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Here We Go Again…March Update

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Um has it been a month already!? And yeesh, I look like ass in some of these photos. And I particularly love that I’ve got a complete outfit repeat in week 18 & 21…right down to the flannel PJ pants. I’m so classy it hurts.

How far along? 21 weeks, 2 days
Total weight gain/loss: +6
Stretch marks? Nada
Maternity Clothes: Wearing maternity pants. Still wearing regular tops. Well, I’ve worn a maternity top once so far.
Sleep: Meh, fine. Never seem to get enough though!
Best moment this month: Rylee felt the baby move at 19 weeks! Ever since she’ll randomly ask if her little sister is kicking me, or if I tell her the baby is kicking she will stop whatever she’s doing to come put her hand on my belly. Also? Passing the halfway point!!
Movement: So.Much.Movement. And already so strong. Andy wasn’t able to feel Rylee kick until at least week 26 and already he & Ry have both felt her moving.
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: Nope
Food Cravings: Umm, pretty much anything and everything I can get my hands on. I am so hungry lately!
Belly Button in or out? In.
What I miss: Being able to bend forward without a belly getting in the way.
What I am looking forward to: We’re moving Ry into her new room at the end of this month. I’ve started perusing crib bedding sets for the little one…waiting for something to jump out at me.
Baby Milestones: Baby is about the size of a banana these days. She has eyebrows now.
Other Goodness: My blood pressure is as close to perfect as possible…127/76! Dr. B said I’m the portrait of the perfect pregnancy. Have I mention how much I like my doctor!?

My next appointment is April 10!

You Know That Working Mom Blog Thing

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I haven’t talked about it much over here lately, but I’m still writing weekly over at Liberating Working Moms.

So many great things have been happening on that side of the interwebs I wanted to share!

We’re up to 7 regular writers for the site now! I love the different mix of women we have. 3 from the Western side of North America, 4 from the Eastern side. 2 Canadians even! We all have different types of jobs too…2 of us in marketing, though not the same kind, 2 of us teachers, 1 office manager, 1 web developer and 1 attorney. A couple of us are boy moms, the rest of us are girl moms. Two of us have buns in the oven. It’s so great to see women from different walks of life coming together to share their experiences as working moms.

Some of our posts have been recognized and featured on the career page AND home page of the BlogHer Network! If you aren’t familiar with the BlogHer network it’s ok, but trust me when I say this is a BIG deal! And? Two of them were mine! One where I talked about leaving stress at the door and the other where I gave some tips for traveling for work while pregnant.

We recently started up an online shop where you can buy goodies for your favorite working mom! {I love the “Supermom at Work” one and the “I make Humans & Deadlines” one…just sayin’} I got to flex my mad design skillz on these and help Tracy, our founder & editor with the designs. It was a lot of fun and all the proceeds that are earned from these sales are being put toward sending our associate editor, Brandee, to BlogHer2012 National Blogging Conference where she can network and learn more about growing the blog on LWM’s behalf. If you ask me, these would make wonderful Mother’s Day gifts.

Today, I’m posting my “Working With Style”. It’s a feature we do every Saturday. We rotate between the 7 of us and today it’s my turn! I really stepped out of my comfort zone on this one…Go see!

And if you feel so inclined, you can like us on facebook to get links to our latest posts. Or maybe you’re not a working mom and you know someone who is, pass it on!

Ok…phew! I know that’s a ton of information but I’m so excited about everything that’s been going on I wanted to update you on this amazing community that has become such a big part of my life! {And I swear I’m done with the over usage of exclamation points now!…ok now.}

On the Agenda

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It is downright gorgeous out right now. I just had to run an errand for work and I seriously contemplated getting lost on the way back to the office.

While I was driving, I was mentally making a to-do list for this weekend.

Of course there’s the typical things on my list…laundry, dishes, menu planning & grocery shopping, etc…yawn…

But there’s also some other, not-so-typical things on my list…

Brushing your teeth using water leftover from the day...it's just like camping! Only...NOT.

#1-FIX THE PLUMBING PROBLEM! Yep, we’ve got an issue. And not just us, it effects our rental house too. JOY. Country living at.it’s.finest, folks. Typically our water filtration system goes through a cycle every 3-4 days where we completely lose water pressure for about 20-30 minutes. Sometimes an annoyance, but usually no big deal. It’s always done it. So yesterday morning when we lost water pressure before I left for work, I thought nothing of it. Then Andy called me last night, upon beating me home, our renter came out of the house to tell him they’d had no pressure all day long. Awesome. We called a guy…yup, we’ve got a guy for plumbing because we’re cool like that. Anyway, we called him up and he & his family literally dropped everything to come out and help us. They got it fixed. We cheered. Then took them out to dinner as a thank you. By the time we got home? No pressure again. WOMP. Needless to say, our guy and Andy will be back out there this afternoon to try and really figure out what’s going on.

#2-GO TO THE HOMESHOW! It’s supposed to be all crappy and rainy this weekend so we figured to help combat the cabin fever we’d head down to the fairgrounds to visit the homeshow. We have no money to do any renovations but it’s always fun to dream…new patio out back…with a built-in outdoor kitchen, of course. New flooring throughout the house. What do you think about a big pond out back with a firepit? Heck, let’s build a new house while we’re at it! Andy loves this type of stuff and we always pick up good ideas along the way, so why not?

#3-COOKING! My sweet friend Lindsey just gave birth to a beautiful little girl in the wee hours of this morning! So, to try and help them out a little I figured I’d whip up a couple of freezer meals for them. And I may or may not want to love on a fresh baked baby if I get the chance. 

#4-GO TO MICHAEL’S & the thrift store! We’re planning on moving Rylee into her “big girl room” during Andy’s spring break. Well, that’s at the end of this month which means I need to get started on a plan. Her favorite colors right now are pink & orange so I’m using that as my inspiration…but planning things that can be easily changed because I know how my girl can change her mind. Ry has asked for pink bed sheets so I’ll pick some of those up at Target or something. My mom’s making her a quilt and I’ve enlisted her help on a Roman style shade too. I’ve been pinning ideas on Pinterest and what not, now I just need to put those ideas into action. {That’s 90% of the problem with Pinterest, am I right!?} I need to pick up some pink paint, some yarn, some glue, a couple of larger size picture frames and whatever else I see that tells me to buy it. Here’s some more of what I’m thinking…

 

 

 

What’s on your agenda for the weekend!?

My #ToyotaWomen Whirlwind Continued…

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Wow…where to begin?

Seriously…I have no idea. I’ve thought over and over and over again how to put into words my time with Clever Girls and some of the other ToyotaWomen at ToyotaUSA in Cali last week and to be honest, I’m struggling a bit.

Struggling not because it was a bad trip or it lacked information. Actually, the complete opposite is true. I could seriously go on and on about what I learned. But, what I’m struggling with is how can I share all of this with you without sounding too…paid/contrived/promotion-y. You know?

So bare with me, because I have so much I want to share and it is truly out of excitement for what this company is about and what they are doing and this is the first time that I have ever experienced something like this…especially as a blogger.

****

My Wednesday morning started out like any other morning. My alarm went off at 5:20 AM and I got up, showered and got ready for work. I left for work at my normal time and did my normal work thing until just after 11 AM when I shut down my computer and headed out of the office to begin my journey down to LA…or so I thought.

I grabbed lunch and headed to my dad’s house where I parked my car and he took me to the airport. I walked in to NO ONE in line for security. Sa-weet! It was too good to be true. Turns out? My flight was cancelled! So I hopped in the back of a very long line to get rebooked. For the next day.

My trip was already going to be fast & furious. Now? Just cut that down by about 24 hours. I called Edita at Clever Girls who had booked all the travel letting her know what was up and wondering if I should even bother still coming if I wouldn’t even get into LA until 9:15 AM the next morning. She assured me that I should, so that was my plan. I headed home and spent the rest of the afternoon with Andy & Ry.

My alarm went off the next morning at 3 AM. Yes, THREE in the morning. So I could shower and look halfway presentable for a full day at Toyota HQ. My flight landed at LAX at 8:45 AM, a half hour early! My driver was there waiting for me. No hat, but he was holding a sign that said my name. He took me to the hotel where I checked in, dropped my bag and headed back out. This time on to ToyotaHQ. When I got there they were just finishing up a session. And from this point on the day seriously flew by!

I took notes like I was in college again. Everyone I met that either worked directly for, or with, Toyota had such a passion for what they were doing and you could tell they truly enjoyed their jobs. Toyota is a company that is seriously committed to safety, the environment, education and really giving back.

On the giving back front, not only do they provide monetary sponsorship/grants/donations to a number of organizations, they also have a number of their own programs they have pioneered like Toyota Tapestry, a program that provides grants to K-12 science teachers, Toyota International Teacher Program, a 2 week exchange program for teachers, and the newest, 100 Cars for Good. {watch the video}

From a personal and professional standpoint, I really loved learning about their product launch cycle. And coming from a company that has taken a product from concept to launch in 30 days, I seriously couldn’t fathom having a 5-6 year timeline to work off of. {Seriously, this was one of the highlights of my entire trip, but I won’t bore you with all the details}

There was a stack of vehicles at our disposal to take out for a spin! I tried out the PriusV, the all-new Camry SE and the Venza. I also spent quite a bit of time checking out the Highlander Hybrid as well as the Sequoia. My very favorite was the Venza, hands down! So much space…but still car-ish and still decent gas milage (at least comparable to the Buick we’re driving right now). Seriously a fantastic mix of everything we would need in another car. {More on the car driving later!}

We toured the Toyota Auto Museum…that was pretty cool. Andy would have been in serious Cruiser heaven! And another highlight? I got to sit in a race car.

We wrapped up the “learning” part of the day with a quick recap and photo opp of the group.

#ToyotaWomen TWIN Camp
The evening ended with an amazing dinner that I wrote about here.

Seriously…all in all an amazing experience that I will not soon forget. If there is anything you want to know more about from my trip just let me know!

And, a huge, HUGE shout out to the Clever Girls behind the event. I’ve put together events kind of like this before and I know how much work goes into it. They did a fantastic job!

Other cool facts about Toyota that I didn’t know before:

-They’ve had Toyota USA HQ for over 50 years.
-Since they started keeping track in 1991, ToyotaUSA has contributed more than a half a BILLION dollars to philanthropic causes.
-From raw material to finished product, over 90% of the Camry is produced right in the USA!!!
-Toyota has been “doing green” since 1969 when they formed their first environmental committee!
-Toyota has pioneered a collaborative research effort for testing safety standards in not only their vehicles, but the entire car industry.
-Toyota’s new EnTune system that syncs your smartphone to your car giving you instant access to apps like Pandora and Bing as well as others.
-Toyota has created over 360,000 jobs in the US.

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.

Spring {And Change} is in the Air

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It’s that time of year…

The time of year where the sun starts peeking through the rain clouds and we start spending a little bit more time each weekend outside.

There’s no doubt, Spring is in the air.

But with Spring comes…work.

Gone will be the days of lazy family weekend morning filled with cartoons and home improvement shows.

Gone will be the family trips to the grocery store.

They will be replaced with one of us (me) staying inside the good majority of the day to get housework done and one of us (Andy) heading outside for hours on end working on the property.

Of course there will still be family lunches and family dinners at the table daily.

And there will be plenty of time where all of us are outside, but instead of us doing something all together, I will likely be hanging out with Rylee while she plays in her sandbox or digs in the rocks and Andy will be off in the distance brush-hogging a field, cleaning up the brush around the pond, pruning a fruit tree, taking care of the burn pile or any one of the other seemingly million things on the to-do list when you have 12 acres and two houses to take care of.

We’ll take a family walk to the back of the property now and again, watching Dante zoom past us when he realizes where we’re going. But shortly after our walk is over, it will be back to work.

Obviously, this isn’t meant to be some sort of woe-is-us thing because, really, we chose this path as our life we’re building. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it will be an adjustment.

Spring is in the air. And while we can’t be more excited for some sunshine and time spent outside, Spring means change. And it’s the change that we have the trouble with.