Hello lil one

Well, finally & officially, after much waiting, I felt the lil one in my belly two nights ago :) I'm so excited. This is the part I look forward to from the moment I get a positive test. Once I can feel it, I feel so much more at ease. I was getting worried because it seemed like it was taking forever but in reality, it wasn't. I felt my oldest at 18-19 wks because he was my first, I suppose. With my youngest, it was 16 wks just like this one. I don't really understand women who say they felt their baby at 9 wks. I mean, c'mon! That is not even physically possible. Drives me nuts. What do you think about it? On a message board I frequent for my due date month, there were many girls who said they felt their baby at 9 wks...10 wks...11 wks, etc. One girl was backing up their claim with this reponse, "Think about it. If you hold a butterfly in your palm, you can feel it. So why wouldn't you be able to feel a live human being inside of you?"


Um...maybe because we have like 2,500 nerve receptors per square centimeter in our hand & I highly doubt there is anything even close to that in our UTERUS!

So far, I am only feelin baby at night when I'm sitting on the computer or cuddled up studying. Just feels like little tickles & bumps here & there. Only 13 more days until the big ultrasound! I'm excited & apprehensive at the same time. I can't decide what's in there by my own "instinct". In my past pregnancies, I've wanted a girl sooo bad, I convinced myself it was a "she"...and was disappointed. Of course, I love  my boys to pieces. and of COURSE, I still want a girl so bad. But something inside tells me it wouldn't be so bad to have 3 boys. It would definitely be insane...it's insane with two! But It would also be fun & boys are easy :) But I long for pink in my life. I'm a girly-girl & I love pink & barbies & dollies & tea parties. Whatever God gives me is what he wants me to have though so I will be happy no matter what!!

I will most definitely update after the ultrasound. Keep thinkin pink!

$100 Giveaway for M.A.Z.E Cord Blood Banking! 2 winners!

M.A.Z.E Cord Blood Laboratories provides long-term storage of your baby's cord blood. I have always thought about investing in this but have never had the money to do so at the time. I think anyone who can afford it should most definitely consider it. There is a beautiful story right on M.A.Z.E's website about baby John. How amazing! 

Baby John appeared developmentally delayed within the first few months of his life. His dedicated parents pursued his case with his doctors and were soon told that John was suffering from symptoms caused by a pediatric stroke. John received an umbilical stem cell transplant, from the cord blood that his parents banked when he was born. Almost immediately, John's parents began to see changes, and over time, in conjunction with traditional therapies, his progress has been remarkable. John's mother tells his story in her own words in this video.

M.A.Z.E. wants to raise awareness of cord blood banking. It is a privately owned laboratory with nationwide delivery and has no yearly or hidden fees, just one up-front cost. I love that part of it the very best. Easy & straightforward. There is even a chart on the website comparing M.A.Z.E to all of the other cord blood banks

I was very impressed by all the information on the website & there are phone numbers posted so you can seek additional help with ease. I would feel very comfortable banking cord blood with this company.

M.A.Z.E. is offering TWO of my loyal Everyday Mama followers $100 to go towards cord blood banking.

Mandatory entry:

You must visit M.A.Z.E's website & tell me something new that you learned.

Other entries:

(Leave a separate comment for each entry)

• Become a public GFC follower of my blog 
• Subscribe to my blog via Feedburner (look on sidebar)
• Like M.A.Z.E on facebook
• Follow M.A.Z.E on twitter
• Like Everyday Mama on facebook
• Follow Everyday Mama on twitter
• Share the link to this giveaway on Facebook, make sure you link me up to it with an @ sign (+3 entries)
• Vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs (sidebar) (+1 entry daily)
• Tweet about this giveaway & leave me a link (+1 entry daily)

Giveaway will end Feb 25th at 10pm EST. Winner will be randomly chosen using random.org & emailed. If your email cannot be seen on your profile, please leave it in your comments. If I do not receive a reply within 48 hrs, I will draw a new winner. 

Thanks Friends!! Good luck!!

Cozy Crafters Grand Opening Special Savings!

Cozy Crafters is a brand spankin' new Etsy shop opening Monday, 1/24!

They are offering a special savings for their grand opening as well!

For the first week after opening (Mon-Sun), they are offering a 25% code- 

GRANDOPENING

Check out their Etsy shop here

and while you're at it, "like" them on facebook!

Their stuff is absolutely adorable!! 

Hope you will take a visit & order something for your lil one or yourself!!

Red Gold Tomato Products Review & Prize Pack Giveaway!

A good harvest begins with strong roots, and Red Gold can trace theirs back three generations. Red Gold began in 1942 when Grover Hutcherson and his daughter, Fran, rebuilt a Midwest cannery to provide fresh-tasting canned food products for the war effort. More than half a century later, they remain a family-owned business based in the heart of Tomato Country.

Red Gold is a private, family owned Indiana-based company around since the '40s focused on growing local in the Midwest  (Michigan, Ohio, & Indiana) where true seasons impact the flavor of tomatoes (the winters are important for the tomato soil).

I was invited to a review of Red Gold tomato products &of course, I accepted. I could always use new ideas for cooking!

I received this kit in the mail 

A bottle of ketchup, 4 assorted cans of tomatoes, recipe cards, a nice BIG tote bag. a magnet & a very nice recipe book.

I searched the recipe book & found one that sounded absolutely delish...AND IT WAS! :) There were many to choose from, unfortunately for me, my kids refuse to eat tomatoes so I had to weed out the ones that are too "tomatoey". 

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it out yourself....

Ham & Tomato Rice Supper

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

2 cups cooked ham strips

2 cups fresh broccoli florets

1 (14.5 oz) can Red Gold Diced Tomatoes Roasted Garlic & Onion

1 1/2 cups instant rice

8 oz processed American cheese (Velveeta), cubed

*Combine the ham, broccoli and undrained Red Gold Tomatoes Roasted Garlic & Onion in a large skillet & mix well. Cook, covered, over medium heat for 3 minutes. Stir in rice & cheese.

*Remove the skillet from the heat. Let stand, covered, for 7 minutes. Stir until cheese melts. Serve with apple wedges.

*Note- Yields differ between regular rice & instant rice. One cup of uncooked regular rice equals 3 cups cooked, and 1 cup of instant rice equals 2 cups cooked. Instant rice must be used in this recipe because of the amount of liquid in the recipe & length of cooking time.

What a super simple meal. I loved it & so did the kids, they hardly noticed the tomatoes. :) I highly recommend it!

BUY IT:

Red Gold products are available at select grocery stores.

The cookbook is available for $12 online.

WIN IT:

One of my Everyday Mama followers will receive their very own prize pack!

Mandatory Entry::  You must be an Everyday Mama Follower to qualify. If you already are one, leave a comment saying you follow to participate!

Other entries::  

• Visit Red Gold's website & tell me what product you'd like to try most
• Share a yummy recipe that involves tomatoes with me
• Follow Everyday Mama on Twitter
• Like Everyday Mama on Facebook (+3 entries)
• Suggest this giveaway to a friend, if they enter & mention your name, you get +2 entries per friend!
• Blog about this giveaway (+4 entries)

Giveaway ends Feb 13th at 10pm. Winner will be randomly chosen using random.org. If your email address doesn't show in your profile, please include it in your comments. If I do not receive a response within 48 hrs, I will draw another winner.

Thanks & Good luck!!

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who participated!!

Beautiful homemade organizers?? Yes please!!

So about a week ago, I won this amazing giveaway.

I really didn't think I would!

I just received it in the mail & wow, it's even more beautiful in person!

I am the lucky owner of this beauty

It is so darn cute. It's actually smaller than I imagined. I was thinking "BINDER" as in school binder. But these are the perfect size, small enough to not be too big & not too tiny. They are clothed in a adorable fabric & embellished at the corner.

The inside is my favorite part. The little individual slots for pens??? Awesome!! She even included the pens :)

Go here to watch a video tutorial she made that explains it all in great detail.

I could have NEVER made up something like this on my own. I'm so excited to start using it! My favorite part is that most of it is able to be used again & again!

They are priced at $45 now that she has re-vamped them into the best they can be. She laminates most of the pages though so the price reflects her costs quite a bunch. She has put sooo much thought & work into these! Head on over to her site & snatch one for yourself!

While you're over there, read her blog & follow! It's one of my favorites.

By the way, isn't she so darn adorable?? I envy her style & gorgeous hair! <3

Thank you SO very much Crystal!!! I love it!

Feeling a little sad tonight.

Wondering how I will survive as a single mother of (soon) 3 children under 5.

This wasn't the way things were supposed to be, not at all. This wasn't the way I EVER saw my life. I guess when I push away the anger, I have so much sadness for what our lives could have been & should have been. What our kids deserve & what they'll never have. I'll never again have someone who lives in my house that the kids can call "daddy". Now instead of ever planning our first vacation together, we are planning where the kids will be on a daily basis- daddy or mommy's house. Instead of holiday's spent together, I will spend the ones without my kids in tears. How can I have a real Christmas without them? It's so unfair. My dreams of going to school are slashed for now. Who knows when I'll have time to better myself. Here I am, working at Walmart, going nowhere.

Everyday life....I'm scared of it. You know how your husband stays home with the kids while you go to the grocery store or out with the girls or shopping just because you feel like it? This girl will be having none of that. You know how you can stay at home with your kids every day & still afford to get your nails done? You know how there's always someone there who can fix all the broken things, mow the grass, shovel the snow, take out the trash, kill the scary spiders, do the dirty jobs? Single moms don't have any of that. I've always had that & I'm not quite sure how I'll make it alone. I've never lived alone....I'm lost. I'm going to have a brand new baby & bring him/her home to a house with no one else to help me at night, no one to hold the baby because she's crying & the boys are fighting, no one to cry to when I feel like I'm at my wit's end in the middle of the night.

People say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but I don't know. I don't know if I'll ever trust another man again. From the way I see it, all men are liars, cheaters & bullcrap speakers. They say what you wanna hear, they don't mean what they say, they can lie right to your face without blinking an eye. It's a scary world out there. If you're the proud wife of a loving, devoted husband, please don't take him for granted. There are so many of us who have been trampled on & used who can only dream of something so great. Maybe one day I'll have something like that, or maybe not. I know most 24 year old men probably don't want to get very involved with a young mom of 3 kids. I mean....c'mon.

This was my pity party, I just needed to get it out. If you can relate, please comment. I know I'm not the only one.

Stuck in a whirlwind.

My life has never moved so fast as it has lately. It's nice in a small way....but just frustrating in most others. The things I wanna do, never have time to become anything but "I wish I could...." All the "musts" push their way to the front. I have alot of "want to's" that are "musts" in disguise but they still get forgotten daily.

Frustrating me even more is the fact that I'm carting my fail of a husband around this week & next until he can get his license back (long story). It really sucks. He works midnights so at 6:30 pm, I have to lug his butt to work & at 7:00 AM, I have to wake up my kids before they even wanna be up, throw them out in the winter cold, all to pick up his butt. I have nothing nice to say about this. He's also sucking all my gas & it's not exactly cheap! He was so generous & gave me $10 yesterday. WOW, thanks, that got me 3 gallons. So nice of you to share. In case you didn't know, I'm getting a divorce.

Back to the subject....

I should have added something to my resolution list (as you can see, blogging daily is one of those things that gets put on the backburner). I MUST turn this into a MUST--->studying for my pharmacy tech license. It's one of those things that was super important to me in the beginning & now is increasingly less important as time goes on. I planned on having my test done & over with by the end of the year. Here we are headed for mid-January & I'm still not completely ready. Walmart is even PAYING for it & I can't motivate myself. Gahhhhh. I'm so scared I'll go there & fail that I just keep putting it off. Guess that doesn't help me.

I have the day off tomorrow & I plan on enjoying it thoroughly :) I love Sundays off!! It's 9pm & I should probably crack open my study book. I'm noshing on Sluggles gummies & being lazy so far...if you haven't tried those gummies, you MUST :)

Howdy Ho!

Merry Christmas!!!

No wait, too late for that...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Nope...wrong again.

Okay well I guess it IS the new year but man, I am slow on keeping things updated lately. Maybe one of my resolutions should be to try & keep up with this blog!

As a matter of fact, I'm gonna make a list of some things I'd like to improve this year & things I'm super excited about this coming year. 

I'm resolving to...

1. Enjoy my pregnancy. Every single day of it! This will be my very last baby *sniff* so I must enjoy it :)

2. Study for & pass my test to be a certified pharmacy tech. I'm so close yet so far away. I'm such a procrastinator. And it's even paid for!! Gah.

3. Try to write a blog post every day. I'm gonna try really hard!!

4. Start brushing & flossing my teeth twice a day. Last year my resolution was to floss daily & I did it every day! Super proud of that :D

I'm looking forward to...

1. Living by myself for the very first time. I never have! I went from living under my mom's roof to being married at 18 & living with my husband. Now it will just be me & my 2 (then 3) kiddies :) Should be interesting!

2. Having a new lil baby around!! I can't wait to find out what he/she is! I want a little girl SO bad. I even put Noah's hair up in a ponytail tonight & boy, it felt good! HAHA! Hey, I was just seeing if it was long enough (and it was).

3. Continuing living my life one day at a time. I don't know when I discovered it but I think it was within the last year or two, living your life one day at a time is probably the best idea EVER. People tell me they think I'm "strong" but honestly, I think I just have learned to handle stress. I live each day as a new start, I don't worry about the next day. Well, sometimes I do, but I push it aside & wait until I get there to start solving. I think it stems from my personality, I am not a planner. Never have been. I get major anxiety just thinking about planning something in advance, haha!

Anyway, I hope you all made some good healthy resolutions for yourself. We all need some motivation in life. I'm always trying to find new ways to better myself. I'm nowhere near perfect! :D