No Spend July!

Can you believe its almost July?  June was an exciting month in our household!  And an expensive one.  Between vacation, birthdays and our 5 yr anniversary, we've been spending more than normal this month.  And while its been nice to just spend money and enjoy ourselves, its time to reevaluate our goals for the next couple months and get back on track with our budget!

Besides saving money for the arrival of a little one in January, we are also working towards another goal- buying a house!!  So after a month of fun and frivolity, its time to buckle down.  To help bring us closer to our goals, we have decided to do a No Spend Month!

What exactly does a no spend month mean?  Well for us, it means that beyond bills, food and gas, we won't be spending any money.  Will it be easy?  No.  But will it be rewarding?  You betcha!!  This is our first time doing this, and we hope that a bit of a 'financial cleanse' will help us get back on track with our budget and moving forward in a big way!

 

 

 

I'm sharing this with you for two reasons.  One, I hope that putting this out here for the internet world will help me stick to my goals.  Having people hold you accountable always makes things easier, right?  You can be like my budget work out buddies :)  And two, I hope you'll join me! 

Now you don't necessarily have to do a no spend month.  You could start with a no spend week!  Or maybe give up Starbucks for a month.  Any little sacrifice that helps put a little more dough in your pocket at the end of the month!

I plan to pop in each Monday with an update of how things are going in our house.  And I'd love to hear from you each week to see how you are doing with the challenge! 

To join the challenge simply:
1.  Decide how much you want to be involved.  A no spend week, no spend month, or something else?
2.  Declare your goals on our Facebook page! (or you can keep this bit personal, up to you)
2.  Jump on each Monday and share your thoughts, triumphs, frustrations or really anything :)
3.  Count your extra pennies at the end of the month and rejoice!

So are you excited?!  I'm excited!!  Let's do this!

12 wks!

Hello and happy Monday!  I hope you had a fantastic weekend.  We spent it running errands, catching up with friends, and hanging out as a family. 

So I hit a milestone this week- the end of the first trimester!  Boy did that happen fast!  I had a little bit of a 'whoa this is happening REALLY fast'  moment this weekend.  I still have a long way to go, but reaching week 12 made this go from surreal to real :)

This was a good week!  I've felt much better, with almost no nausea.  My energy has been higher, I'm sleeping better, and I have more desire to be active.  I'm truly looking forward to having these feelings improve throughout my second trimester.  And having my energy back certainly helps me keep up with my wiggly little guy :)

 

 

This week I feel like I truly look pregnant all the time too.  Before I had days where it seemed noticeable, and days when it wasn't, but now my belly is a definite presence. 

 

Oh and fun bit of randomness.  So I was sitting in the office with Dano one night, and I got hit with an almost painful craving for biscuits and gravy!!  I wanted some sooooo badly I considered going to Cracker Barrel at 9 at night lol.  And my nose is still out of control.  Doesn't really make me sick, but if I smell something yummy, I WANT it!  Ah pregnancy, so much fun :)

 

So how was your weekend?  Have a great day!



Beach vacation

Hey everybody!  So, I mentioned in Tuesday's post that part of the reason I've been MIA was that we were on vacation!  And not just any vacation, our first family vacation in FOUR YEARS!!  Kinda a big deal.  We snuck away for a week to the Outer Banks with some amazing friends, and it was great!

It was a 13 hour drive, which had us nervous.  Not only has it been a looooooong time since we traveled, this was our first time driving with a toddler.  Tip #1- when possible, do most of your driving at night!  We left around midnight, got in about 2:00pm, and Gage was an ANGEL!  He was oh so good, and we were oh so thankful :)  Of course, the occasional bribe with a Hot Wheels car never hurts ;)

We stopped at a rest stop, where bean managed to blow out his brand new flip flops before we even made it to the beach.

Our first day was spent relaxing, eating good food, and heading to bed early.  The next morning, we went for an early walk down to the beach! 

It was a foggy first day, but that didn't stop us!

We took beanie to the beach once last summer, and it was a disaster!  He was too little, the sand was blowing everywhere, it was a mess.  Needless to say, I had my fingers crossed that this time, he would love it.  And love it he did!

Caught them napping one afternoon, so cute :)

Our little guy was a beach fan!  Tip #2- be prepared to be very active!  Vacationing with a toddler isn't the same as vacationing with just adults.  Gage was constantly running into the waves, eating sand, playing, running up the beach.  It made for so many sweet moments, like this.  It also made for very little time just lounging in a beach chair :)

And then there was the food!  I didn't take pictures of everything we ate, but now I kinda wish I had.  We gorged ourselves on delicious treats all week, like these Duck Donuts.  Hot, and made to order.  Doesn't get any better than that!

Fresh watermelon!  So sweet and delicious.

A little boogie board action!  We made some amazing new friends while on vacay (hi Sandy!) and Gage had a blast!  I don't have any pics (bad blogger, bad!)  but Dano was also a HUGE fan of boogie boarding.  The waves were awesome, and he spent hours out there enjoying them.

Pretty sweet set up!  The last couple of days out there, it was hot.  Which made the sand MOLTEN.  So we were especially thankful for this bit of shade :)

How awesome is this?  One of the restaurants we checked out, the Black Pelican, was visited by Guy Fieri!  The food was incredible, and the place was packed. 

Riding a bike that was at our sweet beach house.  I think this may be on the list of birthday gifts for little man!  He was obsessed!

After a great week away, we were ready to come home.  The change of scenery, not to mention having hubs around all day, everyday, was amazing.  And after recharging our batteries, I was excited to jump back into the routine of everyday life.  They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

Now we are getting back into normal life, and trying to plan for the summer.  Oh and a baby.  Need to get prepared for another little one :)  I feel like the next six months are going to FLY by!  Hang on!

Weeks 10 & 11!

Hello!  Its been for.ev.er since I posted (hangs head in shame).  Between general pregnancy fatigue, and a week of vacation, plus the week it took to prep for said vacation, I haven't felt like doing too much.  But, I'm hoping that now that the travel madness has died down, I can return to business as usual!

So I'm cramming weeks 10 & 11 together today :)  I couldn't resist grabbing a pick of me at 10 wks with this sign. 

Size wise, its been a weird two weeks.  Some days I feel HUGE.  Like in the picture above.  We had been walking for a mile and a half, and my belly was crampy and just gigantic.  And yes, I know I'm going to look back at this in a couple months and wish I was that 'huge' lol.  But then I had days where I felt like my belly was smaller, almost unnoticeable. 

I feel like I look about the same here in my week 11 pic.  I had my hubs quickly snap these late Sunday night, so ignore the terrible indoor lighting and boring white hallway :)

Symptom wise, the only thing new and exciting (I'm using this word sarcastically)  was MOOD SWINGS!  Oh man, it was bad.  One minute I was up, the next I was close to tears, I constantly felt stressed out, ugh!  I'm so glad I have a patient and understanding husband, cuz WOW!  I don't remember having many strong emotions at all when I was pregnant with Gage, so this is a new and unwelcome symptom.

 

 

Food wise I'm doing really well!  I still have moments where my outta control nose gets to me, but other than that I'm doing great.  After coming back from vacation, my hubby started a 21 day cleanse.  While I can't cleanse, I am prepping food for all of us to eat as similarly as possible.  So we are stocked up on fruits, veggies and grains, and I've been enjoying some healthy and delicious meals!

 

We are also trying to be more active.  This morning, I took bean for a nice long walk, which kicked my butt :)  But each day it will get better, right? 



 

Oh, and on Sunday, I think I felt the baby move!  Just the briefest of motions (which may have been gas, who knows)  but I was excited none the less :)  I find that I'm really anxious to feel this little one move.  It was one of my favorite parts of being pregnant with bean, and I can't wait to experience it with this little one!

 

So that pretty much sums up the last two weeks pregnancy wise.  I'll be back soon with a vacay update!  And some DIY!  Yay!  Are there any diet/exercise revolutions going on in your world?  Or maybe a pregnancy?!  Do tell!

 

9 weeks!

So, the cats finally out of the bag!  We are expecting another little Werling in early January :)

Something that I've regretted a bit about my pregnancy with Gage is that I didn't document it better.  I wish I would have taken more pictures, recorded my symptoms, and written down my thoughts on a weekly basis.  So, I'm so happy I have this forum to record my pregnancy this time around!

While lots of things have been the same this time, a lot has been different too!

Symptoms:
-The fatigue is back!  Ugh haha.  I am constantly sleepy, can't wait for it to pass!  Different this time around is that I'm having difficulty sleeping.  Last time I could nap like a champ, but now I toss and turn all night, regardless of how tired I am.

-New this time, nausea.  Its still very minimal (thank goodness) but it chooses to hit me around 1 in the morning.  So, also not helpful with symptom number one.

Food:

Just in the last couple days, I've been going through this thing where I'm starving, I eat, then I feel mildly sick.  It doesn't seem to matter what I eat either.  As far as craving, this baby LOVES scrambled eggs with cheese and ketchup!!  cantgetenough!  I've also had my fair share of grapefruit juice, which isn't something I normally like.

Appearance:

I feel like my belly has had an instant roundness to it this time.  Not that you can really tell in that picture :)  And my skin has cleared up!  I hope that keeps up throughout this pregnancy.

Randomness:

-Being pregnant the second time is tougher for sure.  Chasing a toddler doesn't give you time to really relax and enjoy it.  But, it certainly makes me more active!  

-No feelings one way or another on gender yet.  Many people are cheering for team pink.  I think hubs is cheering for team blue again :)  It'll be a while before we find out!

-My due date as of right now is January 4th, but for some reason January 15th is sticking in my head.  I hope for the little ones sake that it is closer to the middle of the month, just to give a little buffer after the holidays :)

-At our ultrasound, the tech said the baby is the size of a gummy bear, so now we affectionately refer to baby as 'gummybear'

That's it for now!  I'm looking forward to recording the journey this time :)