Little Happies -- Candy & Costume

Hey there, friends! And welcome back to Little Happies, the happiest little link-up on the internet. Let's all take a second to share some of the small joyful things going on in our lives, shall we? :)

--one--

These candies!

Two of my all-time favorites. And I've been craving them hard lately, so hard in fact that I dreamed about them! 

I was having trouble finding them at the local grocery store, so I kinda shrugged it off and pushed past the craving, but when I finally spotted them at a more fancy grocery store in the bulk bins, I just HAD to purchase. And eat and eat and eat. Yum! 

They're fruit shaped, though. So it's healthy. :P

What are your favorite candies? 

--two--

My last minute Halloween costume!

Can you guess who I am?

The mockingjay pin, the bow and arrow, the sideways braid...

Why, clearly I'm KATNISS EVERDEEN! 

Which, btw, is a super cheap and easy costume to throw together at the last second. Wear a black shirt, dark pants or jeans, boots, print out a mockingjay pin, throw a funky braid into your hair, and buy a $10 bow and arrow set at Target.

Voila! 

We attended a youth group Halloween party last night and let me just tell you, the teen gals loved my costume. I seriously felt famous for like 2 seconds. "OMGosh! You're Katniss! SO COOL!" It was silly/fun.

What are you wearing for Halloween?

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First Trimester Symptoms (Just Documentin')

Well, well, well. Would you looky here.

The end of my first trimester is fast approaching and I'm just like... WHAT?!

Seriously, it's still wild every day to think that I'm pregnant. I think, this can't be my real life! Pinch me, I'm dreaming!

But then I run to the toilet and puke all over it and then it's like... no pinch required.

I kid, I kid, mostly. But, I'd like to take a second to just sit right here and document some of my symptoms. The good, the bad, and the just plain weird.

I should preface by saying that I love every stinking one of them, even the bad ones, because they're a reminder of the beautiful little life growing inside me and this major blessing we've been given. So I promise, no complaining going on here. Just good ol' fashioned documentation so that I can look back 10 years from now and be like, oh... that's what that was like!

So, the good.

Being sleepy and lazy. It's weird to call it good, but I've mostly enjoyed how incredibly tired I've been these past several weeks. I'm thinking the progesterone I'm naturally making + the progesterone supplements I'm taking = double extra sleepiness. But perhaps it's just normal pregnancy sleepiness. Anyway, while it makes wanting to go into work each day a challenge, it also means I get to be sooooo lazzzzzy when I'm not at work, and growing another human gets to be my excuse every time (and a good excuse at that!). I spend most of my hours at home on the couch watching my fave shows on Hulu or Netflix, and letting my husband do all the cooking and cleaning. He's a saint, folks. Seriously, what a joy it's been to sit back and take a break from the busyness of real life. Tiredness kinda rules!

And the bad.

Well, there have been a bunch of these. But like I said before, I still love every one of them.

Constant mild nausea. It really hasn't been that bad. As in, I've been able to completely function like normal with it. It just makes the next symptom a little worse...

Food aversions. Because of the mild nausea, most foods are not appealing anymore. It's like a game trying to figure out what I want to eat at any point in time. And usually once I figure out what I want and then eat it, I never want it ever again. A few exceptions to this: PB&Js, cheese and mustard sandwiches with pickles, Carnation instant breakfast (chocolate only, please), and apples and oranges. I could eat any of those pretty much any day.

Puking. Yep, the baby's made me puke, the little rascal. I think I've only puked a total of 6 times, and every time it's over, I actually feel SO HAPPY because I feel like it's baby saying, "I'm growing healthy in here, Mom!" So again, it's a totally welcomed bad symptom. And so far it's only happened when I'm at home, thank goodness!

Constipation. SO BLOCKED UP. Milk of magnesia has become my BFF.

Migraines. I've only had a few, but they throw me off my game. And headaches here and there too.

Pimples. Since when did I go back to my middle school years? My face is a pimply mess, my back is a pimply mess. I think I have more pimples than freckles now. What ever happened to that pregnancy glow?

Lower back pain. Especially by the end of the night. I'm worried about this one because if I'm feeling it kinda rough now, what's it gonna feel like when I'm actually carrying a little bowling ball around on the front?

And the downright weird.

Nipple tenderness. This one is perhaps an over share, but MAN, they're sensitive! And that's all I'll say about that.

Linea nigra. That brown line that runs from the bottom of your belly button to your pubic bone. Whoa! This one just came outta nowhere starting a few days ago.

Overheating. This was actually my first symptom! The night before we got the positive test, John noticed that I was as hot as a furnace. And that's not referring to my good looks. I waaaayyyy overheat, at night especially.

Hairy stomach. So weird. Maybe I'm just making it up, but I swear my stomach hairs are a little longer and a little darker than normal.

Oh, and symptoms I was expecting that never showed...

Frequent urination. Nope, peeing like normal.

Weight gain. Nope, more like weight loss. Oops. But my doc says it's ok, and hopefully now that the nausea and food aversions are starting to subside, I'll get my appetite back and a few pounds will jump back on.

Tender breasts. Nope, normal breasts. Aside from the nipps, that is. TMI. (Also, why did I just say "nipps"?)

A baby bump. Still my normal size. Actually, from what I've read, the bump usually doesn't appear until somewhere around weeks 14 through 20, especially for pregnancy #1. So, it may be a while still 'til I'm sportin' a bump.

Alright, well that's all I can think of right now.

And just in case you're curious... I'm a little over 11 weeks today! We had an appointment with our new (much closer) NaPro doc yesterday and got to see the little wiggle worm through ultrasound. The babe even did a somersault while we were peaking in. It was so surreal! I'm not joking, through almost the whole experience it just felt like I was looking at someone else's ultrasound. Even with all the symptoms I just listed, it still doesn't feel real! How can that cute little baby be growing in ME? I'm not sure I'll believe it 'til baby is actually in my arms. Which is a long way away, so maybe I better start figuring out another way to convince myself that THIS IS HAPPENING.

While it's feeling more real as each day passes, I'm still scared out of my mind that we're going to lose our little one. But, I'm gonna stay positive here and keep repeating what I guess I just coined as my new stay-positive phrase: This is happening. This is happening. This is happening.

Holy crap, this is happening!!!!

And I couldn't be more scared/nervous/anxious/shocked/happy/joyful/thankful/excited!

Little Happies -- Even More Pumpkins

Why, hello! And welcome back to Little Happies, the link-up full of all the things that are small and joyful in our lives.

Just like last week, I've just got one pumpkin-related Happy for you today.

--one--

You may recall from last October that I run a pumpkin patch as a fundraiser with my youth group every year. We spend the whole month trying to sell over a thousand pumpkins. It's always a successful fundraiser, though tons of work. So that's what I've been super busy with lately. 

The Little Happy related to all this happened earlier last week. I was walking around the patch to check out the pumpkins, making sure there weren't any rotten ones hiding about, when I discovered that several of my pumpkins had tried to make a run for it! When I closed the patch the night before, all those pumpkins were safely nestled on a pallet. When I arrived the next morning, about 20 of them were hanging out on the grass!! And all over the patch! I still have no idea how they did it... Perhaps a very strong squirrel was playing a trick on me? Maybe some neighborhood kids? Or maybe it was the Great Pumpkin? 

The world may never know.

:)

Have a happy week, friends!

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Little Happies -- Carving Pumpkins

Hey, friends! Welcome back to the Little Happies link-up, in which we all share our small happy moments and things from the week past.

This week, I've got one Little Happy brought to you by a fun night with friends.

--one--

One night last week, John and I were just sitting around with no plans in sight. So on a whim we texted some friends who are kinda stuck in their house these days (they just had a baby) and asked if they'd be up for some pumpkin carving and cider sippin' later that evening. I offered to bring all the supplies and they excitedly said YES PLEASE! 

3 pumpkins, 2 carving kits, 6 bottles of hard cider, 2 jugs of virgin cider, 1 apple pie, and 1 big carton of vanilla ice cream. . . sounds like fall, doesn't it? 

We made our way over to our friends' place with all our supplies and just had a fantastic evening celebrating the turn of the season. They even lit their outdoor chimney for us!

Also, I was shocked to find out that the wife of the couple had never carved a pumpkin before!! What?! Crazy!! By the end of the night, she loved communal pumpkin carving so much that she asked if we could make a tradition of it every year. :)

We all agreed that our favorite moment of the night was lighting these bad boys after all our hard work. 

And then we posed with our pumpkin. We've learned over the years that carving a pumpkin, especially one that size, is best done as a team. When my arms would get tired, John would take over, and vice versa. Plus, I was able to convince him to do all the gut scooping while I did all the seed sorting. I think I got the easier job. :)

Hope you're all having a lovely fall, friends. Have you carved any pumpkins yet? 

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Little Happies -- Fashion Show, Watching Movies, Eating Junk, and a Dog Fail

Why, helllloooooo! And welcome back to Little Happies, the most cheerful internet link-up in which we share all the small joyful things going on in our days. Would you care to join us? :)

Let's dive right in... --one--

I got another Stitch Fix! 
Striped dress, maxi skirt, floral blouse, teal dress, and gold collar necklace.
And I kept . . .
The teal dress!!! I know it doesn't look that great in the pic, but trust me when I say it's awesome. The draping in the front is a lot of fun and it looks great with a pair of boots. Plus, it gives me plenty of room for the belly to expand, whereas the other pieces I really liked (the striped dress and maxi skirt) didn't. And that floral blouse. My husband really disliked it and I thought it was a bit baggy, so bye bye! Oh, and the necklace. It was so hard to part with, but in the end it didn't seem worth it for $36. 
Also, another reason I didn't keep the striped dress: I found one similar at Target for $12 the day before I sent the Fix back. And actually, it fit even better that the Stitch Fix one! Winning. 
Btw, the day I found out I was pregnant, I noticed Stitch Fix now has an "I'm pregnant" checkbox on their style profile, so I'm going to try that out for the next few months and hope they can accommodate my expanding waistline. We shall see!

--two--

source

Excuse my language, but . . . 

Harry Freaking Potter!!

Once a year, right around J.K. Rowling's and Harry Potter's birthday (July 31st, duh!), John and I start a Harry Potter movie marathon. It's taken us a while to get through them all this time around, but we're on the last movie now and it's just been so fun hanging out with some of my favorite characters again. Watching them grow from movie to movie is adorbs. And now that we're watching all of them for like the 10th time since they first came out, it's given us a chance to really appreciate some of the smaller details, like the gorgeous, eerie music and the beautiful cinematography of each scene. 

Fun fact: The last movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, came out the night before our wedding. While I really wanted to see it after our rehearsal, John thought this plan was (obviously) crazy, so we held off a few days and enjoyed it during our honeymoon in Aruba. Good times.

Who else out there is a HP fan? 

--three--

Ok, don't judge, but in my early post-college years, I was a bit of a freezer meal junkie. 

I know, I know, I know. . . so gross. But, it was cheap and easy and some of the meals were dang tasty. As time went on, I figured out how to follow a recipe and quickly learned that fresh cooked meals are way yummier than the ones hanging out in the freezer aisle of Kroger. So freezer meals were done-so from then on.

That is, until I started growing another human. 

Me and food are in a weird relationship right now. I definitely don't like most foods at most times and mild nausea is a pretty normal thing these days. Plus, I'm lazy/tired as can be and don't want to spend even 30 minutes in the kitchen putting together a meal that I probably won't even want to eat once I'm done. SO, freezer meals have made an appearance in our kitchen once again. (So sorry, John.)

My past addiction taught me that Smart Ones breakfast quesadillas are where it's at. So, it was the first freezer meal I looked for. You can imagine my immense sadness when they were no where to be found at Kroger. Wahhhhhhhhh. And then you can imagine my immense joy when I found them at Target a few days later. I'm not going to admit how many I've eaten since then, but they've hit the spot lately and for that I'm grateful.  

--four--

Ok, call me immature, but this made me laugh a lot. 
Annnnnnd that's a wrap!

Have a lovely week, friends! <3

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