adopt another older one later) in diapers. If you wanted to use them from child to child you might have to replace them more often since they will be used more/longer. One size diapers also come with snap for velcro options which affect durability and adjustablity. Snaps are more durable, but less adjustable. Velcro is highly adjustable but wears out faster.

We decided to start with gDiapers (fitted) and Gro Via (one size) what I hope happens is we use mostly the newborn gdiapers (fitted) and then grow into the Grovia one sizes. This way we have options right from the beginning. If one style isn’t working we can try the other right away. The other reason we choose these 2 specific brands is that I liked their gussets systems, this is what I meant by perceived effectiveness, I just feel like having a gussets system will help prevent blowouts and leaks as much as possible.

So this week we are going to meal plan, and make sure that we have  all the ingredients ready and in the fridge. That way we have no excuse, everything will be there ready to go. We have food already for tonight and we are grocerie shopping when I get home.

Another food thing I’m working on (hubby is much better at this lately) is healthy snacks. I tend to reach for candy and carbs lately….and not the good kind of carbs more like the donut kind. So I’m keeping a list of healthy options we have in the house on my fridge so I don’t default to the bad choices.

My current favorites include:

• Apple or pear slices and cheese
• String Cheese
• Yogurt and granola
• Yogurt and fruit
• Banana and Peanut Butter

What healthy snacks do you like? Please share I need options

So the next two weeks of our lives are pretty crazy full of errands that need to be done, paintball tournaments, graduation and bachelorette parties and a wedding….just to name a few. Not to mention the photos that need to be edited,  all the prep for the wedding and a midwife appointment.

I barely had time to see Mac last night let alone spend any real time with him. However we made time and it was the best part of my day.  After I got home from running out to a baby consignment sale (which I left for about 15 min after he arrived home from work.) We sat down on the porch, talked and played fetch with Cooper for about 20 wonderful min.

Taking time out of our day to intentionally be with each other was exactly what I needed. I felt like I hadn’t seen him much this week (we have been together but busy) and that 20 min of time just focused on each other was perfect.

When life gets busy make sure you take time to connect.

Why you may ask? Well here are my thoughts on the matter.

• The first one is easy, no sorting! Its a lot easier to convince not only my husband to recycle but its easy for guests to as well when all they have to do is throw anything recyclable in to the paper bag in the pantry.
• Hey the second one is easy too, we can recycle more things. The new company who runs the bins accepts more types of plastics and a few other extras.
• We have also began purchasing more Eco-responsible items. We choose things that are recyclable or have less or no packaging.
• Instead of throwing things out we are selling or donating them.

So how about you? Do you recycle or trash things more? Why so?

I signed up for this race a while back because I wanted to get 1 last race in before the baby came and this seemed like a perfect fit, a virtual race. None of the pressure all of the fun!

Well it started out exactly that way see I didn’t even care if I looked cute:

Yes as you can see I did print and wear a bib, I was proud even if I was running alone.  Anyway the first .5 miles felt great, I rounded the corner on my trail and saw something strange… about 15-20 people all standing around the train track looking down at the bridge. Now I’ve run this trail on Saturdays for almost 2 years (most weekends) and have never seen this before. Not to mention 2 summers ago this same bridge they were all looking at washed out and we just got the trail opened again.  I decided to call the non-emergency line it just seemed weird….So there is stop number 1.

I ran another .2 miles or so and then got to said bridge, when I ran under it I could see a person standing on the train bridge between the 2 sets of tracks! Ok that is really weird this time I called 911. This time when I called everyone in dispatch was talking and finally the guy came back on the line informing me that a steam engine was coming through town…aah that explains it. Oops sorry to bother you. That was stop number 2

So I continue on the trail now watching for a steam engine to come down the tracks and about another .2 miles in a dog started barking. I was kind of in la la land and when the dog started parking I looked over and right then tripped over a heave in the trail…. of course.  You can read more about that in this post. So there is stop number 3 ( but this time I didn’t stop the timer.)

 After I got myself together again and kept running, I knew this might be my last time doing that distance and I wanted to finish! So I kept running and finally hit the 1.5 mark. At that point I’m on the trail running parallel to a major road and only have to cross one residential street. At this point there was a van  in the cross walk but she saw me gave me a big smile and backed out of the cross walk. I checked the street saw a car coming from behind me but she was slowing down so I continued through the intersection.  Just past  the van who had backed up I looked to my right and that lady who was slowing down had apparently decided to keep on going even after she saw us!  Darn old woman almost hit Cooper !!!   Umm lady I had right of way for 2 reasons #1 I was going straight and you were turning left and #2 I’m a pedestrian!!!

So there you have it the msot eventful 3.1 miles I’ve ever run….. However after removing a few min from my time when I fell I ended up with decent time for 30 weeks preggo.

  37 Min 

11:57 per mile!

I saw this on Sawdust and Embryos on Friday and though it perfectly discribed my feelings this Mothers Day. I’m super excited to start my journy as a Mom but I remember all my friends who can’t or have lost or any number of other circumstances that make this day hard. You can see Beth and Nick’s Story here.

As I was running today I became distracted when a dog started barking and tripped over a heave in the trial. I’m not exactly sure how I landed but I was 99% sure it wasn’t on my stomach. However at 30 weeks its a little scary, there is less cushion around the baby and while it still takes a decent amount of force to hurt her, the chances are higher than earlier in your pregnancy. Anyway I banged up my knuckles pretty good and have a little road rash on my elbow. I finished off the run and called the midwives as soon as I got home.

Here starts the dilemma, not to get to gross but my placenta is in front of the baby not behind which makes it harder to feel her moving in general. I still really only feel her going strong about twice a day morning and afternoon, sometimes evening. but not before lunch that is just a time when she is pretty chill. Of course that is the #1 things midwives want to know “Is she moving?”…..I couldn’t answer that. I did tell her I didn’t think I landed on my stomach based on how dirty my arm was and that there wasn’t as speak of dirt on the body of my shirt. She told me to eat some protein and dairy queen and she would call back in an hour. If the baby still wasn’t moving I would have to go in for monitoring.

I would like to say now that this is exactly why I wanted to use the midwives we choose, such a great balance of natural and medical intervention.  This is what I need to keep my sanity. I won’t say I was calm for the next hour, but I will say that I was much better than I would have been sitting in a hospital hooked up to monitors.

So I ate, I just so happened to have some birthday Cold Stone Creamery in the freezer and I ate that up…and watched the clock. at 11:41 exactly 8 min before the midwife was due to call back she kicked….huge sigh of relief. Still not enough though. I just sat there praying, and talking to her. “Come on Apple move more for mommy, let me know your ok. She did!

The midwife was in delivery, so she didn’t call back for another 30 min so at my dad’s suggestion  I sat down at the piano and sang some worship songs while I was waiting to keep me calm. I ‘knew’ we were safe but it wasn’t official until I heard it from Kathrine. We finally connected and I got the all clear. I just have to watch for movement/spotting and cramps until I go in to see her a week from Monday for my 32 week check up.

It was scary, I didn’t want something I did, something I thought was so healthy and I’m so proud of to cause something bad to happen to our baby. It was scary because I love her and don’t want anything to happen to her. I was scary because I didn’t know what was going to happen. But it was ok…God was and is in control no matter what happens and today, today he protected my little one from me. I don’t know how people can possibly raise a child without faith being a part of it. I don’t know what I would have done today without it. Thank you God for protecting my little girl.

I received a number of great gifts but I don’t want to bore you so I won’t show pictures of all of them…heck I don’t even have pictures of all of them

I received 3 of the coolest blankets this weekend:

One from my best friend Jess that matches our striped wall perfectly

This one is covered in nursery rhyme pictures and quotes from my Aunt Linda.

Last but not least this beauty from my Aunt Jody…I didn’t even know she quilted!

My adorable god-daughter handing me the gift from her mom.

We got the diaper genie and our first batch of Gro Via Diapers! Why do you need a diaper genie for cloth diapers? See my post about hybrid diapers to learn a little more about the style we chose to start with.

Organic Cotton “Ittsy bitty Teenie Greenie” towel from my Aunt Sharmie and Cousin Hannah as well as an organic cotton sheet set.

Super cute hat my Grandma had made for her, so tiny!

Best wrapping paper ever, old draft drawings from my friends hubby in her words ‘great coloring paper in a pinch.’ I love how my friends embrace my greenie ways.

It was a great party! I had 3 people (one was a whole family) who drove over an hour to be there. I’m crazy blessed and I’m glad to have these pictures to remind me of that.

Here are some more links to baby posts on my other blog:

30 Week Bumpdate

Another Funny Belly Moment

29 Week Bumpdate

Being Family Focused

Sometimes just focusing on ‘my family’ meaning Mac, Baby and I, not even including my Brother and parents, is really hard for me. Really hard. But I’m learning that sometimes it is necessary. I’m the type of person who wants to help everyone I love. I always want to say yes and help everyone out. There have been a few times since we have been married that Mac has had to sit me down and actually tell me “Amber our life is too busy/stressed/whatever right now and we can’t take anything else on.”

You know what, he is right. Most of the time its ok to be the yes girl, but not all the time. Sometimes you need to be family focused, sometimes life is big enough that it needs your full attention in one direction. When I got married that didn’t make my family un-important but it did change the priority a little. God, Ryan and the Baby, My Family then Friends.  I’m trying really hard to learn this one….I don’t always get it right but I’m getting better. I’ve done a pretty good job of not scheduling anything the last 7 weeks of this pregnancy only Baby Showers at this point lets hope I can stick to that..

How about you do you have a hard time being family focused? I have a feeling this will get easier for me when the baby arrives.