Photo Collage

So I am really digging this new photo collage I started on my wall. I got the idea from my sister who has a small one over her bed and I am in love with it. I apologize the picture is kind of stinky, but I just couldn't get a good one to come out, but you guys get the idea. Creating this was really fun and the best part was it didn't cost a dime. I had tons of picture frames that I had collected over the years and just never got around to using and I just searched through my photos and found the ones I wanted to hang up. 

In our old bedroom we had some of these frames scattered around the room some hanging up some not. When we moved into our new room I had an entire new wall to fill, not wanting to go on a major search or spend the money for a great piece of art or some other decor to hang there my sister and I decided to create this master piece. I love this idea for two reasons; One: it looks fantastic and it takes up a good amount of empty wall space, Two: It's something friends and visitors can look at and enjoy. Somebody can only look at a canvas painting for so long, but this they can come look at all the photos see if they're in some of them and enjoy it. I do plan on making this a little bit bigger especially when the baby comes I will want some of her in there!

My favorite Cosmetics

Hey folks today I want to talk to you about some fabulous cosmetic products I have been using and have fallen head over heals for. Last year I inherited a whole supply of really expensive makeup from Clinique, lancome, M.A.C and several others. As my supply is running out I've been on a desperate search to find similar products at a much lower price. 

I was obsessed with my Clinique foundation, but I was not going to pay $25 for a new bottle when it ran out. So I headed to the drugstore and picked up a foundation at random. Revlon Photo Ready. I am in love with this foundation it works just as well if not better than the Clinique foundation I was using. It goes on so smooth and makes your skin look absolutely flawless. This is probably the only piece of makeup that I feel actually does what it says and makes me feel like I have been airbrushed in real life. The best part about this makeup is it's only $10 that's less than half of what Clinique's foundation was. 

Another product I picked up this weekend is Garnier Skin Renew Anti-Dark circle. I have such a problem with dark circles under my eyes and am always looking for the perfect under eye concealer. I have tried so many different ones, including but not limited to Neutrogena, Revlon's, and Sephora. Alas not one worked as well as I wanted it to. I had my eye on this one for some time, but was hesitant to buy it, because it's $11 which is a little pricey for me. I finally broke down and tried it and boy am I in love. First off it claims that it actually reduces dark circles which I did not believe at all, because there pretty much is no cure for dark circles as they are essentially bruises. BUT to my surprise it actually does! After using it the first day I woke up the next morning to noticeably lighter circles. Besides that incredible benefit this product actually completely covers my dark circles and makes me look bright eyed and busy tailed for the entire day. Also, the rollerball used to apply the makeup makes it feel so good against your skin it's very smooth and very cool. I highly recommend this to any one who has a problem with dark circles.

Another one of my favorite products is Olay's Total Effects 7 in 1 refreshing citrus scrub. I am absolutely addicted to this stuff. I started using it last year when on my 24th birthday I started to notice little wrinkles around my eyes and almost had a panic attack. I immediately went to the store searching for something to reduce them. I found this and have been using it since. Those little wrinkles have since diminished and I find my facial skin looks much smoother and more even. This face wash makes your face feel so smooth and it smells delicious. 

Currently, these are my three favorite products that I use. I am still on the hunt for several other things including the best hairspray, best mascara, best curling iron, and best volumizing mouse. So be expecting to see my favorite of those in the near future!

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 975 calories!

So I know that I stated I would post what I've been doing for my actual meals this weekend, but my weekend turned out to be a little more hectic than originally planned. Anywhoo, here we are,  now I would love to give you each recipe that I make that is under 600 calories, but that would make for a very long blog entry and I wouldn't have as many things to write about in the future. I will give you a couple examples of the meals that I eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and from this week forward I will try to add in a recipe or two of some of my favorite meals!

I first want to mention a wonderful blog that I am subscribed to http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/ This girl has some of the most delicious low calorie meals ever. I want to try and make everything on her recipes list, because it all looks so delicious. I made her mac and cheese with cauliflower that is less than 400 calories (yes you heard that right mac and cheese for less than 400 calories!) Jack agreed that it was the best mac and cheese he ever had. I highly recommend this blog for any one looking for low calorie meals.

Besides this blog I pretty much scour the website for low calorie recipes I search pinterest and my all time favorite allrecipes.com. The great thing about allrecipes is you can search for a specific thing, like say you're searching for chicken breast recipes you can go into advanced search and say that you want recipes that are low fat, low calorie, or low carb. It's a really helpful tool that I have found some amazing recipes with. 

So let me first start with breakfast I know that it is supposed to be the biggest meal of the day, but I just can not force myself to eat a huge breakfast I'm never hungry and I usually don't have time. BUT breakfast is extremely important so I make sure to get in something. My breakfast is usually just a bowl of chex cereal and sometimes an english muffin with butter. BUT the best part about this is chex and many cereals contain a good amount of iron, protein, fiber, and are low in calories. This meal provides me with 2g of fiber, 7g of protein, 45% of my daily iron, and 25% of my calcium. All of this for only 175 calories!

My two most common lunch meals are spaghettios or a bowl of Campbells creamy tomato soup. Not only are these both extremely cheap, a can of spaghettios costs .99 cents and the soup is $1.50, but they are both low in calories and high in nutrition. A can of spaghettios is 340 calories, 6g of fiber, 12 g of protein, and 20% of your iron. The soup is 320 calories, 20% of your vitamin C, 6g of fiber, and 6 g of protein. Both these meals are great, because they are very filling due to the high amounts of fiber. As long as you pack some of the healthy snacks I mentioned in my previous post you are set for the day!

After both these meals you still have 975 calories left for dinner and snacks! This is if you are on a 1,500 calorie diet which is what myfitnespal.com recommends for somebody who is working out at least 30 minutes a day and trying to lose 1-1.5lbs a week. 

I have so many great meals for dinner with wonderful recipes that range from 450 calories-650 calories. A very important part of dinner is adding in at least one vegetable and eating all of it first so that way you are less hungry when eating the higher calorie part. My favorite meal for dinner is my ronzoni smart taste pasta with classico four cheese tomato sauce. It's very easy to make and provides a low calorie, healthy meal. This meal has only 420 calories, 13 g of fiber!!. 70% of your calcium, and 14 g of protein. 

So there you have it my favorite combination of breakfast lunch and dinner. These three meals together have only a grand total of 975 calories, which leaves plenty of room for snacks, juice, milk, and ground beef if you want to add it to your pasta for more nutrition and taste!

Later on this week I will post one of my favorite low calorie meals. I have a lot hidden up my sleeves so I will do my best to share more of those with you!

Healthy Snacks

When I first found out I was pregnant I had actually just started a diet, because I had gained 40lbs since moving in with Jack. By diet I actually mean I was just watching what I ate and counting calories making sure I was only eating 1,250 calories a day. After I found out I knew that I couldn't continue only eating 1,250 calories a day and then I literally went on a feeding frenzy.

This was essentially my life

I was so excited I ate everything in sight, unfortunately this included McDonald's, pizza, fried foods, pretty much anything unhealthy I could get my hands on. In my mind I was thinking I can't prevent myself from gaining weight so I might as well take this time to enjoy eating whatever I want. Well folks this was, needless to say, the worst idea ever. When I went to see my doctor for my second trimester appointment she informed me I had gained a whopping 13lbs since my last visit only a month prior. She also let me know that I should only gain a healthy 20lbs during my entire pregnancy due to me being slightly overweight before the pregnancy. Now obviously I can't diet while pregnant so she let me know that I should be eating 1,900-2,100 calories a day, but healthy calories not a double cheeseburger meal for lunch and three pieces of pepperoni pizza for dinner (which is a total of just about 2,000 calories). I was now on a mission, I knew I couldn't exactly loose weight, but I could change my eating habits so that I didn't continue down this same path. 

To overcome this I came up with a new plan of eating healthy and nutritious meals. Being with child I need more nutrients than ever and to be honest it's not the easiest thing to find meals and snacks that have all the protein, calcium, fiber, and Iron that I need (ESP with my picky eating habits) I track these by using myfitnesspal which I talked about in a previous post. Another great tool I found is an app on the iphone (it could also be on the android), but it's called Fooducate. I highly recommend this app for any one looking for healthy alternative foods. There is also a website for those of you who do not have a smartphone. This app has several features like a grocery list feature and a FAQ section, but what I use it for is to find healthy alternatives for the items in my grocery list.You can scan or search a product and it will give the product a rating that ranges from A+ to D. If it has a low score it lists out the reasons why the product received a low score as you can see from the example. If the product receives a high score it will tell you why it received that grade. It has a great section where you can click alternatives and it will show you better options.  Before I eat or purchase any item I use this first to make sure that I am actually buying the best product with the most nutrition. Even if what I am choosing to purchase receives a decently high score I always check the alternatives to see if there's something better for me. I am absolutely addicted to this app and highly recommend it to any one who is trying to eat healthier.

This leads me to my healthy snack choices I have done a lot of research on which snack products have the most nutrition and get awesome ratings. Here is what I found:

I was eating Activia Strawberry yogurt which I thought was really good for me, because it is yogurt which is a super food for pregnant women and it was higher in fiber. When I searched it on Fooducate I found out it wasn't my best option. It had a rating of a B- because there are 4.5 tablespoons of sugar in one serving. I looked at the alternatives and discovered Chobani Greek Strawberry yogurt which received a rating of an A. I love this yogurt for many reasons. For one reason it's delicious, it has 20% of my daily calcium, and 14g of protein. For somebody who is not a huge meat eater this is the most important part. It does have 140 calories, but you can always opt for the lighter version of this. Also, I don't ever buy the actual chobani brand I usually just opt for the store brand version as it has the same nutritional value and is cheaper. 

I actually haven't managed to find a good fiber bar that gets a decent rating on Fooducate, but I need a lot of fiber in my diet and this is hard to find for some one who hates whole wheat products. What I did is went to the website of my local grocery store and compared different fiber bars to find one that has the most nutrition what I discovered was Kellogg's fiber one plus antioxidants. I like this one because it has 9grams of fiber, 2 grams of protein, and has 4% of my iron. Now the reason it gets such a bad rating on fooducate is because apparently it has controversial additives in it so if you're one of those people that stays away from those sorts of things than I would recommend staying away from all these fiber one and fiber plus bars, because they all contain these additives and every single one gets a D on Fooducate. 

Another product I enjoy that has a decent amount of fiber is goldfish whole grain. It has 140 calories per 55 pieces, only 5 g of fat,  2g of fiber, and 4g of protein. This is a really good snack to eat between breakfast and lunch it helps so you're not starving and it's not incredibly bad for you. Also, there is no taste difference between these and regular goldfish, I'm serious they taste the exact same. These get a B on Fooducate compared to the regular kind that get a B- so they are definitely the better choice. 

Sargento light string cheese is also a great option it only has 90 calories, it is delicious and has calcium yaaay! They also get a B+ from fooducate as they are naturally high in calcium and a top product in their category. 

I  eat a lot of green grapes and watermelon since they are currently in season and they are both my favorite fruits. As all of you I'm sure know watermelon is a perfect snack because it is a fat burning food and one of the lowest calorie fruits. I eat watermelon for dessert a lot instead of ice cream. 

So these are all the snacks I have switched to and I try to eat at least 2 on a daily basis. Since I've started this whole health regimen I've actually have a hard time eating 1,900 calories a day I usually get about 1,500-1,700 calories a day so I find myself desperately searching for the last couple hundred calories. This weekend I will post what I have been doing for lunch and dinner to eat nutritious and low calorie meals. 

Crafting To do's

So as you all know from the last post, this week has been very stressful for me, but thankfully we have managed to successfully clear all the hurdles and we are back on the path of righteousness. Now I only have to get rid of the anxiety that has taken the place of my stress. As I approach closer and closer to my due date I get more and more nervous about everything, Am I going  to be a good mom? How am I going to do this? Are we going to be able to afford it? etc. etc. I have been overcoming these anxious feelings and fears by planning, and a lot of it. I can't exactly plan what I will do during my days of maternity leave since I don't know how Mariah will be and what I will have time for, I have spent my time planning her nursery. 

Jack and I just purchased her bassinet which she will sleep in in our room so it's not exactly going to match her nursery decor, but it is absolutely adorable. 

It has a nightlight in it, it vibrates, and has storage. If you look closely you can see little Leia in the bottom rebelling against us as she was not allowed to go in the top so she decided to make herself at home in the storage compartments. 

For the nursery I have BIG plans that I'm very excited about. Since her middle name is going to be Rose the entire bedroom will be a vintage rose theme. 

This is the bedding I have picked out and the room will be based on this. Her bedroom is already painted a sage green so we lucked out on that one and it is the perfect size for a nursery. I have spent a great deal of time on Pinterest planning crafting projects I want to get started on. I have already chosen a lamp base and I wanted to make my own lamp shade as I think the one that matches this bedding would be a little too much. This is what I've picked out.

Something like this but the lamp base would be white the shade would be light pink and the flowers would stay this color. This is probably the first thing I will get done as it looks the easiest as long as I can find the lamp shade that I want. 

I really want to hang her name over the crib and I've looked at many ways to do this.

These letters are the ones I just can't get enough of and they look easy enough except for getting the wires to bend like that. I think that may prove more difficult then I'm hoping, but I just can't get over how pretty this looks. 

These will be the two things I start with as soon as I get some extra cash to pay for the materials. So keep your eye out for the soon to follow blogs of how I made these crafts!

Life is like a house of cards....

I apologize for not making a post sooner, but it has been a very rough couple of days.  I've been trying to use my advice from the last post, but unfortunately the situation is so drastic and due to my increase in hormones I'm having a hard time. At the end of last week Jack and I were finally caught up on all our bills, we had all our money troubles situated and we were ready to go. Then of course some one comes a long and destroys it all. It was like building a house of cards we had just placed the last card on top and some one came in and knocked the whole thing down. Sort of like this....

The amount of stress it has cause me is unreal, my heart started having issues yesterday and I haven't been able to stop crying since it began yesterday morning. It has pretty much been a nightmare and of course I'm even more concerned about the effect this is having on baby Mariah. Needless to say the need to reduce my stress is dire. Watching this video over and over again is helping. I also just keep repeating to myself that we will get through this and it can't get worse from here so I need to look forward to the future. Soon I will have a wonderful little angel to hold in my arms and treasure for the rest of my life. 

Bad day?

Ever had a bad day? Sure, who hasn't? Well, I haven't in a very long time and not because I've been very lucky, but because I've chosen not to. Have I had bad moments in a day or a bad time? sure, but I never let those moments ruin an entire day for me. How do I manage to not let a string of bad things ruin my day? well it's very easy, after some practice, but I simply just don't let it. While most of us would just like to rule out a day when it just seems that one bad thing is happening after another it's probably not the best idea. I mean that's an entire day of your life that has just been given up and dropped off the face of the earth and frankly life is too short to just let an entire day, 24 hours, slip through our fingers. 

Like many girls I spent most of my teenage years very depressed with a slew of bad days. My mother would always tell me that I had a choice I could choose to be sad or I could choose to be happy. At the time I would throw my hands in the air and scream "I don't have a choice God just hates me" well kiddos God did not hate me and though it took me until I was 20 years old I finally realized what my mom was saying had a lot of truth in it. I remember the day like it was yesterday the day I chose to be happy and not sad. It was a gorgeous fall day and I was living in Concord, Mass with my dad (which if you've never been is one of the cutest towns in the world) I woke up that morning and decided that I no longer wanted to be depressed. I drove around that day  for hours enjoying every minute of it. The world suddenly looked different it was no longer dark and gloomy but sunny and happy everything I saw was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The day literally felt magical, it was magical. 

Now, I would love to tell you that immediately after that day I was never sad again, but that would be a lie. This is not something that happens over night it takes a lot of practice and time, a lot of time. This is why many people don't believe you can choose to be happy, but trust me you can. It took me almost two years before I finally got the swing of it, but it has seriously changed my life. I mean don't get me wrong I have 100% had a couple of bad days since then, but they're so rare that I hardly remember them. In fact I have only had one in the past two years. I remember this one in particular, because the day actually turned out to be good. At the end of the day I came home and started laughing because it was the first bad day I had had in as long as I could remember and that felt awesome.

Now, you may be wondering how can I turn my bad days into good ones? Easy as pie there are tons of things that you can do. I mean think of all the things that make you happy or that you enjoy doing and do one of them even if you feel too miserable to do something positive just do it and get it over with, because you will feel better at the end. Here are several things I enjoy doing when I'm having bad moments:

1. Exercise- this is the best thing to do as it increases your seratonin your natural happy drug

2. Go for a  long drive and listen to your favorite music

3. Go out to eat at your favorite restaurant

4. Go shopping

5. Clean your house or just a room, because the feeling of a clean house is always nice.

6. Hang out with friends

7. Watch one of your favorite movies, and not a depressing one like The Notebook watch your favorite comedy or action/adventure. I personally like Indiana Jones it's funny while also an adventure movie

8. Make a really delicious dinner that's also fun to cook

9. Get a bottle of chocolate wine or moscato and drink it with your favorite dessert

10. If you have a significant other you can ask for a nice massage

So this brings us to today's thing to be happy about. When bad days turn into good ones! Today, I fortunately am having a good day so I won't be experiencing this, but still how great is it when you are having a bad day and something amazing happens that completely changes it around. 

And if you are having a bad day today here's something that should make you smile:

Dear Fall please get here

As I mentioned in a previous post Jack and I were having a hard time catching up on some overdue bills and I am proud to announce that today we have paid everything and are completely up to date! Watching such a large amount leave my bank account at one time was pretty disconcerting, but it also felt so good to be back to normal. 

I also wanted to let you all know about an amazing thing that Amazon.com does that I have a feeling not everyone knows about. Amazon.com, as most of you know, is a pretty amazing website where you can find just about anything at extremely low prices. Many  of you probably buy your school textbooks from them as you can usually get them for much cheaper than the school bookstore, but did you know Amazon.com will also buy your books back in exchange for an Amazon gift card. The best part about it is they give you substantially more than the bookstore will and even buy books that are outdated. I sold about 6 books to amazon, one of them being an excel book from 2007 (very outdated), and got about $300 in amazon credit. This was a little over half of what I paid for the books originally. 

With the gift card Jack and I were able to purchase some much needed things. He was finally able to get a new pair of dress shoes as the ones he had were very very broken and I was able to order my wonderful destination maternity leggings. I got them in today and I am pretty sure I will never take them off they are so wonderful. I bought the black pair, but am most definitely going to be purchasing them in brown as well.

This leads me to today's thing to be happy about...Fall attire. I have been waiting for the entire summer for Fall to get here so I can switch to wearing comfortable legging, slouchy sweaters, boots, and scarves. I mean in all honesty does it get more comfortable than that, no, no it does not. Besides that it looks absolutely adorable. 

As soon as September 1st hits I will be putting away my summer clothes and reaching for my sweaters and leggings to wear everyday.

Baby Bargains!

A little while back a very good friend recommended the book Baby Bargains to me. I looked at the preview pages and immediately ordered it. I just got it in the mail last night and it has already been so extremely helpful. I thought I had a great crib picked out, but after reading the chapter on cribs Alas! I did not. The book gives so much information on what companies make the best cribs for the best prices and gives their own personal reviews. We were able to find one that had amazing reviews, was declared durable, easy to set up, and safe and was only $350. 

It's from Babies R' Us by a company called Babi Italia which got an A from Baby Bargains and it looks fantastic. This book gives more than just information on cribs it gives information on how to save money on maternity clothes, toys, clothes, furniture, etc. There's no advertising in the book so everything is personally reviewed by the authors. It was $10 from Amazon.com, but worth every penny considering the little I read last night saved me over $200. I recommend this book to any new parent as it is a great informational tool on products and gives fantastic ways to save money! There's also one for weddings too that gives similar information that I will be ordering very very soon.

Stuffed Pizza

Jack and I decided to have a quiet day today; got the house clean, watched a couple of movies, and relaxed.          Since we had some free time this evening we decided to spoil ourselves and make stuffed pizza. This is a recipe I discovered on allrecipes.com and it is sooo yummy. It is apparently very famous in Chicago and is usually called Chicago stuffed pizza or Chicago pan pizza. It's very easy to make and won't take you more than 20 minutes in prep (unless you decide to make the dough yourself) You can put whatever you would like inside the pizza it all depends on what you like. Jack and I chose to fill it with:

Mozzarella cheese, pepperjack cheese, parmesean cheese, feta cheese, pepperoni, bacon, jalapenos, onions, garlic, and green peppers. 

You start off with the crust, we buy pre-made dough from the store and roll it out. 

We didn't have a rolling pin so Jack filled a 40oz beer bottle with warm water and it actually worked quite well.

Next you lay the crust in a baking pan like so:

and then add sauce

Mix the ingredients in a bowl

And then fill the pizza

I forgot to mention you want to roll out two pieces of dough one for the top and one for the bottom. Take the second piece of rolled out dough and cover the filling.

Then add sauce and cheese to the top.

Put it in the oven at 375 degrees and bake it for 20 minutes. Woalah! you are done!

Today's thing to be happy about is going to be dessert, because dessert is delicious. I was never a huge fan of sugary treats until I got pregnant and now I am addicted. On Friday my co-workers got me this cake! and this is what Jack and I will be enjoying tonight.

Things to be happy about

A little over a year ago I wanted to start a blog called 365 days of happiness. Everyday I was going to post something new to be happy about and I would take pictures capturing me enjoying those things. I never got a round to starting this blog, so since I've made this blog a combination of a eating healthy, cooking, fashion, and baby blog I'm going to add my 365 days of happiness to it. Everyday at the bottom of the blog I will add in something to be happy about and if you have time you should try and enjoy those things as well. 

Since my desk at work is covered in decorations that's what today's thing to be happy about will be decorations. 

While I'm enjoying these lovely "It's a girl" decorations I want to point out that decorations also include new decor for your home. It could be a new throw pillow, a new fancy candle, a new centerpiece for your dinner table, a new piece of art, even new dish towels!! I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely love going to Homegoods and/or Burlington Coat Factory and picking out decor at reasonably low prices. I have a wonderful elephant table I bought at Burlington for only $25 the class top was broken when I got it, but it was an easy fix. 

Another website I like to browse (but never purchase) is http://www.zgallerie.com/ I discovered this website when a fellow blogger talked about it and fell in love.

like can we talk about these for a moment. At $40 for 4 they're still pretty pricey.

While everything is way too far out of my price range it's still fun to look at it and imagine it in my home. So take out some time today maybe pick up a low priced painting at homegoods, browse the Zgallerie and plan your dream home, or plan a surprise party for somebody (even if it's for no reason other than to show you care) and decorate their room or desk you'll be glad you did!

Swing, Swing

Yesterday could possible have been one of the happiest days of my life. Finding out that Jack and I were going to have a little girl this January was probably the best news I've ever heard. Being able to see her move around and dance in my belly was absolutely magical. Having my sister there to witness everything with us was incredible. My co-workers surprised me with balloons, decorations, and pink roses which was so much fun to come to work to and I got to start my baby registry!

Unfortunately, all the joy from yesterday does not get rid of the lovely hormonal swings that pregnancy brings. I was talking to Jack today and he described it perfectly. He said to me:

"It sounds like when you are little and want to cry for no reason mixed with the hormonal changes of being an anxsty teenager, but with the problems of an adult"

I don' t think I could have said it better myself. Trying to cope with these emotions is near impossible so what have I been doing to deal with this well I'll tell you!

• Uberhumor.com like I said it can always bring a smile to your face and make you laugh it's really great for bad moods.
• Pinterest. This is great for many reasons it can keep your mind off things by looking up wonderful things to do with your new baby. New ways to decorate your home, new things to cook, clothes you'll want to buy after your baby is born, and an adorable section of cute puppies and kittens.
• Pandora musical therapy always helps. I choose a variety of stations that range from 

Michael Buble because who can resist that voice 

a relaxation station to calm my nerves

Bruno Mars, because he's super fun

classical music just always sounds so pretty

Vanessa Carlton to remind me of my fun teenage days.

• Creating my baby registry  helps remind me of why these hormonal changes are so worth the joy that I will soon hold.
• Exercise!! Most important there's nothing that helps better than exercising, unfortunately, at work there's only so much I can do so I am limited.
• This blog always helps get my feelings out and relax a little bit
• Ice Cream (or any sweet) because, well obviously this one needs no explanation.

While these solutions aren't complete hormonal cures they do help get your mind off things and keep you distracted. I'm already feeling better just talking about them!

It's a.......

It's a........

GIRL!!!!!

My boss got me this balloon!! Along with pink roses.

The Joys of Pregnancy

The first trimester for me went by okay I had a little nausea, but certainly wasn't getting sick every morning which I am more than thankful for. I was, however, beyond exhausted in fact I'm not sure that I knew what being exhausted was before my first trimester. When I entered my second trimester I was more than excited to put the extreme tiredness behind me and enjoy being pregnant. Every one kept telling me how wonderful the second trimester was because you aren't sick anymore and you get some of your energy back. They were right I did get my energy back and I'm not sick anymore, BUT I did get a new symptom that I've never had any experience with migraines I wish there was a way to make that sound like I'm shuttering because I am. I have never really had a problem with headaches before let a lone migraines. It has been a completely miserable experience for me especially since I have not found a way to get rid of them. The only pain medicine I can take is tylenol, which hardly helps, you can't take long showers because your blood pressure might rise or something, and you can't use heating pads.

 So what have I been doing?? crying mostly. In reality though I have a wonderful boyfriend who gives me frequent scalp and neck massages which temporarily relieves the pain. Lying down helps as well, but I have a job and don't always have the opportunity to do so. I also drink lots and lots of water like an extreme amount. I buy liter bottles and fill it up three times a day to keep as hyrdrated as possible. The reason I am writing about my migraines today is because I had one that started yesterday afternoon and has continued until today. I unfortunately had to call out of work as I could hardly lift my head this morning. 

With my third trimester only a month and a week a way I am very much looking forward to what wonderful symptom that might bring!

Tomorrow at 9:30 we find out if it's a.....

Friday night Date night

This week has not been one of the most fun weeks I've ever had. It came with a lot of bad news and bad moods. I didn't post anything yesterday, because I had such a negative attitude and was very emotional. Thankfully though the weeks have been passing faster than I can say onomatopoeia and next Tuesday we find out if the baby is a boy or girl which I am very excited about. 

Tonight is also our date night which I look forward to every week. I've already decided what I'm going to make; it is one of my favorite meals and is super easy. It's a recipe I found on allrecipes.com and I kind of put my own swing on it. It's called anniversary chicken and it is literally one of the best chicken dishes I've ever had. 

Oh my goodness this recipe is sooo delicious.

Ingredients

• Chicken breast
• Frank's red hot
• Vinegar
• Reduced fat/fat free ranch dressing
• Plain bread crumbs
• Scallions
• Bacon bits
• Reduced fat cheddar cheese
• French's fried onions

Directions

• I first marinate the chicken breasts in hot sauce and vinegar for 30 min to an hour, though it's best if it stays in for an hour. 
• I dip the chicken in some breading you can use seasoned or plain it doesn't matter. Then place it in a baking dish.
• Next I take fat free or reduced fat ranch dressing and pour it over the breaded chicken you can use as much or as little as you want.
• After that I cover the chicken with cheddar cheese, scallions, bacon bits, and french's fried onions. Sometimes I even add jalapenos for an extra kick, but it's not necessary.
• Throw it in the oven at 375 degrees and let it cook for about 30 minutes (I've never actually timed it, but it's around 30 minutes) And wahlah you are finished.

For a side dish I like to make simply potatoes with onions. I found these in the dairy section next to the butter (have not figured out why they are there, but they are) and oh my gosh they are so yummy and so easy to make. I just throw them in a pan with some vegetable oil and add some garlic and salt and they come out perfect. And if you're wondering "Lauren are you to lazy to dice up your own potatoes?" my response is "why yes, yes I am" I hate chopping up potatoes don't ask me why it's my least favorite thing to chop. So even though these are probably more expensive it is so worth it to me. 

Each chicken breast has 617 calories, 43 grams of protein, and 37 grams of fat. However, usually a half a breast is enough to fill you if you eat it with a side of potatoes and a vegetable like corn, which is what we usually do. 

Morning Humor

Mornings are always a rough time for people. You're tired, unmotivated, and just want to lie in bed all day. When I was going to school I used to get up early and do my workout, since I became pregnant that is way to difficult of a task as I am much more exhausted every morning than I was. Due to my hormones I am also extremely hormonal and angry in the mornings so what I have begun doing is as soon as I get to work before I forward the phones I visit websites like uberhumor.com or failblog.org to get a little giggle in before I start my daily grind. There is always something funny on those sights that can bring a smile to your face and put you in a good mood for the rest of the day. For example look at this kitty:

Silly kitty climbing walls. Also, if you haven't noticed that kitty is the exact same breed as my little princess Leia. 

Leia is a Seal point snowshoe cat which is a rare breed of the siamese. Essentially she's a genetical error a siamese breeder was breeding two siamese and two of the cats came out looking like this girl with little white paws. They're very rare cats because even if you breed two snowshoes only half of the litter will come out with the same markings. They also share a lot of similarities to siamese cats in their personalities. Very talkative, very loud, and not the nicest kitties when they don't want to be. When they want to be, however, they are the sweetest things in the world. Almost every morning i wake up to her little face lying on my pillow with her little paws wrapped around my neck (it is possible that she was trying to strangle me and fell asleep mid way) I like to think she's snuggling though. 

This is basically exactly how my kitty acts, but we still love her no matter how much of a terror she is. 

So take some time out today to find something that makes you smile you'd be surprised at how much better the rest of your day will be.