Long Overdue Announcement!

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It's Baby Time!

Wow, it has been forever since I've let any of you know what's been going on! We are expecting our baby any day now, and it's been a very difficult few weeks. We had a pre-term labor scare and ended up in the hospital, so things have been a bit hectic around here. I pretty much had to take a break from everything and just de-stress a bit. Anyway, I have a winner to announce for the Think Geek giveaway, and after that, I will probably be away for a few days while we have the baby, but then I will be back to tell you all about it!

Comment#133 was the winner chosen through random.org

trixx said...
I subscribe via email

I will be emailing you right now, so please reply within 48 hours to claim your awesome prize!

What Doesn't Kill You...

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger... well, at least I really hope so! The past few weeks have been nuts! There I was thinking I would get a bit of break once my finals were over, but boy was I wrong! On top of the pre-term labor issues we've been having, we had to rush IzzyBug to the children's hospital last week. The normally 2-hour drive ended up taking over 4!

The morning started out fine, we left at 5:30 am, were making good time, and decided to stop for breakfast. When we got back on the road, not only had the weather decided to go nuts out of no where, we had a flat tire. My dad went with us since my husband couldn't leave work that day, so thank God I wasn't alone! My dad changed the tire and we got back on the road. Traffic was moving extremely slow, and cars were off the road everywhere we looked. By the time we got near the hospital we were already extremely late, and the directions we had been given were completely wrong. But, after arriving over 2 hours late, they decided to still see us (I think the huge prego belly helped our case!). We saw a dermatologist, who thinks that Izzy is most likely having an extreme reaction to the ingredients in anti-bacterial soaps, lotions, etc. So, we have to try new ointments, new medications, and start using all new soaps, and hopefully she will get better. If not, we will have to travel again for her to have patch testing. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE say a prayer if you don't mind, that she gets better and doesn't have to go through that. We will just have to play things by ear, hope I don't go into labor early, and wait to see if the course of treatment helps her. The poor thing has been through it all in terms of health issues, so I hope she gets better soon!

Now, onto bloggy type things. Stay tuned tonight, because I will finally be getting caught up on all of the last minute holiday gift ideas that I have for you!

Wow...

Wow... has it been a crazy week or two. Sorry to just drop off the face of the earth last week! As it turns out, I have been having some pre-term labor symptoms, including contractions, so it was bit crazy last week. I'm only 29 weeks, so it is WAY too soon for baby to arrive! On top of that, this week is finals week at school, and I'm pretty sure the stress of that is what egged on the contractions. As of last night at midnight, my papers have been submitted and all I have left is a final exam. I've been going on about 3 or 4 hours of sleep per night (I know, really not good with the contractions and baby stuff!), and not able to drink the coffee that I'm used to at this time of the school year. Please rest assured I will be back up and running by the weekend, because I will be a free woman! And if you are the praying type, I would be SO appreciative of any prayers you could send my way, as we're hoping we can keep baby in the oven cooking for a little longer before she tries to enter the world! Have a great week guys!

We're home!

Hey everybody, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We were out of town for almost a week and I didn't quite have the internet access I thought I would have. I'm going to get some unpacking done and then will be back tomorrow for the fun Mary Kay giveaway post!

And now a guest post!

Hi! I'm Marina's younger sister Andrea. I'm a college student and one my biggest passions is fashion and the whole beauty world. Since college life doesn't exactly give me the freedom to spend unlimited amounts of money, I try to find simple, easy, and cheaper way to still look fantastic. Marina wanted me to share some tips with you on how to not break the bank when it comes to looking your best.

One of the greatest tools I've found for saving money is online shopping. That might be a bit unexpected with shipping and everything but you can find some great deals on awesome stuff. First off, NEVER buy anything online without searching for coupon codes. You know those annoying little emails that every store seems to send out about 50 times a week? Well people post the codes online so with a little use of Google, you can generally find 10-20% off codes or even free shipping! It's a great tool that not everyone knows about, so before you make that order, make sure you look for some codes. Also make sure you browse online stores frequently, especially the sale section. Most of the time, the good deals go fast.

One of my favorite ways to be fashionable on a smaller budget is with the website Hautelook.com. They have 48 hour sales on all types of clothing for the whole family, beauty products, things for the home and more. Most of the items are anywhere from 20-75% off! The trick is to check it daily because the best sales go fast. Here's a link where you can sign up for the site if you'd like to check it out.

Another great tool that I've discovered is the beauty and fashion community on YouTube. There are tons of beauty gurus that frequently post videos on all kinds of beauty and fashion topics. You can learn a lot too from them, like a certain way to curl your hair or apply makeup. It's great because it's free and there's a lot of knowledge to be learned. I've even stopped buying fashion and beauty magazines because it's so much easier to learn from a video instead of reading an article. My favorite makeup artist to watch is Lisa Eldridge. She does the covers of Vogue, Glamour, etc. and has some really great tips on doing your makeup. Here's a link to her YouTube channel.
Overall, you don't have to spend money on looking great. You just have to be wise about how you spend it. There's a lot of great information and savings out there, you just have to know where to find it. I try to share these tricks I discover with everyone on my blog, so come check me out!

www.prettyandpenniless.blogspot.com


Have a fantastic Thanksgiving and Holiday season!
Andrea :)

Eeek!

Tonight's "Fall into Beauty" post has been postponed until tomorrow due to the fact that we had a bit of a pregnancy-related scare today! Everything checked out okay and it was a false alarm, but unfortunately I did not quite have the time to finish up today's post amidst the craziness of the day. It will come tomorrow, I promise!

The Blessing of Dirty Dishes!

For the last few weeks, our dishwasher has been acting up. Nothing comes out clean, and it's been a bit frustrating. Our new dishwasher is going to take 2-3 weeks to arrive. My first thought was to grumble about hand washing dishes in our tiny sink, but then I realized that it is a blessing to have dirty dishes. Dirty dishes means we have plenty of food to eat, and running water to wash them with, things that many people around the world do not have. I am not disappointed about the dishwasher now. Thank you God for dirty dishes. Having to wash our dishes by hand will give me ample time to thank God for all of the blessings that we have, especially during this time of year. Dirty dishes really are a blessing. What are you thankful for?

Hey Mommy, this is what you look like!

So in honor of this week's beauty theme, I thought I'd take a moment to remind all of you (and myself) that we need to be extra mindful about how we talk about beauty and makeup in front of our children, especially our daughters. My daughter is only 3 and she is already obsessed with everything hair and makeup! You'd think that I spend all day in front of the mirror, but truth be told, I'm lucky if I get 5 minutes in front of the mirror in the morning!

The other day my daughter had to get 2 shots in her leg, and she was a bit sore and cranky from them, so when she asked if I would FINALLY let her play with my makeup, I gave in and let her experiment with some of my old makeup products. When she was done applying her makeup, she looked at me and said, "Hey Mommy, this is what you look like"! Judging by the picture, hopefully none of you will believe that I ever leave the house looking like my makeup was applied in the dark, but what she said really struck me. Even though I rarely have time to put a "whole face" on of makeup, she thinks I put tons and tons on, and already at such a young age, my daughter sees the "value" in makeup. It really reminded me that I need to be very careful about how I talk about myself and makeup in front of my daughter, because I would hate to think that she ever got the idea that she is anything but the beautiful makeup-less little girl that she is. I want her to understand to that beauty comes from within, and though makeup is a very fun thing to put on, at the end of the day, it's not what makes us beautiful.

It's "Fall into Beauty" Week!

Special Announcement... It's "Fall into Beauty" week here at TMH! I am so excited to be bringing you all tips, tricks, and some fun reviews and giveaways from Mary Kay! As busy moms, I know it can be difficult to find time to take care of ourselves, especially when it comes to make-up and pampering. That's why I hope you stop by everyday this week to learn all about some new Mary Kay products, some tips and tricks, and a special guest post by my very own sister (and fellow blogger)! She blogs about anything and everything beauty related, and you should definitely check her blog out, it's called Pretty and Penniless! She's a college student, so funds for beauty products and services are limited, which I know that as moms who usually like to pinch pennies, we can appreciate her advice! Check back each day for the next week to see what each new day brings!

Decisions Decisions

Any mom out there can testify to this: balance is KEY when it comes to your family. If the balance between family, work, activities, etc. is out of balance, everything in your family's life becomes chaotic. This is how I've been feeling lately, and I like to have balance, especially because I'm just a little bit of a perfectionist. I realize that there are certain things in life that I can't control, no matter how much I may want to, and sometimes you just have to let certain things go.

This week I made a difficult decision to withdraw from one of my master's degree classes. It was just too much to go to school for my master's full-time, while taking care of my family, and going through a difficult pregnancy. So, I cut back on classes, freeing up a bit of my time to get back to focusing more on my family. And they LOVE it! I do, too. IzzyBug LOVES having a little more mommy time, and my hubby likes that he can actually have some of my attention now!

I learned the hard way (like I sometimes have to do) that sometimes you have to learn when to say no to something that isn't the best for your family. I'm still working towards my master's, but at a bit slower of a pace. Because when the balance of everything got out of whack, everyone was suffering. So, I'm glad to say, I'm feeling a bit less stressed, and looking forward to blogging more, especially with all the fun stuff I have coming up!

I love baby kicks!

I've been feeling little flutters and tiny movements for a couple weeks now, as of yesterday, I started feeling the big kicks! It totally brought me back to when I was pregnant with Izzy. I love feeling the kicks, it really reminds me of why I'm so sick, and that it's completely worth it!

On a side note, I'm working on getting some reviews and giveaways ready to post. Do you guys want to see more baby stuff, more toddler stuff, or more home stuff? Maybe a mix of all of that, and more? I do my best to bring you all reviews and giveaways that I feel are relevant to your own lives, so if you have ideas of things you want to see more or less of, please let me know! Who knows... I may just have to count suggestions as extra bonus entries for giveaways!

2 days in a row!!!

Yay! I'm posting 2 days in a row, which is a start back onto the path of regular blogging! So, I've got a couple questions for you guys, if anyone is still even out there after I disappeared for so long! Have any of you guys ever used the WonderWash portable washing machine? I ordered one from Amazon.com with some accumulated swagbucks, and it's due to arrive in the next week or so. The biggest reason I ordered it was so that I have a way to wash things between trips to the laundromat. I also thought that depending on how good it works, maybe we can cloth diaper the new baby, and wash the diapers with it. Maybe that's wishful thinking, but I'd really LOVE to cloth diaper this baby, which I know is only possible if I have a realistic way of washing them. Any thoughts? I'm completely open to suggestions!

Since we last talked...

Wow, do we have some catching up to do or what!? I can't believe it's already October... and that I've been away from this blog for way too long! I've missed interacting with everybody, and especially missed my little mommy-getaway that is this blog! Not only do I have LOTS of reviews and giveaways to post, I have lots of news to post as well!

Since the last time I updated, my pregnancy has progressed quite a lot! I'm now officially 20 weeks pregnant... half way there!!! We also found out what our little babybug is... it's a girl!!! We are so excited that IzzyBug will be getting a baby sister come February! I'll have to post pics of the ultrasound and all my fun little stories about Izzy in another post later, but for now, I had to make the announcement because I'm SO excited!

Also, I finally got my picc line out of my arm! After 6 weeks of clawing at my arm I was ready to have it taken out. As it turns out, I'm extremly allergic to every medical tape that exists, and since it had to be taped into place, there was no way of getting around the itching, burning, and scratching. I still need the fluids, so I'll most likely just have to have twice weekly fluids through IVs. Oh well, at least the weather is cooling down, which has made me feel a little better! And at the end of the day, no matter how hard pregnancy is, we all know it's worth it! I'm sure I'll forget all of this when I get to see our sweet baby girl's little face!

Anyway, I'm sooooo sorry I've been so scarce the last month and a half, and I PROMISE I won't let it get that bad ever again! I felt so loved when some of you emailed me asking if everything was okay on the homefront. I didn't know if anyone noticed I was gone, but some of you did, and it gave me some encouragement to get back to the blog, no matter how busy life gets! I'm still chugging along with grad school, but between papers and reading, I will definitely be posting more often!

Hope you guys all have a great week! Talk to you soon!!!

Ready for school to start!?

Howdy everyone! Can you believe it's back-to-school time already!? If your kids haven't already started, they are probably starting soon, and we all know what that means... back to the structured and scheduled life again! I am sooo ready for a more set schedule, and starting this year, I will actually have a child in schoool! I can't believe that Izzy starts preschool this year! She is so excited!

Also, what comes with the next few weeks are some great new giveaways for you to win some fun back-to-school stuff! I had to delay getting back to the reviews and giveaways by a few weeks while I finish classwork from my summer classes, but it's all due by Friday, so I think to celebrate I'll be posting some VERY FUN new things this weekend, so come back and check it out!

Time really has flown by!

Wow, I can't believe it's already August! Back-to-school time is just around the corner, Izzy had her half-birthday and is officially closer to being 4 then 3, and I had my 1 year blog anniversary!

In the mean time, I've been working on summer classwork, and growing this baby! We've officially hit the 11 week mark, which means we're about 25% of the way there. I'm definitely looking forward to the fall, not only for some relief from all the heatwaves we've been having, but also because Izzy is so excited to start preschool! She has her Tinkerbell backpack and Hello Kitty lunchbag all ready to go. Every morning when she gets up she comes out of her room with her backback and lunchbag and asks me if her school is open yet. I can't believe my little girl is growing up so fast!

Stay tuned... later this month you will find a baby and toddler event going on right here! I can't wait for you to find out all about the great products I have in store for you!

Little Victories

Life has been a little hectic lately with the pregnancy, school, and just life in general. I always try to find the positives in life, especially when things are extra crazy.

We've hit some big milestones with Izzy in the last few weeks, and for that we are VERY grateful. She is officially wearing big girl panties, so no more pull-ups for us! This has been a long time coming, but she has stayed dry in panties for over 2 weeks now, and is now even wearing them at night! I think the idea of not being the baby of the family anymore might be sinking in a little for her. She is SO excited about becoming a big sister this winter!

Izzy has also FINALLY broken a bad habit of coming into our bed at night. She had started this habit a couple months ago during one of her bad asthma flare ups. When her asthma acts ups she has to have round the clock breathing treatments, and because of having to get up in the middle of the night, and to monitor her breathing, she would end up falling asleep in our bed. After she was better again, she would quietly creep into our room every night... this became a very tiring habit since none of us were sleeping well! However, after much help from my husband, we got Izzy to break the habit and stay in her own bed! It's very nice to have my bed back again, especially with my growing belly!

So, no matter what is going on in your life, try to remember that its the little victories that matter, and sometimes those are the things that will keep you going through the tough moments!

I can't wait until February...

This pregnancy is going exactly how it did with Izzy. I haven't been feeling well at all and the morning-noon-and-night sickness has been pretty bad. I ended up in the ER on Monday because it had been 4 days without being able to keep anything, not even water, down. They gave me some new medicines to try, and if they don't work, we'll try something else. They recommended trying a Zofran pump. Have any of you guys ever used that before? It made me a little nervous hearing about it because I would have to have a needle in my hip for the rest of the pregnancy, so that the medicine can get injected every hour or so.

That aside, we've been pretty busy around here. Summer classes are going well, leaving not a lot of time for anything else though. Izzy has learned to cherish her one on one time with mommy a lot lately! She has been so in tune with the baby in my tummy, she loves it already! She talks to the baby everyday, which is totally adorable. I'm guessing another girl this time around, but if it's a boy we'll be just as happy. If it is a boy, I think that will mean that I'm just destined for rough pregnancies. At least the end result is an adorable, lovable, totally worth the pain, little baby! I can't wait to meet our little one in February. It's so fun getting used to saying "our kids" now that we will have two around.

Last, but not least, I have some giveaways coming up, and also the baby and toddler event that will happen no matter what, I promise! Nothing will stop me from sharing the awesome things that I've got coming up for you guys!

Here we go again...

The morning sickness has officially arrived. I've been feeling a little yucky, and the crazy cravings have also already kicked in! I've gone from craving beef and broccoli to feeling like I will vomit if I even look at or smell broccoli. At least this time I have IzzyBug to look at and remember it's so worth it! I can't wait for the next few months to pass so we can see our BabyBug during the ultrasound!

So far, Adam and I have been bickering a bit about names. We're completely agreed on a girl name (which kind of makes me wonder if we're having another girl, haha). We are totally open to suggestions when it comes to boys names, since we can't agree on anything! I love Dominic, Gabriel, and Jacob, but Adam likes Daniel and Ezekiel. I might just have to put a poll up on here and get some expert mommy opinions!

Sorry for the short post tonight, I think the sofa is calling my name. So is that pint of Ben & Jerry's in the freezer... I think I may stop there on the way to the sofa... don't judge me, I'm pregnant, haha! :-)

Check This Out!

I was recently given the opportunity to write a guest post for Evenflo, one of the top baby product companies out there. Of course I was honored and said yes! They are featuring different savvy parenting tips, and I chose to write about my suggestions for fun ways to keep your child hydrated during the summertime heat. You will have to check out Evenflo's great microsite by clicking here. This awesome site is all to spread the word about their new Momentum 65 with e3 Side Impact technology. So check it out, there are great new tips coming everyday!