Third Trimester

The days seem to be getting harder and harder.
I kept hoping that since my first trimester was relatively free of any pregnancy symptoms, and then my second trimester was kind of awful, that maybe the third trimester would be a nice an easy one.
But no.
I am so tired during the day!
And then, I'm an insomniac at night and it's driving me nuts.
Hopefully the baby will have her days and nights reversed as well so it'll all work out!
I'm eating more lately and noticing that not all of the calories are going straight to my belly anymore. :(
My legs are a little more jiggly and my face is a little more "full."
Lame.
Of course, the weight distribution could be a result of my self-diagnosed bed rest.
I say self-diagnosed because I haven't talked to my doctor about the pains in my legs, but the pain is definitely lessened when I spend most of the day laying down.
So that is exactly what I do all day- lie down.
She's been kicking me in ouchy places lately, like my ribs or especially hard in my bladder.
I also think i've been having braxton hicks contractions, and they've been a little painful.
But enough complaining.

Brad and I had our friends the Schneiders over for dinner last night and it was such a good time.
We watched G-Force and ate lasagna and played some card games.
They were the kind of games where you have to slap the pile to get the cards and we were all getting a little crazy!
It was a lot of fun and I hope we can have people over more often.
It really keeps me distracted from my self-pity. Haha.
Speaking of having people over, Brad has his friend Mark over right now and they're playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, so i'm hiding in the bedroom.
Then, in a few minutes actually, i'm off to a Girl's Night in the lounge with some girls from the ward.
Should be fun!

I'll try to get some more recent pictures of my huge, protruding stomach up soon.
Promise.
:)

Fun at Albertsons

I get so excited when I save money.
This week, Albertsons had 3 "Twice the Value" coupons which always sparks TONS of people shopping at Albertsons.
Essentially, they double the value of a manufacturers coupon up to $1.00.
On top of the doubler coupons, Albertsons has a CHILL promotion running (and a Post cereal promo, but I didn't have any Post cereal coupons) where you buy 10 participating frozen food items and get a coupon for $10 off your next order.
Anyway, I'm just going to list what I bought, what coupons I used, and how much I spent and saved on each transaction (I had 3 separate transactions. Thanks for coming with me, Brad!)

Transaction 1
(This was supposed to be 10 of the participating frozen juice concentrates, but they were all gone but for 2! I was so disappointed, because the lack of this first transaction cost me an extra $10 in the end since I wasn't able to get the $10 off coupon from the juices)

The Real Transaction 1
10 Smart Ones Frozen Entrees at 1.88 each
Used 2 $1 off 5 coupons, and doubled each one
Total spent= $15.81 (This should have been only $5.81 if i'd gotten the $10 off coupon from the first one. Stupid juices being gone.)
Total saved= $17.10
Received 1 $10 off your next order coupon

Transaction 2
6 Dreyers Ice Cream at Buy 1 at 6.49, Get 2 free
Used $2 off 2 Dreyers Light Ice Cream Coupon
2 Frozen Juice Concentrates at 1.59 each
1 Ore-Ida Hashbrowns at 2.99
Used $1 off 1 coupon and doubled
1 Ore-Ida Steam and Mash at 4.99
Used $1 off 1 coupon and doubled
1 Bagel Bites at 1.99
Used $1 off 1 coupon and doubled (which made these free)
Used $10 off your next order coupon from previous transaction
Used a $3.50 off your next order coupon that I got a couple weeks ago
Total spent= $6.03
Total saved=$49.25
Received $10 off your next order coupon

Transaction 3
8 Yoplait Yogurts at 2 for $1
Used $1/8 coupon
1 gallon Skim Milk at $1.29
1 package Pepper Jack Cheese at 2.49
1 Culinary Circle Pepperoni Pizza at 4.99
Used $1.50 off 1 in-ad coupon
Used $1 off 1 coupon
2 Hillshire Farms Lunch Meat at 2 for $7
Used $1 off 2 coupon and doubled
2 5lb bags of potatoes, Klondike Rose at 2.99 and Russet at 1.69
Used Buy 1 5lb Klondike Rose, get 1 5lb Russet free coupon
Used $10 off your next order coupon from previous transaction
Total spent= $9.64
Total saved= $24.97

I know everyone isn't really interested in what everything cost and crap, but I just wanted to type it all up as a reminder to myself of my deal-finding abilities. Haha.
I'm still bummed about the juices, because they would have saved me an extra $10 in the end, but oh well.
What do we need 10 frozen juice concentrates for anyway?
Our freezer is jam-packed enough with the 6 things of ice cream we got!
Oh, and here's a picture of the haul.
:D

11 weeks to go!

So, this past week has been pretty rough.
On top of my laptop charger dying out and having limited computer access, the day to day stuff hasn't been so great either.
Saturday night I was taking a shower and my legs almost gave out from under me.
I quickly finished up my shower and had to sit down because my legs were in SO much pain!
I started crying because my left leg just felt like... heavy, swollen, jello.
I don't know how else to explain it.
Anyway, chocking it up to either a sciatic nerve thing or vericose veins, I took some tylenol and went to bed.
My leg was still hurting quite a bit on Sunday morning, so Brad and I both missed church- Me because I couldn't really walk or stand, and Brad so that he could take care of me.
Luckily, my left leg started feeling better later in the afternoon, though still kinda week, so most of the day I was laying in bed.
Monday, I was perfect!
I went out, I did laundry, I ran errands.
I had so much energy and my legs felt 100 times better.
Then I was walking on campus to have lunch with Brad and slipped on a patch of ice, badly hurting my right foot.
For the rest of the day I was limping really badly and every single step was almost excruciating.
So after I got home, it was another day of just laying in bed, trying to de-swell my foot.
It still felt pretty bruised on Tuesday, but it had healed enough for me to get some housework done that had been building up over the previous couple days.
I also had my doctor appointment on Tuesday.
They took my blood t check for diabetes and anemia and other things, which I was negative for both, took a urine culture and checked my tummy size and listened to the heartbeat and all that.
Everything is going along perfectly. :)
Then, I couldn't fall asleep on Tuesday night, so I stayed up, watched some Netflix and our DVD of Hope Floats, and did some Facebook stuff on Brad's laptop.
In the process of staying up and finding things to do, I discovered something that Brad had been less than honest with me about and I spent the rest of the night crying.
Perhaps it's because i'm hormonal or because this happened a few months ago, but I was really upset.
I left a note for Brad about it and then went to sleep, since it was 3:30 in the morning.
He went to work and school and I just spent the day upset and tired and mad and sad and everything.
To cheer myself up, I went shopping and spent more than we can afford, and after I got home, I shut myself up in the bedroom for a few hours.
Brad came in later after I told him I was ready to talk and after an hour and a half of talking and crying and mostly just silence, things felt a lot better.
(In the middle of typing that last sentence, I got morning sickness! Which hadn't happened in almost two weeks. Lame.)
Anyway, we spent the night cuddling and kissing and saying sweet things and everything is ok now.
We both know that mistakes happen and sometimes it's hard to fess up to them when we only want to look perfect in each others eyes.
It's never fun to disappoint your spouse, but the best thing about being married is that we're going to love each other no matter what!
Hopefully today will end up being a good day, apart from being sick a few minutes ago.
It's Brad's birthday and we're going to a new frozen yogurt place in town at lunch.
Unfortunately, he has a lot of school work to do today and will probably spend a majority of today on campus.
Good thing we've already celebrated his birthday, kind of.
A couple weeks ago, Brad found out what his birthday present was, so I let him have it early.
I got him that new Call of Duty game and he has spent almost every free minute of his time playing it!
Sometimes he plays it so long, he falls asleep! Lol.

Last Saturday we decided to go out to dinner for his birthday, and it's a good thing we went then since today is going to be so busy for him!
He chose to go to Da Pineapple Grill, since he liked it so much when we went on Valentines Day.
My brother Paul came with us and we had good food and a good time.
He's 26 today and the only reason i'm sad is because the older he gets, the less time we have in this life to spend together.
Thank goodness for eternity!
Happy birthday, sexy man!


Ok, I just have to show the baby clothes I got at the mall yesterday.
First is this sweet little spring dress that was $30 but I couldn't resist!
I also bought a sweet little white sweater that she can wear with the dress.

I got this onesie because it was on sale and the design on it is so cute!
You can't really see it in this picture, but it's got flowers and a tiny little monkey. :D
These little bubble shorts are from Old Navy.
I saw them and immediately picture her cute little bum wearing them, and suddenly I was forking over my debit card. Haha.
Then, these little pink booties are so soft and delicate and adorable.
Goodness, I cannot wait until she gets here!
I wish I could tell you all her name (even though most of my relief society knows. hehe.) but Brad and I decided to keep it a secret from family and he'll scold me if I tell anymore people. Haha.

A Weekend of Friends

One of the very few things I like about us living in Rexburg for so long is that it's given Brad and I an opportunity to actually make some friends!
Sometimes we can be pretty anti-social and keep to ourselves, but every once in a while we are just in the "hanging out with other people" mood. (Well, I get in those moods anyway.)
On Saturday, we headed over to Lauren and Mark Ensigns place to hang out for a while.
The plan was to tie-dye shirts, but since Brad and I didn't have any plain white ones and we were heading to a ward party at 1, we didn't dye any shirts, but Mark, Lauren, and some of their other friends came over and did shirts.
We brought some pizza and played some Wii and just had a good time, even though we were only there for a little over an hour.
Then we headed to a ward party.
It was like a cookie social where everyone brought cookies and then just sat at tables and socialized.
It was pretty funny because we sat at a round table with two other couples and as people came in, they pushed other round tables next to ours and we all sat in these tables pushed together.
Brad and I finally met our neighbors, the ones that live right next to us, after 2 months (see? we're anti-social. haha) and I was able to get to know another sister in Relief Society that I had only met briefly at the last RS activity.
It was a good time and we all ate way too many cookies.
Sunday, we had some people over at our apartment to play games!
Stephanie and Hans Petrich and Cynthia and Jon Schnieder came over around 7 and we played Phase 10 until after 10!
And we didn't even finish the game! Haha.
Stephanie made some cake-box cookies, which were devoured.
I think i'm pretty cookied out for a while.
It was a lot of fun and I meant to take pictures to post in here, but you all know how forgetful I am lately. :)

Stockpiling

This is just a little blurb about the beginning of my own "stockpile."
Being frugal has been a common theme in everything lately, be it TV shows, magazine articles, and even lessons in church.
It's been an especially common theme in our home since we're poor married students expecting a baby.
As a result, i've been stocking up on things for sale and going crazy!
Ok, it hasn't been too crazy yet, but i've got to start somewhere.
First, I started out by making double batches when cooking, freezing extra pizza dough and things like that.
I've also been freezing stale bread and overripe bananas to use later (bread crumbs, banana bread...)
Last week I bought 5 pounds of ground beef.
Definitely not something we could use up quickly when it's just us two, but 3 pounds of it will be going to some homemade meatballs that i'll freeze as well.
Yesterday I bought quite a few things that were WAY cheap and i'll probably be heading back to Albertsons sometime this week to stock up some more.
General Mills Cereal for 1.77 a box, the cheapest i've seen in months.
Chicken thighs, drumsticks, and whole cut up chicken all for .99 a pound!
This price I couldn't believe.
The lowest price is usually around 1.88 a pound, so it was pretty exciting.
Fruit snacks/gushers were $1 a box, and you got a 3.50 off 5 more coupon at checkout.
Those were the biggest sale items that i'll probably go back for.
I also stocked up on some Lean Cuisines (which are SO yummy) for only 1.88 a box, which is the typical low sale price, so it wasn't a great deal, but still a good one.

Anyway, it's just all really exciting, finding bargains and having cupboards full of food, and even having extra things to keep in food storage.
I know I shouldn't be so excited about this, but I am!
Plus, I think Brad is finally staring to understand the "spend more now to save more in the long run" concept. :)