Celebrating our 5 Year Anniversary

My husband and I took one last trip together last week before we are expecting the baby. It was to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and was essentially our "babymoon." We went down to Puerto Vallarta for a week. Somewhere not too far and an easy place to vacation while pregnant. It's nice to get that last trip out of our system so that we feel like we were able to get some r&r before the big day arrives.

Here's a picture of us with an iguana and a little one on top of my head.

If you're interested in seeing more pictures, you can take a look at my Flickr set.

Success Story: Terry's Toffees

An incredible story about how a new business can be born effortlessly. It all started with the book, The Artist's Way.

Big News!

Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I have posted, but it's been quite a busy time getting organized after our move! And, I also have some big news that I'd like to share that has also kept me pretty occupied! I am 15 weeks pregnant!

I have been adjusting to a new life of symptoms, fatigue, and constant eating. It's been an interesting road so far, and if you are interested in reading about my pregnant journey, I've created a blog just for that topic. I assume not all of you are interested in reading about all of my pregnant details, so I decided to keep it separate from here. I've been blogging there for almost a month now, so you can check it out: http://dancingbaby.wordpress.com

I haven't taken any pictures of myself yet since I'm in the in-between stages of actually looking pregnant and just looking like I have a huge gut, but here is my ultrasound from week 11 and 4 days.

Can you believe it? I'm going to be a mom! I had postponed this because of my new career change, but I finally decided that I can't push this off forever. It's better for me to have babies before age 35, so my husband and I decided it was time to start a family, despite the fact that I'm in school. I'll be done with school in December, and it looks like I'll be a mom before I start working as a fashion designer. I've always wanted to find a career where I can work from home and take care of my family, so I guess this is the beginning of the road in trying to figure out how that will all work out! Who says you can't have both a family and a wonderful career? The career will probably wait a little until I am all situated with the new baby in my life.

As you can imagine, with the new move, we have been organizing, decluttering, and just trying to get our place more suitable for a baby. This means selling (or giving away) furniture that is too oversized for our new place, making room for a crib and baby changing station/dresser, and trimming everything down to only what we absolutely need and love. It's a huge process that will probably take my entire pregnancy to complete, but we've made significant strides, so I am happy about our progress.

The first trimester was the most unproductive time for me. My body was so busy making a placenta and a baby that I was so tired and fatigued that I could not do much else except figuring out what to eat next and sleep. Eating consumed my entire day. I would eat every hour. My appetite was so big, I could not believe it. I had to take my healthy eating to a different level. Despite my food aversions (I could not eat salads during the first few months), I had to find a way to get proper nutrition, including enough protein, calcium, and iron. I've had to make a lot of adjustments to what I eat, but I managed to survive until second trimester finally rolled around.

It's a much better time for me now. I have more energy so I can actually tackle things on my to do list and make some good strides in organizing our new home. I even managed to assemble furniture by myself. That was quite a feat! I think we are 40% of the way there, so there is still a lot to do, but I am excited and am motivated to get it all done before the fall semester begins. Actually, I am hoping to get the bulk of it done before our vacation next week. My husband and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary this year. Whoo hoo!

Ok, back to the organizing (and eating). Decluttering is no joke! I hope you don't have as much stuff to get rid of as I do. We've already donated about 20 bags to Goodwill, but there's so much more to come. I think the most challenging part has been reconfiguring our furniture in this new space. We've had to get rid of furniture and buy new furniture to fit the new space, and we've set aside a pile of artwork, decorations, kitchen appliances, and lots of other things that need to go. I've recycled so many magazines since we've moved and have gotten rid of tons of books. Step by step... my life is starting to feel so much lighter and clearer. Yey!