A Personal Update

It's been awhile since I just updated on us... so here it is.

Let's see... Aaron's working hard this week.  It's VBS week, which is always difficult for him, missing all of his mornings to plan the same number of lessons he always does and his same Sunday morning worship service, not to mention all of the other 'desk work' he does during the week.  We always feel the stress on VBS week... next week will be nice for us to relax a couple of days and celebrate our anniversary.

Bryton is great!  He is such a delight at this stage.  (I hope he is at every stage ;)  He is finally getting some words out!  Of course those of you who know me know I freaked about this for a long time... waiting for the little guy to spit it out.  He had been right on the ball with all of his other milestones, but was dragging a little bit on this one.  The dr., after seeing him last, laughed at him and told me he was lazy.  Fine with me, lol.  But it seems like we're getting new words out everyday now.  Some consonants and blends are still giving him a time, but I've finally calmed down some.  His favorite word right now has to be daddy, which I'm convinced he says 9,483, 713 times each day.  He does know momma now too, so I'm good with that.  He also likes ball, bup (cup), baboon (balloon), spoon, shoe (he struggles with the sh but we know what he means), puppy, Zeke, kitty (since we visited the File's house last night), hi, and bye bye... to name a few.  He is even starting to distinguish between certain kinds of balls, namely footballs and basketballs.  (Basket is another one of his favorite words)  Unless things change, I see an athlete (or at least a wanna be athlete) in our future.

Me, well, most of you know I'm pregnant.  7 weeks and 4 days to be exact, and I'll be honest, I'm exhausted.  Sick and exhausted.  This pregnancy threw me through a loop, because I wasn't expecting at alllll to be feeling this way.  Bryton's pregnancy was a breeze.  No exhaustion, no nausea, no aches and pains... no real symptoms besides a growing belly and my swelling at the very end... and everything his pregnancy wasn't, well, this one is.  My friends tell me it has to be a girl because of the difference.  If my calculations are right, we should find that out about the end of October.  I don't know that I can wait that long.
I did have a little bit of light bleeding which resulted in getting some bloodwork done, a rhogam shot, and then an ultrasound, but everything checked out well.  Baby is growing right on schedule and had a heartbeat of 145.  My next appointment isn't until mid-August. 

We still have intentions of finishing our basement.  It's moving way slower than we once expected.  I think we both need a big jump-start.  We've really just not been working on it.  We are somewhat inexperienced at this home renovation thing, and so I don't really know that we have any idea what to do next.  It should be interesting to see what transpires there.

So anyway, that's us right now.  I'll be updating periodically, and of course will be couponing and sharing my heart.  Keep checking back. 

-a

I Didn't Use ONE Coupon!

Okay, so I've been posting lots and lots of posts about all the money I have saved (and you can save too) buying groceries, gifts etc.  In fact, I've been posting so many of those that I'm afraid people may be under the impression that I save 80% every time I shop... and that's far from being true.
I do strive for 50% at least off of big shopping trips, but, there are times we just need to get by for a few days and we do just that, we get by. 
So here is another way this 'couponing' / 'budgeting' thing saves me money.
Our 'budget' lasts us from paycheck to paycheck, so we are on a monthly budget broken down into bi-weekly increments.  If you're lost (because I can't seem to find a better way to word it), all you really need to know about that is this:  we have until Thursday to survive on our grocery budget before it gets replenished.  SO, I needed to have meals planned from today - Thursday, and I had approximately $25 left in grocery budget.  (I cut our budget way short these past two weeks to help pay for our anniversary expenses coming up.  I had my stockpile of food built up enough that I almost was able to cut my $125 (for two weeks) grocery budget in half and still be able to make it work. 
So, after going through my kitchen, finding out what I had, planning four meals dependent on what we had (and what this pregnant woman thinks she can eat), and comparing sales, I made my list and went to Kroger.  And this is what I bought to last us the next 4 days:
1/2 Gallon of 2%
1/2 Gallon of Vitamin D
A container of Heavy Whipping Cream
1 Dozen Large Eggs
French Bread from the bakery
Hamburger Buns
Sandwich Bread
Peaches
Bananas
Strawberries
Bacon
Carrots
Potatoes
I bought these things to make:
1.  Cheeseburgers (have the burgers in the freezer, cheese, and all I need for 1 of 10 different sides already in my stockpile.  this is why stocking up on sales is so important.)
2.  Homemade french toast, with homemade syrup, fruit, and bacon (I'm totally stoked about this supper meal.  I got the recipe from a woman on the road, and it's ammmmmaaaazin!) I have everything in my house for this except the bread, bacon and whipping cream.)
3.  Pot roast, potatoes and carrots.  (Have the pot roast in the freezer)
4.  Pizza night.  Yep, one of the .49 frozen tombstones I got from Kroger during their mega sale.  it's a cheap quick meal, especially on busy Wednesday nights.)

All in total, I spent $19.03 to complete our meals this week, and I didn't use one coupon!  (I did, however, still manage to save 24% somehow.  I bought the potatoes on managers special because I knew we'd use them all soon, and I think the milk was on sale... but I ended up saving almost $7.)   We have plenty for lunches for those days, even if they are grilled cheese, pizza rolls, pb&js, or frozen meals, and plenty for breakfast with frozen waffles, instant oatmeal, and like 4 different boxes of cereal.  (Or an egg or two if one so chooses.)
I will admit though... I have about $5 left in my grocery budget, and our new budget starts on Thursday... and Kroger is fitting to have one mean sale on Twinkies, and this pregnant girl could eat a twinkie, let me tell you.  So, instead of paying $3.99 a box for them now, I'm saving the craving for Wednesday and getting them for $1.88!  Wooooo hoooo!  It's the little things ;)
-a

Almost Five Years Ago

It's not our anniversary yet, but it's getting close.  I love our anniversary.  I'm pretty sure I'm a hopeless romantic, and I'm pretty sure Aaron would probably agree with that statement. 

I always hear people say, it feels like only yesterday... and they mean it in a good way, like life has been so good with their spouse that it feels like only yesterday they married them.  You know, they still feel like newlyweds and all.  So, I guess, kind of in a sense, it does kind of feel like only yesterday.

But more than it feels like only yesterday... it doesn't.  With time comes growth, and God has grown us a lot in the five years we've been married.  We started off like any normal couple, but it didn't last that way long.  Less than a year after we were married we went on the road with Ken... and that, honestly, felt like an eternity.  I'm not going to lie.  Aaron and I learned a ton about each other.  I had to grow up and learn what it felt like to be loved even at the most wretched point I could become.  Even when I was unlovable... he loved me.  And I'd be lying if I said we felt like we were newlyweds then.  We didn't.  There were times where we felt a long, long, long way away from being newlyweds. 

Then getting off the road, and moving away, and having our hearts be far from where we were, and then having a baby, yes, it's safe to say we are probably no longer considered 'newlyweds.'  The world looks at that as if it's a bad thing, but you know what I think? 

I think that real marital success isn't the 'ooshy mooshy' newlywed feeling that is fleeting (though  nice from time to time), I don't even think it is the lasting from eon to eon.  No, lasting without loving is meaningless, and who wants to be in a meaningless relationship?  No, real marital success is living each day and learning from the experiences that you choose and the ones you don't.  It is making a choice despite all circumstances to love deeply.  It is seeing your spouse at their worst and knowing how to encourage them to be their best.  It's falling more and more in love with the friend who always has your back.  It's sometimes surviving in order to experience thriving. 

If love was only newlywed bliss, is that really love at all?  No.  Love surpasses feeling.  Love even surpasses knowledge.  Love for me is knowing that five years ago, when choosing the partner I'd keep for life,  had I known all that would transpire, all of the circumstances, all of the trials, and all of the wisdom, I could have found myself only more excited to rush down the aisle and say 'yes' to the man who loved me despite me... just like Jesus did for us so many years ago.  And that's really what love is.  Jesus. 

Would I change all of the experiences we've faced?  Absolutely not.  Even in the worst of the worst of them we found love.  Even when we felt alone and tired, we found strength.  Through all that our hearts have hurt from and leapt from, there has been wisdom.  And I've got to experience them all with my best friend.  That is love.  

-a

The Only Time I'm Involved in Knitting...

Is when someone else is doing it inside of me...
So I've joined this online forum where a bunch of us women who are due in March have all gotten together to chat and share pregnancy together.  Overall it has been a pretty rewarding experience.  I'm seeing many women share what they are going through as far as symptoms, getting to experience a lot of highs of women who have heard that first heartbeat at their first ultrasound, and unfortunately have said good-bye to a lot of women who have lost that baby and left the forum.  It's been a great place to connect.
Today there was a post, though, that just killed me.  I'm trying not to see to judgmental, or to 'holier than thou', but one of the posts was a woman venting that being pregnant kind of freaked her out.  She talked about how weird it was that livers and kidneys and a heart were forming inside of her at this very moment.  I was shocked with how many people agreed with her.  I mean, I consider being able to carry a child, and allow God to knit that child together inside of you, as one of the greatest privileges this side of Heaven, all symptoms aside. 
I don't see livers and kidneys (though, thank God for those, as they'll make the fragile body of my baby function properly and work on it's own), I see ten little fingers and ten little toes, little eyes that will stare up at you someday and little lips that will make a smile.  I see little lungs that will make for a great cry, and a great belly laugh someday. 
Granted, I've had several more 'pregnancy' symptoms this time around, but I'm loving (I really can't say that with enough emphasis) experiencing the miracle that is going on inside of my body.  Psalm 139:13 says, "For you formed my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother's womb."  The way I see it, God is at work in my body, in a visible, believable, and eventually a tangible way.  There's nothing that freaks me out about it. 
I look forward to one day feeling that baby move around my belly, and another day to holding him / her in my arms, liver, kidneys and all.  It all comes together to make a baby... our baby. 
-a