What Happens When ABC, the Huffington Post, and Yahoo Feature Your Wedding

Basically, a world of negativity and judgement explodes around you.

I was never one of those girls who had their wedding all thought out and planned before the age of 10. I just wasn't. When it came time to plan my wedding, I pretty much just went with the flow. So when one of my best friends and bridesmaids offered to take my photos for the wedding as a gift rather than stand by my side, I didn't stress about having an uneven number of bridesmaids and groomsmen and I didn't bother to look for a "replacement" (Who wants a "replacement" in their wedding party? Better yet, who the hell would want to be a "replacement" in a wedding party?). I simply jumped at her offer and accepted! As long as Bridget was there for my big day, I didn't care if she was standing by my side or behind a camera lens. 

That did mean one of our groomsmen was the odd man out, resulting in some pretty hilarious photos. He posted one of those photos on Reddit and since then the Huffington Post, ABC News, and Yahoo have picked up the story...

...and WOW! People are rude. I couldn't help myself...I knew better, but I read most of those comments anyway. Apparently, Steven and I are rednecks who are probably divorced by now, my wedding photographer was terrible, Macon is a loser who can't get a date, and I'm a complete snob to have "ruined" my wedding dress that mommy and daddy paid for by going into Lake Ontario at the end of the day.

Not going to lie, kinda hurts to read that stuff! And for someone who blogs and is used to putting my life on the internet you'd think I'd have thicker skin, but apparently I don't. I've actually never been attacked on this blog. All of you have been pretty gracious to me, allowing me to share my life with friends and family on the east coast with very little judgement. But the blogging community is quite different from the anonymous commenters on the world wide web. So I want to say thank you to all my followers who have left encouraging, funny, heart warming comments these past 2 years! Who have gotten to know me and some even become my good friends. Thank you for making me feel safe on this space and free to share my life with those I love.

To the anonymous haters who posted on the links above, I just want to say that Steven and I are extremely happily married and expecting our newest addition in just a few days! Macon, the stand-alone groomsmen, is smart and funny and married to one of the cutest women I ever did meet. Bridget, the photographer, is a great college friend who was kind enough to offer these photos to me as a gift and they are snapshots of the best day of my life. I will forever be grateful to her! And my wedding was the first wedding she ever shot and I am beyond thrilled with how the images turned out (as evidenced by how many of them are plastered on the walls in my home!).

P.S. Not that it's this lady's business, but to the lady who thinks I'm a snob for "ruining" my dress mom and dad bought me... I didn't ruin it. It was successfully dry cleaned and hangs perfectly in my closet. I paid for that dress myself and it was less than $200. Steven and I had a small budget and made a lot of sacrifices most brides and grooms wouldn't to stay within it. I'm thinking that doesn't make me a snob, but to each his own.

P.P.S. To the lady who wants to eat breakfast off my husband's booty...Eww.

36 Weeks

Wow! 36 weeks pregnant...feeling large and not so in charge. This baby determines whether or not I have a good day or a crazy uncomfortable, I-wanna-punch-everyone-who-talkes-to-me-in-the-face day! (Like how I'm already blaming everything on the kid?) :)

Baby: Baby is 36 weeks and the size of a honeydew. As this point, if he was born he could probably breathe on his own, his liver and kidneys are in full working order, and his circulation and immune systems are working properly, too. Unfortunately, baby is posterior (or sunny side up), meaning I may experience that lovely back labor I've heard so much about if he doesn't turn soon. He is head down though and that's the most important thing.

Weight: I'm up 36 lbs. I've officially surpassed the recommended weight gain for healthy mothers by 1 whole pound! This means I can stop trying to be good and just consume chocolate milkshakes and BLT's until I go into a food coma, right? Midwives never say anything about my weight and seem very unconcerned. My husband on the other hand was sweet enough to inform me that I'm almost to his high school weight. Thanks, Stevie.

Symptoms: I feel best when I'm at home being active. Even if that only means I'm standing up doing the dishes or putting away laundry. I am super uncomfortable at work. I feel restless sitting at my desk all day and my back aches to the point of putting me in tears. I brought in one of those huge exercising balls to sit on, and although I feel like a weirdo using it at work, my back pain has diminished remarkably! (Also, my midwife just informed me that the exercise ball would help turn my baby just by sitting in it versus my office chair...so crossing my fingers!) Other symptoms are still trouble sleeping and a little heartburn in the evenings. 

Sleep: The last 2 weeks were probably the worst when it came to sleeping. I wouldn't be surprised if I was averaging about 2 hours of sleep a night. But then last night something glorious happened! I slept for 10 hours. TEN HOURS! It was amazing. Yes, I still had to get up and go to the bathroom a lot but I had no trouble falling back asleep in between. I think I just hit that point of exhaustion where my body just had to completely shut down and rest. I feel great this morning! 

Cravings/Aversions:  I'm craving chocolate milkshakes and BLT sandwiches. Not necessarily together... although I wouldn't refuse that either. 

Body: Same as before. No stretch marks, no water retention, better skin than earlier in my pregnancy, and full hair. Nothing really to complain about other than my weight gain.

Random Thoughts: People love to tell me that I don't even look pregnant from behind but then I turn around and I look like a giant moose. Okay, so they leave out the giant moose part but I know what they're thinking. 

I'm beginning to actually feel prepared for our little guy's arrival! We basically have everything we need setup and ready to go. Last week I started making freezer meals and I plan on making one every week until baby shows up. That way Steven and I can spend more time bonding with baby those first 2 weeks and less time preparing meals. All I have left to do is put in baby's carseat, make a few more freezer meals, and begin washing his clothes :) YAY!!! I can't wait to meet you little, babe!

Currently...

Wishing... that our little guy's nursery was complete! I had hoped to finish it this past weekend but decided to begin making freezer meals instead so Steven and I won't have to worry about cooking when he first arrives. Now I need to refocus on the nursery though because it's beginning to overwhelm me! Oh yeah, his name begins with a "J"!

Reading... The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears. No need to get into a debate about vaccines. I just want to make sure I am fully informed since I have to be the voice for my little guy.

Eating... Greek yogurt with some granola and honey. So darn good!

Missing... My parents and wishing my mom was here to help me prepare for the baby! I've never felt like I've needed my mother so much as I have these last few months of pregnancy.

Feeling... Exhausted! I learning that being preggo is hard both physically and mentally in this last stage. Just a few more weeks...

Thinking... That my husband works too hard. But at the same time I am so glad he is such a hard worker. I just want him to not check his email all throughout dinner. (K, Steven? Let's stop that.)

Thankful for... My Wednesday night Bible study group. They are such amazing people and so encouraging! I feel very blessed that we found them.

Making Room for Baby

It didn't take me long to discover that babies need a lot of "things," and those things take up a lot of space! With baby Turner's arrival now just a few short weeks away, I find myself constantly trying to make more room for him in our home, which already lacks good storage space. I've had to make a conscious effort to utilize every square inch of our home and that has meant a lot of rearranging, reorganizing, decluttering, and simplifying on both mine and Steven's part. 

...............................

Rearrange | One of the first decisions Steven and I had to make was which room would be our little man's nursery. Our three bedrooms already all had their purpose --a master, a guest room, and an office. I didn't want to give up our guest room and force visitors to sleep on our couch or an air mattress on the living room floor, and Steven and I both need an office space since our jobs often require us to work from home. We finally decided the most practical thing to do was to relocate our office into the awkward nook we have in our master bedroom (which meant Steven disassembling the beautiful homemade desk he had originally made and starting from scratch). It was a lot of handwork, but we were able to take an unused space in our small home and give it a purpose; thus, turning our once office into a perfect nursery! (You can see the updated office here!)

Reorganize | Not going to lie, I thought I was a pretty organized individual... that is until I started clearing out the new nursery's closet to make room for baby's things. I had the most random things thrown into there like high school and college memorabilia, important paperwork like mortgage and tax information, and family photos and scrapbooks. It was a mess! I decided it was time to invest in organization. We bought storage bins, labels, and filers and slowly weeded through everything until it was properly labeled and put away in a new place. It was a slow process with a huge payoff. I was able to completely empty out the nursery closet and find a new, organized home for everything that was in there.

I also reorganized the kitchen cabinets and drawers and we bought a handy dandy organization system to go in our entry way that details important appointments and commitments for the week as well as holds our mail that needs to be addressed and is a convenient spot for Steven to place his keys (why do men always lose their keys?? Or is that just Steven). ;)

Declutter | To find a new home for everything in the old office closet it was necessary to get rid of many things. I went through old clothes, coats, and shoes and thrifted what I could while donating the rest. I also worked up the nerve to throw away some items that simply had no use or sentimental value to Steven and I.   

After that, I decided to declutter things that took up my time, energy, and attention on a daily basis. For me, this meant deleting old emails on my personal and work accounts and organizing subfolders for better time management. I also went through and unsubscribed from all those time wasters emailed to me day after day of things I don't really want or really can't afford. (And let me tell you, it feels so refreshing waking up to 20+ less unread emails in my inbox every morning! Unsubscribe, people!) Also, I deleted unnecessary apps on my iPhone and iPad that again were just time wasters. Those things have the ability to suck you in and before you know it you've wasted an hour of valuable time filling your mind with useless information. I want my spare time to be focused on my husband and son, not staring mindlessly into my iPhone screen.

Simplify | Steven and I decided to take things a step further by eliminating our credit cards. This simplifies our monthly payments and brings us some much needed sanity! We went from paying on 4 credit cards a month to just 1. We simply set monthly goals until we got all three credit cards paid off and cancelled. The final credit card we use like a debit, but holding on to it also provides a safety net if needed. For us, this simplifies the usual stressful monthly bill payments and gives us more money per month to use on baby needs.

.......................................

It definitely hasn't been easy, nor have the adjustments been "quick fixes," but I now feel as though we have successfully made room for baby in our lives. Not just in our physical home by freeing up space, but also mentally (by getting rid of those time wasters), and financially. It feels really, really good! 

Baby Turner, mommy and daddy are so excited for you to arrive!

How did you prepare for your first baby's arrival?

Baked Chocolate Glazed Donuts

My first hunch that I was pregnant was the fact that the sight and smell of any sort of meat had me running to stick my head in the toilet. The second hunch was that I wanted chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. If you've been reading my blog for a while you know that I used to eat completely Paleo, so meat was pretty much the staple in my diet and chocolate was, well, almost nonexistent (unless it was dairy free, of course).

Well, mother baby gets what mother baby wants, and these past few days all I could think about was chocolate donuts! Strange? Yes. Delicious? ABSOLUTELY! 

To bake homemade donuts you'll need a donut pan. I have this one. Recipe adapted from Food, Family, Friends.

Donut Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons milk

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Glaze Ingredients:

2 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 cup powdered sugar

 Directions:
1| Preheat over to 325 degrees and spray your donut pan with non-stick cooking spray (I used grape seed oil)
2| For donuts, mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
3| Add milk, egg, vanilla, and butter. Whisk until smooth.
4| Fill each donut cavity 1/2 full with the batter.
5| Bake 12-14 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
6| For the glaze, whisk together all ingredients until smooth.
7| Dip the top of each baked donut into the glaze.

I was hoping to get a dozen donuts, but I only came up with 11. Either I ate too much raw batter (oops) or I filled my donut pans too high. (I probably ate too much batter...)

These donuts are delicious and super rich! My strange pregnancy craving was satisfied and baby (and my husband) were happy. And if baking donuts seems intimidating, don't let it be! These were super quick and easy to throw together.

Enjoy!