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Next week will be the last week of my first trimester. I've gotten over a lot of my early pregnancy issues such as the watery mouth (which is new this time around) and 24/7 sick feeling. I'm still not back to my normal self most days at all. I can go days where I'm about 75% my self and usual motivation/energy, etc. Other days, like the last few, I prefer to be in bed or on the couch/recliner most of the time.

Grace went to stay at her grandparents last night. I was able to do my college assignments that were due yesterday and went out with my hubby for a nice evening together. We came home and just relaxed and watched some of our favorite shows together. Then we both got 'inspired' and went to work on our separate computers on some projects we both have going on. We stayed up WAY WAY too late. I gave in sometime after daylight came around. Dave stayed up a little longer so he could run out to the bank to get some stuff taken care of. He surprised me with one of my favorite breakfasts - McDonald's egg mcmuffin. I must've been hungry because I scarfed that down real quick. I was obviously still really tired cuz I forgot about it until a few hours after I was up for the day. I love it when he surprises me with things like that. :)

Even though I didn't sleep and sleep to take advantage of not having Grace around to care for, I woke up VERY refreshed! I've had so much energy and motivation and everything that I haven't seen in myself in soo sooo long! I just hope it can last through tonight, tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday... you get my point....

Tags: assignments, breakfast, college, dave, energy, grace, mcdonalds, motivation, second, surprises, trimester

OK, so i've said it before that I like getting free things and most people probably do. It's kidna crazy to not like free things!

I'm going to be posting whenever I find out about some free things or even just good deals on things that I hear about.

Here's what I have for ya today:

1. ONE DAY ONLY - OLD NAVY $1/ pair Flip Flops  Saturday, May 22, 2010  Check your location to be sure they're participating.  Limited to 5 pairs per person.

2. TACO BELL - FREE LIMEADE  www.tacobell.com/promo/limeade-coupon  Get yours FAST!  Website says it's only taking 500,000 coupons then the rest are voided.

3. CHIK-FIL-A - FREE SPICY CHICKEN SANDWICH http://www.getspicychicken.com  Reserve your sandwich now and receive a coupon in your email. Choose a location and date between May 31 and June 5. The sandwich will not be on the menu until June 7th so you get the first taste!

4. WALMART - SAMPLES ANYTIME  http://instoresnow.walmart.com/In-Stores-Now-Free-Samples-And-Tools.aspx  Free Samples, Free Tools, Free Music, Special Savings

Tags: chicken sandwich, chik-fil-a, deals, flip flops, free, limeade, old navy, samples, spicy chicken, taco bell, walmart

I've said from the beginning that I wanted to get this blog up and running and become a constant thing. I had no idea where I was going to go with it though.

Well since being pregnant, i've become 'inspired'. I get weekly e-mails from babycenter.com on my pregnancy and I read all of the articles and look at the products they mention. After getting a few of those I decided that I should start my blog off being dedicated to pregnancy and products we need and use during pregnancy. Of course this only relates to me until the end of the year. So i'll venture on to baby and toddler focused things too. I still don't have a name at this point but i'm running a few ideas through my mind.

So that's it... this is now going to be a blog focused on pregnancy, babies and toddlers. As my family grows the blog will follow along their ages too so it's going to be continually growing with topics, etc. 

Tags: babies, babycenter.com, blog, growing, pregnancy, toddlers

So you've heard of the parties people do for jewelry, candles, kitchen supplies, etc. But have you heard about the CHOCOLATE parties??

I keep pretty up to date on the postings on much of my areas craigslist and through the winter I saw some posts about this new thing of having chocolate parties. I watched as it started in another part of Ohio (on craigslist) and slowly grew to all the surround areas that I check out (mostly for promotional work that I do). I never ventured into answering one of those ads and forgot for a while.

Then, I find out my friend Kim was at one of their parties with her mom. And now SHE'S hosting one!

This is what she said regarding the party she attended and the products she tried along with her mom: "We loved the chocolate chai tea, the cinnamon dusted almonds are awesome, mousse is amazing. The raspberry and mango sauce are amazing especially on cheesecake."

So if you're interested and you're in the local area...

Kim's Dove Chocolate Discoveries Party:

Thursday, May 27th 7-9pm

Green, Ohio (comment with your e-mail address and I will send you the detailed location)

Join Kim and her friends in tasting some of the delicious chocolate products and if you'd like, order some of your own!

Not in the area or can't attend? Check out the catalog online: www.dove-chocolate-discoveries.com.

(Products can include: chocolate mousse, non-alcoholic martinis, tea, brownie mix, chocolate covered nuts and fruits, smoothies, baking chocolate, and cooking supplies.)

Tags: and cooking supplies, baking chocolate, brownie mix, chocolate, chocolate covered nuts and fruits, chocolate mousse, dove, dove chocolate discoveries, green ohio, kim, non-alcoholic martinis, party, smoothies, tea

So, Dave and I have been keeping a secret for quite a while now.

WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!

We've known for many weeks but decided to keep it quiet until after I was able to get an appointment and confirm everything. Well, on Monday afternoon we were given the confirmation that I am in fact pregnant!  At the time they believe I was a little over 9 weeks along. Everything checked out fine and we even got to hear the heartbeat!!! The midwife*, Alice, said we may not hear it since it's normally not heard until about another week later. It took a while but we were eventually able to hear that beautiful sound!

This was the day after mother's day and after Grace and I went to see my Grandma's with my parents, she went home to spend the night with them. It was because Dave and I "had some running around and work and stuff to do". haha It was so hard to cover it all up and I was so worried someone was going to ask what work we were doing or where we were going to be, or just SOMETHING was going to make them suspicious.

Dave called his mom right away as we were leaving the appointment. (Let me tell ya,  we considered not telling her and the family and just let them find out when the baby was born or we showed up to visit sometime after the birth. Dave's family (mom, dad, and two sisters) live in Florida and especially his mom isn't very happy about not seeing her grandbaby more often. I offered to call her for him but he did it and he survived. haha (Pam - don't worry, we wouldn't have not told you guys! :) We just joked about lots of ways of telling people about...

Tags: announcement, baby, belly, dad, daddy, grace, love, midwife, mom, mommy, paragon health, pregnant

WHEW! What a day!

Today was the big birthday party and it was successful! We had a Dora themed party since that has been Grace's new obsession the past few months. We had some great food that everyone seemed to enjoy. That was followed up by the hunt for Grace's gifts. The story of the party was that Swiper the Fox (from Dora of course) came and swiped all of Gracie's presents. Luckily he left clues for the kids to follow to help Grace find her gifts. They all had a ball with the hunt and the kids were presented with gifts for helping!

Grace sat in her princess chair in the middle of the party and opened her gifts. She was SO FUNNY! She took her time on her big big pile of gifts. Sometimes she would tear off a tiny piece and hand it or throw it to one of her cousins who were sitting nearby. She was taking so long that I had to 'help' her with some of the last gifts so that we could get to the cake!

Of course we had a Dora themed cake which gave Grace a Dora, Diego, and Boots character to play with long after the party. We all had the cake and then enjoyed some time outside. It wasn't as warm as I had hoped, but the rain did go away so everyone was able to go stretch their legs and enjoy some time outside.

 Thanks to everyone who came and shared in the special day of celebrating with our little girl!

THANK YOU to our good friends Scott and Kim who came over extra early to help with the food and decorations and for entertaining Grace while all the chaotic last minute things were going on! THANK YOU to my mom...

Tags: boots, cake, celebrating, diego, dora, gifts, party

Today was Grace's second birthday. It's been a day i've looked forward to since she's older and able to do more and more things. BUT it's still very hard to believe that two whole years has gone by since the day she entered our lives. Like all parents out there i've wanted her to stay young but i'm very excited about the changes this year will bring for her and us. She'll be learning to talk more, play on her own a little at the playgrounds, do more with her older cousins, and just understand more.

We stayed home and just had a special family celebration of her birthday today. We ended the night with a cookie cake and she LOVED it! Daddy gave her a decent sized piece and while she was eating his mom called. He talked to her for a while and I sat nearby enjoying my piece of cookie. Next thing we knew Grace was doing all she could to ask for more more more! She saw daddy's plate nearby and wanted to have his! Turns out, she ate all of the icing, set the cookie aside and wanted the big pile of icing on daddys piece. haha We gave her more and had to cut her off so she wouldn't get sick. Luckily she's not the type of kid to eat a lot of sugar and bounce of the walls because then it was bedtime! Of course she got to talk to her Florida and Ohio relatives first.

We're having her party this weekend at our house. There's still a lot to do and I probably won't be sleeping much these next couple of nights. I'm still fighting a sinus infection that has had me on the couch just about 24/7 lately. I'll do anything to make...

Tags: birthday, cookie, florida, learning, ohio

For atleast a few months now, i've been following the AkronOhioMoms website. They started out with articles about parenting, activities in the area, and many other topics. Not too long ago, this mommy blog became one of my favorite sites to visit on the random occasions i'm on an actual computer (and sometimes on my blackberry). The reason? Not only do they still post interesting articles, now there are tons of giveaways!

Who doesn't like free stuff? There are MANY ways to rack up your number of entries for the various giveaways and while it can be a little time consuming, it's totally worth it to win something. Even learning about the products through the reviews are worth the time!

I was fortunate enough to win tickets to an amazing show for my daughter. My husband and I took her to see the Nick Storytime Live event that took place at the Akron Civic. She wasn't too thrilled with being there in the beginning (she's just about 2 and had never been to an event like that) but when Dora came on in the end she was completely focused on Dora, boots the monkey and everything involved with that part of the show. That was a GREAT family event for us and I owe it all to www.akronohiomoms.com.

 Currently, i'm entering for another giveaway for a case of POM wonderful juice. My husband and I have tasted many types of pomegranate juices and this is one of the top two for us. It has MANY health benefits which you can read about here: http://www.akronohiomoms.com/food/pom-wonderful-100-pomegranate-juice-review-and-case-giveaway/. While you're there, do some entries for yourself. Maybe you'll be the next winner on Akronohiomoms!

Tags: akron, akronohiomoms, dora, free, giveaway, ohio, pom wonderful

I mentioned in my first posting that i'm still trying to figure out what i'm doing here. I could easily just say hey i'm running a mommy blog and stick with that. But... I think I want it to be a little more open as far as who my 'target audience' will be. We'll see how that goes.

I've been extra busy lately. I started taking online classes through Liberty University back in March. I'm in week three which has some time consuming assignments to focus on.

Speaking of time consuming... my daughter's turning TWO on Thursday(!!) and we're having her party here at our house on Saturday. It's not a big open space so on top of cleaning up, planning the details of the party and contacting those who haven't said if they're coming/bringing kids... we have to find a way to fit 20+ people in our home. Hopefully it'll be a nice day so we can atleast have some outside time during the party.

Tags: birthday, mommy blog, school

Well, i've been thinking about blogging for the past few years. I recently rediscovered an old site I had created in High School for an assignment. I went back to it a few times in college but it was then forgotten for about 4 years. I decided rather than starting a new website for my blog I should try it out here and see what happens.

My purpose of this blog is still a thought in a progress, so if you have any ideas, let me know.

Enjoy!