At it again....

My track record for blogging is not very good. I’m not sure what my hold up is. I enjoy writing and as you all know I’m an oversharer. I think it all comes down to time. I’m bad at maximizing my free time so that got me thinking about what is my real purpose behind wanting to put my thoughts out there. Why am I even trying to add blogging to my to-do list?

In my opinion I spend way too much time looking at other people’s lives on Facebook. The purpose of this blog is to encourage me to think and reflect on a deeper level with the experiences I have in my own life. I don’t want to go down in history as only an observer. I think it is becoming harder to stay focused on our own lives. Yes, I see the irony in turning to a public Blog to better “connect” with my life….

As a self described “know it all” I have a tendency to brush off the advice I get from people (I’m working on it). I have to admit that there are two things I’ve heard over and over again since becoming pregnant that I now accept them as absolute truths.

-       It all goes by so fast. People I know well and people I was meeting for the first time would all say this to me when I was an expectant parent. I started to think this is the thing that people say when they didn’t know what else to say to you but now I get it. It is a feeling every parent can relate to. While I won’t argue that some phases seem to last forever (like the first few weeks when Mia wouldn’t sleep longer than 4 hours at a time) what this really means to me now is life is beautiful, it unfolds fast and we all have the desire to stretch it out and hold on to the beauty in it.

-       Your life will never be the same. This sounds self explanatory and on the surface it couldn’t be more true, but for me this was most recognized in the fact that my life will never be the same again emotionally. I have experienced deeper emotions since having Mia than I ever thought possible. I have a desire to connect with the world in a way I never cared to before.

I’m going to try to not be too critical with myself about my posts. There will be typos and there will be posts that don’t read well. I don’t want my posts to take me great amounts of time to produce either. I also will not spend hours (as I’ve previously done) experimenting with the look of my blog. The focus now is on the quality of my posts. Please call me out if I change my background more times than I make a post. Fingers crossed that my next post isn’t about Mia going off to kindergarten for the first time.

Shopaholic

I was in a bad mood yesterday so my sweet husband decided he would go with me to shop for a dress for my upcoming baby shower. I hate shopping for maternity clothes. I have never been a big shopper (note previous post about being a hand me down queen). I get slightly irritated that I'm finally shopping and it is for pants that have big elastic bands at the top. Getting in and out of clothes while you are pregnant is no easy task- although I do consider trying on clothes as getting in a workout in for the day.

Matt tried really hard to help me find a dress but after my reaction to his true suggestion of the dress with one shoulder and a strange animal print he knew he needed some help. He enlisted the help of a salesgirl who cheerfully asked me what look I was going for. That's a sweet question lady but honestly I don't consider my pregnancy as a fashionable period in my life....please just find me something that fits and makes me look tall and skinny duh!

Anyway- I finally found a dress that works. I guess I won't be showing up Demi Moore style.

The 12 Things You Miss Most During Pregnancy

I really enjoyed the article The 12 Things You Miss Most During Pregnancy. When I first got pregnant I was afraid to say anything negative. I thought the negative energy would somehow be passed on to our baby (I know that is a little crazy) and I thought people would think poorly of me and assume I wasn't incredibly grateful about being pregnant. Well here I am 187 days into my pregnancy (93 days to go!) and I'm ok with saying I really miss some things from my non-pregnant days. Overall pregnancy has been good to me (for all those people who listened to me complain about throwing up on public transportation...can you believe I'm saying this now!?). It's becoming more apparent to me that I've grown up a lot since finding out I'm pregnant. I realize I can't have everything my way, I've learned to truly listen to my body, I feel more compassionate towards people, I've learned it's ok to need a break, I've become the queen of compromise, I've learned to not view limitations of my body/getting sick as weakness and I've learned I can't do it all I just have to do the best I can. These lessons may have come easy for other people but for my hard headed, Type A, bossy, judgemental little self they didn't.

Ok but now seriously for the things I miss.........
- I miss being one of the fastest  (ok maybe I just mean faster) people on the treadmill. I didn't know it was possible in my pre-pregnancy days that you could walk at 3.8 speed on a 4.0 incline and break a sweat. Seriously!?
-I miss my wardrobe. I've never been a very fashionable person (ask my sister) but I have a lot of clothes because I am a hand me down queen (thanks again to my sister) and the fact that I never throw anything away. I get up every morning now and sigh when I look at my 3 pair of pants that fit, my 6 shirts and my one shoe choice (thank God for slip on shoes).
-I miss being able to sit on the same piece of furniture with my husband. We used to both be able to lay together comfortably on the couch or sit together in our family room chair. Now when I come in for landing my poor husband has to remove himself from the couch or chair because we just don't fit there anymore!
-I miss coffee. Matt and I love coffee. We are kind of coffee snobs. I can't wait to drink coffee again and feel giddy with excitement when the automatic grinder turns on in the morning because I know it is working for me! I told Matt- "I just don't like myself without coffee."

That's enough whining for now. I promise in a later post to flip this and tell you everything I love about pregnancy.

The End of the Car Diet

For the past 8 months Matt and I have shared one car. We did this in an effort to save money and pay down our (ok my) debt. We were inspired to make this "radical" (as quoted from a recent article I read) move after reading about how much money a car actually costs annually by the time you look at car payment, insurance and gas.

Thanks to my ability to get to my job by public transportation Matt and I were able to commute together. On the weekends we ran our errands together. We found a way to make it all work. I would say in the 8 months we did the one car thing we only had about 5 times that we actually had a legitimate bind. Maybe that means the two of us need to get a life.

After three months of settling into this arrangement we learned we were expecting our baby girl so we looked at each other and realized we better start saving for a second car. Life's timing is hilarious.

Last weekend we bought our second car. We chose a Subaru Legacy (Super Subaru...thank you AJ). Matt's happy because he feels like he got a Daddy car that is still sporty. I'm sure once he straps that car seat in the back it's going to look super sporty.

PS: Is this a boring first post!?

A challenge

My husband knows me well.He knows all I need is a challenge to try and succeed at something. He said I wouldn't keep up with Blogging. I'll show him! I'll be honest- the real challenge will be staying up past 8PM to post.