That's Life: March 2017

3.23.2017


Pregnancy Life

Tomorrow I will be 27 weeks! Depending on when you count the third trimester as starting, I'm either just starting it or soon to be starting it. Either way, baby is coming! I am honestly feeling really good overall; I'm just feeling large most days. Jordan and I both agree that I've been much less hormonal this time compared to when I was pregnant with R, but this week I've been a little emotional just about different things going on right now. I'm ready for the weekend.

I think I'll try to do a full pregnancy update post next week after I get some stats and glucose results back after my doctor's appointment on Monday. For some reason I really like reading other blogger's pregnancy updates, but I think they are boring if I do them. Also to be honest, since my friend's miscarriage last month and a few other bloggers I follow sharing about their recent miscarriages, I just haven't felt like posting about my own pregnancy.

House Life


When we moved into our house, over half of the windows were just a few years old, but there were a few of the original windows that we knew would need to be replaced eventually. Long story short, I got sucked in when a window replacement guy knocked on our door, and I told them we could schedule a consultation "just to get a bid." HA.

A month later, Jordan took the day off work so he could stay home while we had a kitchen window and giant front picture window installed. It was not cheap, but thankfully we were able to pay for over half of it with our tax return. And honestly we figured that once the new baby comes we really won't have money to spend on something like this, so now is a good time since it really did need to be done. I can't get a good picture of the kitchen window, but here's how the front window turned out!


Working Mom Life

Work is going really well right now! I planned on writing a whole post about my first out-of-town work trip, but I don't know if it's going to happen. In any case, I was out of town for four days and four nights two weeks ago while Jordan and R stayed home.

I left in the wee hours on Wednesday morning and was feeling good as I strolled into the airport, and then the very first thing I saw was a young mom pushing her toddler in a stroller and I cried. Then there was a baby on my flight and I cried again (the baby didn't cry at all, by the way). Basically I was a bit of a mess, but actually it all went great and I was so busy with meetings and tired from being on my feet for 12 hours that I didn't have time to miss them too much. It was just weird to be totally independent after not being away from R for more than one night over the last almost two years.

On our way to Minnesota I had a layover in Chicago, so OF COURSE I got some deep dish! Airport deep dish so about a third as thick, but still. Yummy.
Jordan told me that R wandered from room to room in our house pointing and saying, "Mama? Mama?" which is both highly adorable and also really sad. But we all survived and I kind of felt like a hard core working mama. A good friend of mine is a working mom who travels regularly, and she was so sweet sending me encouraging texts throughout the week. I love my friends!

It helped ease the homesickness that one of my other best friends lives in the city I was visiting, and we hung out after I was finished for the evening three nights in a row. On Saturday my flight wasn't until 8:30 that night, so we went to the Mall of America and walked the entire length of the mall on every floor, totaling nearly 10,000 steps.

Mostly I really am feeling okay about being a working mom. I still have hard days, and I always, always miss R, but overall I'm in a much better place than I was last year and the beginning of this year. Not being on social media for the past month has helped a lot with that too, I think.

Budget Life

I don't mean to sound like I'm tooting my own horn, but I'm just really proud of Jordan and I that we had room in our budget to make a rather spur-of-the-moment purchase on new windows. While we do not have thousands of dollars just lying around, we do have a savings account and emergency fund, and we were confident enough in our budgeting that we knew we could write a check to pay the bill in full and then pay ourselves back within just a few months (the tax return was excellent timing as well). 

I've mentioned this before on the blog, but budgeting can be a giant pain in the butt. However, I think it's worth it to have freedom from debt and knowledge of where your money is going every month.

R Life

Excuse me while I repeat myself every time I talk about R, but you guys, I freaking love that little girl so much. Our evenings and weekends together are my absolute favorite, and literally every single night, Jordan has to remind me that it's bedtime and R should go to sleep. I just never want to stop hanging out with her, and I try to push her bedtime back as late as I can. Is that weird? I hear so many moms talk about how they get excited for bedtime, and I just haven't experienced that.

And yes, she's a toddler and has meltdowns and can be difficult to deal with when she's being stubborn, but even then I just can't get enough of her. Here are a few shots I took during her 19-month photo. R, say cheese! I'm still keeping up with my monthly chair video montage, which is too adorable for words. I'm going to keep going until 24 months and then call it quits!

So that's life right now! 

What is happening in your budget life and work life these days?
Have you ever been to the Mall of America?
erinhzauner said...

Girl! You were in my neck of the woods?? I live 10 minutes from the mall! I'm so glad for you that all is going well, that belly is so cute. These last few months are going to fly by for you!

Laura J said...

That front window is awesome!! So pretty!! And I'm so glad that you made it through your work trip -- we have a giant week long vacation planned in the fall, and I'm terrified of missing the kiddo so much! You look great, and the mall of America looks like so much fun!

The Girl who Loved to Write said...

I love the big window! And having the money for stuff like that is one of the best things about sticking to a budget. Totally worth it!

Miss Jewells said...

Third trimester - home stretch! Excited for you to meet your little man!

MOA is in my neck of the woods - it's our closest mall so we frequent it often (for better or worse)! If you ever come back we should get together sometime!

Laura Darling said...

I'm so glad you all survived your work trip! You guys are amazing. I bet it was so great to be reunited after those four days!! I've fallen into the trap of the door to door salesman too, except ours was for solar panels. Which we do not need or want, but I felt like I couldn't say no so I agreed for them to start doing some "research" on our house, aka if our roof was new/strong enough to hold the solar panels. When Matt got home he told me they were then just going to try to sell us a new roof which did not even occur to me, so luckily we called and canceled the whole thing. Your window looks GORGEOUS though!!!

K @ Keeping Up With K... said...

I love how big that window is! My dream house would have windows everywhere to let all the natural light in (and would come with a person to clean all those windows haha)

I was in the Twin Cities 8 times last year and only made it to the MOA once. I can never convince my boyfriend that I actually NEED to go

Amie said...

She is adorable! Being away from them overnight is killer. My heart ached the entire time I was away from mine for the first time and only time up to this point (3 nights). I think one night might be my max at the moment. Although there is those difficult moments I am finding this age (16 months) is so much more fun than the baby stage. It's so fun to watch them learn new things!!

Amy said...

Can't live without a budget! Yay you!

The Lady Okie said...

haha! That's hilarious. We LOVE our windows. Our kitchen window is beautiful, but I couldn't get a good picture of it. The old one wouldn't open without me yanking it really hard because it was all warped, and even when I did the screen was broken so flies came in. I get so excited to open it and have a breeze coming through! It just needed to happen and we got a really good deal so we went for it!

The Lady Okie said...

Yes! So much more fun now! I totally agree. I can't get enough :)

Audrey Louise said...

Wow! That change in front window definitely brightens the room up!
Mall of America looks insane... I've never been there. Whew!

Angi said...

The whole pregnancy trimester thing annoys me. Does the third trimester start at 27 weeks? 27 weeks and 4 days? 28 weeks? Nobody knows!

R's "cheese" face is precious.

If that's a photo of the Mall of America I don't know how you survive that without an anxiety attack, haha.

Kaity B. said...

Ugh. Budget life. Lol

The Mall of America looks amazing (as does that deep dish). I need to go stuff my face now.

Jen said...

She is too cute! I have to say the first photo is so sweet!!! :) Your two babies in one photo.

Rebecca Jo said...

So that baby bump is the perfect little resting spot for R, isnt it? ;)
Your window is SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! Perfect place to put a Christmas tree ... it'll be here before you know it too . UGH!

Torrie said...

Holy smokes, I can't believe you're now in the third trimester! (Other people's pregnancies always go by faster than your own, lol.) And, just from me, I don't mind hearing of other people's babies/pregnancies/etc., despite my miscarriage. I know not every woman can say that, but no worries from me---I just like baby/pregnancy updates, and I hope that I always will!

And the window looks awesome! I still can't believe how much it cost, but kudos to you guys for being the frugal rockstars that you are and setting a good example for us all :)

Jenny Evans said...

Can I just say that I love how you have her in the same chair in all your update photos? It's such a cute way to show how she grows. I've heard of people doing things like that, but since I started having kids back in the dark ages (2004) before that was really a thing, it's too late for me.

Courtney said...

Whyyyyy do windows have to be so stupid expensive??? We have a bunch that we want/need to replace in our house (super old, crusty windows that aren't doing anything to help our utility bill) but holy cow, it would be impossible to do them all at once. I'm thinking maybe one window per year until we get them all done LOL

Katie @ Live Half Full said...

Sounds like things are going great and I'm glad to hear your work trip went well! It's kind of amazing having a little break, in my opinion. Reading on the plane is basically my dream. :)

AnneMarie said...

Oh wow, your belly popped out! It's crazy that your baby will be making an appearance before we know it! I'm glad that your work trip went well!

Rach said...

Aww, check out that baby bump! Love it! I do understand what you mean about mixed feelings regarding updating about baby related stuff when people you know have just experienced loss. I had three friends lose babies all within a two week period about a month ago and it was just awful. None of them read my blog or really use Instagram, but I did find myself less eager to share things on Facebook knowing that all three of them use FB regularly. But know that whatever you decide to share is something that this reader, at least, will enjoy reading. :)

Kudos to you on being a traveling working mom! And for being in a good place as far as working is concerned. It's amazing how much social media can affect us. I know I already told you how I'm reading all these different parenting books, but several of them have talked about how terrible it is for our kids to grow up in this social media saturated world. I'll be sitting there reading and I'm like "Nope, nope... not going to happen. She won't have social media. Ever." Haha! Of course I'm sure she'll want to get it when she leaves for college and I'd rather her learn how to use it appropriately at home with us around to guide her through it, but still. I'm not typically one for definitive statements, but I have no plans for this baby to use social media until she's at least... ugh... um... I don't know... 15? 16? Maybe senior year of high school? Haha! Thankfully I have time to think about this some more before she is a teenager. ;)

Hooray for new windows! We are actually in the process of pricing out new windows. All the windows in our house were original to the house when we bought it and super drafty. So we've known that we would need to replace them eventually, but I have to tell you - they are gorgeous windows. This is the problem with buying an old house full of character. To keep the character in tact when you update it, it can be costly (read: custom made windows). Anyway, right now we're thinking that we might just replace windows on the sides of the house to help insulate it better while still keeping my gorgeous old windows in tact across the front. :) Making window decisions is on the to-do list for this weekend so we'll see what happens!

Also, good for you guys for keeping to a budget! I know we've talked about this before, but I'm so with you on that. It's so nice to have that $$ in savings for when things like needing new windows come up. :)

Danielle said...

Your new window is beautiful, congrats to making it to week 27, and YAY for visiting faraway friends!

Rachel said...

I purposely planned a vacation to Minnesota/Wisconsin in 2012 so that I could go to Mall of America. It was worth it. That was an awesome vacation!
I bet that room will be much brighter with the new window!!! Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to own a home but thinking about things like windows...the renter life isn't so bad. :P Except we've been having problems with rainwater leaking into our apartment and ruining the ceilings and walls since last July...the good news...they will hopefully be fixing it soon! If it takes less than a year to be fixed I'll call it good. :)

Kristen @ See You In A Porridge said...

so, we are (hopefully) buying a new house and are (hopefully) closing next week, and we have had to spend so much money in the last month or so - inspections, appraisal, good faith deposit, needs new carpet, needs electrical & plumbing work, plus we have a few NZ & Oz things we still need to pay for, and it's just SO much and I feel like I should be freaking out, but because we've been budgeting and saving, it hasn't been that mad at all and we still have savings. all that to say, i know what you mean, it's such a good feeling to know that the pain in the butt budgeting is working and helping. of course, ask me in a couple of weeks when we are in the house and have to do more, like paint, and i might have zero dollars. we shall see!
anywho. that new fancy front window is gorgeous!

StephTheBookworm said...

Great update and you are looking fantastic! Also, love your new window... it looks beautiful.

I don't travel for work typically, but we did go on vacation last year and I felt so sad leaving Caleb. I ended up enjoying myself though and I knew he was in good hands (with my parents). I did feel like crying a time or two, but in the end, it was worth it.. and he won't even remember it because he's so young. :)

Nadine said...

27 weeks already? Goodness time is just flying right on by! I have never been to Mall of America but I would love to go one day. I could imagine you would get some serious steps in walking around that place.

I am glad to hear that you are in a better place with working. It's hard! Gives me hope for the future. It's awesome that you got to spend time with a friend while you traveled.

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