Dear 24 year old Erin

Dear 24 year old self,

Today marks the start of a new year for you. You're making your way through your 20's at what feels like a very high speed. It only feels that way because the start of them was full of 2 year roller coaster. At 21 you were trying to navigate your way through running an insurance agency while finishing school. The age 22 was spent as a newlywed, who was still running an insurance agency during your last semester of school. This past year, age 23, was no different. Things were suppose to be easier, and much different than 21 and 22. Everything was falling into place for you. Danny was done with school, you were done with school, and you two bought a house that you could call your own and really start your life together. But once again, life happened and right in the middle of your happiness, your world seemed to be crashing down and took 2 years of hard work with it.

23 was a year of proving yourself. Not only did you prove to yourself that you could handle big kid things like buying a house, but you proved to yourself, and everyone who ever doubted you, that you DID have what it took to run your dad's business.  Doing it for the 2 years before was easy. You worked behind the scenes making sure every part of it worked. But now. You were working the front lines and became one of the faces of the company. That was intimidating. You didn't do it all by yourself, but a lot of the pressure fell on you.  A lot of people relied on you. But here we are, almost 9 months later and you're still going.

You also proved something to yourself. You CAN lose weight. After many attempts to do so, you finally figured it out. Something finally clicked and you got a handle on the challenge. And it couldn't come at a better time. It gave you something positive to focus on during the chaos of your professional life. It also came just in time for your biggest, and most important challenge of your whole life. Motherhood.

23 was full of building blocks for 24. Don't forget everything you went through your past year of life. Continue to have the courage and motivation to push and challenge yourself. Take what 23 taught you and make 24 your best yet. Make it your proudest year so far. Stay confident and positive. You picked up probably the most positive attitude you've had your whole life. Don't let go of it. It is what got your through the rough part of 23 and I'm convinced it will get you through just about anything if you let it.

Good-bye 23 and hello 24!

Birthday Wishlist

Here we are... the eve of my birthday. My last 24 hours of being the ripe old age of 23 before I jump into the old age of 24. I always have a hard time coming up with a birthday wishlist because I want big things that cost bunches of money. That and Danny and I usually just buy ourselves whatever we want. Those days are coming to an end with our little bundle of joy arriving.

I figured I would come up with a birthday list, just for shits and giggs. 


1. This girl needs some shirts. I consider myself still in an awkward stage of this pregnancy, for my closet at least. I'm obviously pregnant, but I'm not exactly big enough for maternity shirts yet. I think they still look pretty frumpy. My non-maternity shirts are getting tighter and they are getting too short. So, awesome.

2. A large box of popsicles. I dislike purple, green and orange. My favorites are the firework ones. You know the red, white and blue ones. Those are great.

3. Desserts - I love cheesecake, snickerdoodles, and white chocolate macademia cookies. Also if someone could mimic the chocolate lava cake from Carnival Cruises, that would be great too.

4. I need a massage. Actually, just a whole spa day, but I'll settle for just a massage.  My back kills almost daily and my legs get sore because I've been a lazy ass.

5. A maid. Just for cleaning and laundry. I really don't mind the grocery shopping and cooking. I actually enjoy those two activities. Its the sweeping, dusting, mopping, washing and folding that chap my ass.



6. A case of wine from Brown County Winery for after this kid pops out. My faves are Vista White and Cranberry Apple. Throw a bottle of Old Barrel Port in there for the hubs too.

7. Finally, I would like a beach vacation that I can use next year. I dont want to go right now because I feel like a hog, but I feel like next September or October I'll be ready. Physically and mentally. Orange Beach is my favorite, but anywhere in Florida (Gulf side please) is fine.

Thats it :) I know right... it starts simple, but then I throw in some biggies. I don't want much out of life, it just costs too much!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was another hubbyless weekend for me. Danny's dad's birthday gift, which was in January, was a trip to a Nascar race in Michigan. It was set up as a guys trip with Danny, Danny's brother and Danny's brother-in-law. They drove up Friday afternoon, spent all day Saturday, the race was yesterday and they stayed last night. My loner weekend was nice though!

Saturday was productive day. I got up and headed to the store to get supplies to make homemade salsa. I recruited my mom to help me so I wanted to get to the store and get back before she got here at noon, which I got home with enough time to lay on the couch for 20 or so minutes. When she arrived we began the 4 hour process of making salsa. The main reason Danny and I planted a garden this year was to preserve food and eat stuff that was home grown, which included salsa. Well, our tomatoes were the only thing that did half way decent this year. Those and the sunflowers, which you can't exactly freeze or can to EAT! Whatever. So, since we had enough tomatoes to warrant salsa, I wanted to give it a shot. Neither my mom or I had made salsa before. Well, my mom made fresh salsa one time but it wasn't for canning.

Last week I searched Pinterest for a good recipe. I wanted a Chili's style recipe. I HATE onion-y, cilantro-y salsa. I hate onions and I hate cilantro even more. Chili's is my stuff. Love it. I had seen plenty of copy cat recipes and I knew there had to be on for canning. I mean, if it's not on Pinterest it doesn't exist, right? Right! I found the PERFECT recipe, which you can see HERE! After we spent hours peeling, cutting, chopping, and stirring, we made the BEST salsa. It's perfect and tastes just like Chili's. I am one happy pregnant lady!  We only got 8 small jars, but I feel like thats a good first try.

My Sunday? It went something like this: watch all episodes of General Hospital, got get lunch, watch 4 episodes of Law & Order: SVU, make dinner, watch Real Housewives of New Jersey. Diesel and I lounged all. day. long. It was perfect because this week is going to be exhausting!

So on Saturday while the cans were processing, I decided to cut open the small watermelon I got at the grocery earlier in the week. I was expecting a normal watermelon. My mom got a good laugh when she saw my face as I discovered this.

I had never seen a yellow watermelon before and I was shocked. It was delicous and tastes just like a normal, pink watermelon. That was basically the excitement for the weekend.

21 weeks!

I'm back after a 2 day hiatus. Nothing was coming to my mind and I may have slept a little late yesterday morning. But, I'm back today and Friday! :)

I am officially over half way through this pregnancy! Its amazing to me how quickly these weeks are flying by.  I blame it on work being so freaking nuts right now but whatever. I'm enjoying it! :)




Baby size: Pomegranate. (Also the length of a carrot!)
Any symptoms?  I barely noticed anything this week.
Cravings? slushies. cheesy things. I HAD to have nachos for dinner on Tuesday.
Favorite part this week? feeling him kick more. He is very active in the morning right after I get to work. The crib and changing table for his room also arrived.
Least favorite part this week? Officially gaining back every pound that I had lost
Boy or Girl? BOY!! :)
Names? Still calling him by the one name but no commitment yet

This week has been pretty good. I haven't been exhausted, I've only had one headache and my back hasn't been anything I can't handle.  Saturday night at our class reunion, one of the girls I'm friends with couldn't believe how much I had popped in the last week.  I had just seen her the Saturday before at the bachelorette party and I was wearing a bikini. She was amazed.

So there use to be a bakery in town. They had the BEST donuts and cookies in the world. When my mom worked in Indy when it was open, her coworkers would practically beg her to bring some in. My dad would always stop by on his way to take us to Grammy's in the summer before he went to work. Everything was delicious. Well, they closed a while back and the gas stations that sell donuts just aren't anywhere close. Lucky for me (and the fire department, the preschool in town and others), Danny works with the son of the former owners. After Danny got to work on Tuesday he texted me and said his coworker had a surprise for me. I thought it was info about his house for his homeowners insurance since I'm working on quotes for him and his wife. Nope. It was better! He made me cookies. He was making them for someone else and decided to whip some up for me and another firefighters pregnant girlfriend. She's having a girl though, so hers were pink. There were TONS of cookies. Luckily before I left the fire station, they all had grabbed one so there were at least 5 less cookies for me to eat.

 



We've almost got the baby's room cleared out. The broken couch was picked up last night and the mattress and box spring will be out of here early next week. I'm hoping on Sunday I can go to Lowe's and pick out some colors for his room so Danny can paint soon.

That's it folks. Have a good Thursday! :)



My busy but fun weekend

Hey all! I am so sad that this weekend is over.  It was so nice and this Monday sure is being a Monday. I literally woke up every 2 hours last night due to being uncomfortable, or having to pee. If it was just because I was uncomfortable, I got up to pee anyway. I saw 12 am, 1:35 am, 3:45 am, and  5:04-5:30ish am before I finally went back to sleep for about 20 minutes before my alarm went off. THEN! I was making my nice cup of coffee and as I was stirring the creamer in, I noticed all these black particles. So I start pouring it out and it looked like someone put a clump of dirt in the bottom, which would mean my Kuerig is being a shithead. Awesome.

Friday I didn't do squat and it was heavenly. Last week was so busy and Friday at 4 I was D-O-N-E!

Saturday morning Danny and I headed to the State Fair after he got off work and we dropped Diesel off at his mom's. We walked around, laughed, drank slushies and had a great time for a few hours before my back and hip were threw in the towel.  My feet were great, despite Danny's concern about me wearing flip flops. My Nike flip flops are probably comparable to walking on a could so I knew they'd be fine. I had the hardest time deciding what to eat. Being pregnant and having access to all kinds of fried fair goodness is difficult on the taste buds. I knew at some point I would need something from this bad boy. I've mentioned a few times that my biggest craving in this pregnancy has been sno cones and slushies. Well, this was the first thing I saw as we were parking the car. I had pina colada and watermelon. Delish.

After my hour nap on the way home and 2 and a half hour nap when we got home, it was time for our class reunion. It's been 5 years since Danny and I's class graduated so it was time for a reunion. I was a class officer so it was partly my responsibility to plan. All I did was reserve the patio at a local bar and I was done. 10 years will get more of an effort. I was the DD for Danny and a couple of our friends. Danny and the other guy were less than thrilled about going, but they ended up having a pretty good time. It was really nice to see people we don't normally see, even though they do live around here still. Everyone ate dinner, had drinks (or water womp womp) and chatted. We left the bar around 12:30 and headed to a friends house for a bonfire. We didn't leave there until like 2:15, putting us in bed around 2:45. I can't remember the last time I was up that late and thank the lord I took a marathon nap earlier in the day.

 

My high school sweetheart

"That's my baby!" - Danny

Diesel came barreling in the house at 8:20am when Danny's mom brought him home, giving us only about 5 hours of sleep. (That's right, 5 hours of sleep Saturday night and awful sleep last night. I'm gonna be an absolute peach tonight!) We ordered take out for breakfast because we both needed wanted biscuits and gravy. After laying around for a while, Danny went to work and I went shopping for the nursery and maternity clothes with my mom. Clothes were successful, furniture was not. I think I've got a game plan though and I feel pretty good about it

That was it for us this weekend. Hopefully this week flies by like last week did!