Turning Daily Frustrations into Laughs

I'm not sure if it's "that age" where my almost three year old daughter has resorted to nothing but whining and crying as her main form of "communication" or if she's aware that in 6 short months she'll no longer be the only child, but this new behavior she's going through has definitely taken it's toll on our sanity. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Mom, I KNOW I'm a mother and what I signed up for and a little crying for Miss K here or there is NOT a big deal to us, it's expected since her communication skills are still evolving, but it's happening all. the. time. She's well fed, rested, interacted with often, etc. Again, I'm told it's "that age" but who really knows! ;-)

There are days where everything, and I literally mean EVERYTHING, will set her off into a tantrum or crying episode with me just standing there confused about why she's crying. A lot of times I'm frustrated because I HATE seeing her upset and not knowing what's wrong or the fact that she's already so upset she has a hard time telling me what's wrong but unfortunately we're not mind readers so we go through our list and "process of elimination" to try to help figure out what's wrong, but for those days we can't, I've been shown something that shines a little humor on this situation (I'll get to that in a minute).

An example of one of my daughter's meltdowns, today she fell apart because I wouldn't let her lick me. Yep, you read that right! LOL! 

My dear friend, Zoe, had the most amazing timing yesterday when I was feeling extra worn down by showing me the blog/site:

Reason's My Son Is Crying

And I'm SO happy she showed me because now I have a different view on my child's crying over the simplest things and this makes me want to start my own list of "Reason's My Daughter Is Crying". 

This site is a mother that has made a situation very similar to mine and turned it into something to laugh about!

Check it out for yourself! If you're a parent, you'll totally laugh and find yourself saying "YEP, my child TOTALLY does that!" ;-)

...and baby makes FOUR!!!

I'm BEYOND excited to announce that our little family is growing this year! We seriously couldn't be more excited for our daughter to be a BIG SISTER!! :-)

Instead of making NEW Resolutions....

I've decided that instead of making a whole new list of New Years Resolutions, I'm going to recommit to ones that I didn't quite accomplish in 2012! I'm having a hard time with the idea of making new ones when I didn't finish all of the old ones!

Here is my "new" list...

1) Recommit to my weight loss/fitness journey that I originally started back in May! Everyone can follow it at Cate Gets Fit!

2) Start tackling our debt with GAZELLE INTENSITY!! For those of you that are familiar with Dave Ramsey's program, you'll get this ;-)

3) Tackle a HUGE chunk of my 101 in 1001 list!

4) Spending more one on one time with my husband. This may seem like a "simple" one for a lot of people, but ever since we made our big move, the timing just hasn't allowed us to slow down and be with one another enough. We finally are getting into a grove of monthly date nights YAY! It's been SO long since we've had them on a regular basis! Love our time together when we are able to share it alone. 

To finish up this post, here are some of my "Greatest Hits" from 2012...

1. We made a HUGE move back to our hometown after living on our own away from family for 8 years.

2. Our "baby" became 2 years old.

3. My baby brother got married and a few months later announced that we were going to have a niece/nephew this year!

COOPER STUDIOS

4. My brother in law temporarily left us to serve in the US Army in Afghanistan.

5. My husband finished his college degree and walks this June. I'm SO proud of him!

There are SO many things that could have made the above list, but these are the ones that stick out the most.

Here's how we brought in the New Year:

I know, we're gross ;-)

Hope you all enjoyed celebrating the arrival of the New Year! May it be everything you hope for!!! :-)

Where are the Mom's!?

Admit it, most of you don't like having your picture taken...ESPECIALLY after just having a baby. I'm admitting it! Yes, more often than not, I'm shying away from cameras. When you become a Mother, it can be SO easy to get carried away with taking TONS of pictures of your kiddos doing everything. My poor child knew what a camera was and what to do when there was one in the room when she was just months old (whoops!) because I took it EVERYWHERE with us.

Someone shared this post with me and it brought me to tears.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-tate/mom-pictures-with-kids_b_1926073.html#slide=1601547

I am guilty of being that Mom/person that didn't want her photo taken when I felt like I was an eyesore to the world.

And it's not just Mom's that are guilty of this. Dad's are too, but in a different way. Sometimes it's a struggle to get my hubby behind a camera because he doesn't like posing for pictures but he's a champ and humors me (I love you babe!).

I've made it my mission to be more vulnerable and get IN FRONT of the camera more and more instead of being the one behind it missing all the action. So, here's my husband and I, getting behind the camera more with our daughter. I hope this helps inspire some of you to do that same. Our babies grow up WAY to fast for us to be worrying how we look in pictures, instead we just need to let go and HAVE FUN with our kids to make some amazing memories! Our children could series care less about what we look like, start taking some photos! If you do, I'd love to see yours :-)

What I've Learned: Cloth Diapers

When I first started blogging back in July 2010 shortly after my daughter was born, a lot of what I started blogging about was my journey of switching to cloth diapers.

The decision we made to cloth diaper was extremely fast. Miss K was just two months old we decided that we wanted to get her in cloth as soon as possible so I just started ordering diapers that we could afford rather than what "the best ones" out there were. If you weren't following my blog back then, here are all my posts about cloth diapering if you wanted to see what my entire first experience was like OR if you're considering cloth diapering for your household, I have SO many posts with awesome info too! :-) I have my post listed below, in order (including cloth diaper reviews I did):

*If you don't want to read these posts, just skip down to "Lesson Learned #1: Research More About Cloth Diaper Brands*

My Journey of Switching to Cloth Diapers

Cloth Diaper Update #1

Cloth Diapers: Let's Get Started!

Cloth Diapers - Day 1

Sustainable Hemp Products Cloth Diaper Review

Cloth Diaper Update #2

Leg Warmers....Cloth Diaper's Favorite Accessory

Banana Bottoms Cloth Diaper Review and Giveaway
*Giveaway is CLOSED

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{Lesson Learned #1: Research More About Cloth Diaper Brands}

I don't 100% regret not taking the time to do more research on different brands, but this time we've definitely taken more time and care into researching.

The first time around, a huge portion of our stash were Nubunz diapers.

At the time, these diapers were the most appealing because they were only $8.00 each brand new or about $5.00 for "seconds" diapers and we loved the different color options. I ordered about 20 of them since the price was so reasonable. Unfortunately, these diapers maybe last a year. Maybe they fell apart because I did something wrong (after all, we WERE newbies at cloth diapering) but I strictly followed the care instructions and the PUL material in almost all of them started to get holes, leak, or detach from the outside fabric of the diaper making it almost impossible to put the terrycloth inserts in them. If it wasn't the PUL material falling apart, the next issue we had was, what I like to call, the "perma-stink" issue. When you use cloth diapers, after some time some of the diapers tend to start smelling and this is usually when the diapers need to be "stripped" to help get rid of the excess soap build up and what not. I stripped the diapers a few times and the smell remained. Sometimes switching cloth diaper detergent helps, but even after I did that, and received tons of help from the customer service reps at Rockin' Green Cloth Diaper Detergent (which to this very day is still my all time favorite CD detergent and you serious CANNOT beat the service you get from this company)...I couldn't get rid of the smell.

The reason I don't 100% regret purchasing Nubunz diapers is because even though they didn't last the entire time we cloth diapered Miss K, we still felt we got our money's worth out of $8.00 diapers. To only spend around $190 for a year's worth of cloth diapers vs spending WAY more for disposables for a 3 month old....I'd do it again tomorrow! haha!

The cloth diaper brands that I purchased that I still love more than ever to this day are the ones from Sustainable Hemp Products, Banana Bottoms, and Thirsties Duo Wraps.

Brands that we're interested in trying out that we've done more research on: Fuzzibunz, Charlie Banana, Rumparooz Lil' Joey Diapers, GroVia, and bumGenius diapers.

{Lesson Learned #2: One Size Diapers Aren't Really Newborn Friendly}

Miss K has really skinny legs from when she was a newborn until she was about 6 months old when she FINALLY started to fill into her one size diapers. We had quite a few leaky days and nights before her little thighs got big enough :-) I had a few friends and other cloth diaper Mama's tell me about newborn diapers. The biggest complaint I found about newborn diapers was the investment people were making in newborn diapers when kiddos weren't in them for very long, however it's still a much easier purchase to make because newborns go through the most diapers. Most newborn cloth diapers only go up to 12lbs and with the rapid weight gain the little ones have during that age, it doesn't leave much time to use newborn diapers.

{Lesson Learned #3: Purchase TWO Sets of Wetbags}

I had only purchased one hanging wet bag to store dirty diapers in at home and only one travel wetbag. The problem I faced immediately was that every time I had to wash the wetbags, I had nothing to put dirty diapers in for hours while I waited for the bags to dry :-( So I'm definitely going to be purchasing a second set so that this doesn't happen again. My hubby and I weren't too pleased about dealing with the smell of dirty diapers when we didn't have a wetbag to put them in ;-) 

.::What We're Doing Differently Next Time Around::.

#1 - Cloth Diapering From Birth

Since we had never thought about possibly using cloth diapers, we didn't get to start cloth diapering until Miss K was a little over 3 months old. For us, cloth diapering was not only about saving money but about not wanting the chemicals in disposable diapers to touch Miss K's bum. She ended up getting the WORST rashes frequently when she was in disposables and when we put her in cloth, they drastically dropped in frequency.

#2 - Trying Out Different Types Of Cloth

The only two types of diapers we used with Miss K were a large amount of pocket diapers and fitted diapers that required covers. Diapers we want to try out are newborn diapers, prefold diapers, all in ones, and we want to add more one size and fitted diapers to our stash.

#3 - Line Drying Outside/Sunning Diapers More Often

Since we've lived in apartments all of Miss K's life, we didn't really have the luxury of being able to line dry or sun our diapers as often as we wanted. We tried to do it once off our TINY back deck....but it was more work than we wanted to put into it so we never tried it again.

We ended up having to put our diapers in the dryer if we ran out of clean ones, which is okay, but only if your dryer has a low heat setting...and ours didn't so we tried out best to keep an eye on our diapers by putting them on the "cool down" setting on our dryer to make sure they didn't get too hot. It was definitely a lot more work than we hoped for but didn't have much of a choice because we didn't even think to check if our dryer had the low heat setting and if cloth diapers with PUL material get too hot, the PUL melts :-(

#4 - Buying More Diapers Second Hand

I know some of you might not like the idea of buying cloth diapers second hand, but if the previous owners really took the time to take care of their stash before selling, then there's no reason not to buy second hand. Owners that really take care of their diapers make sure that they're washed in cloth diaper safe detergent, use cloth diaper safe rash cream and sun/line dry their diapers to maintain the quality of them along with sunning out any stains they may get from being soiled.

I mostly began looking for newborn second hand diapers when the number one complaint I saw was that it seemed crazy to invest in brand new ones when kiddos weren't being in them for too long. A friend of mine told about cloth diaper "buy, sell and trade" groups on Facebook and that I should join a few to see what I could find. I joined a lot of brand specific cloth diapers groups such as Fuzzibunz, GroVia, Charlie Banaba, etc and started to keep an eye one what people were trying to sell. While monitoring those groups I did some research on reviews for different kinds of newborn cloth diapers and found that GroVia was one of the top 5 brands that had great cloth diapers for newborns.

Since we're having to practically rebuild our stash from scratch my hubby and I both thought it would be a great idea to buy a diaper here and there starting now, that way we won't have to worry about making a huge purchase for the rest of the diapers up front. We're spending the same amount either way, but it seems less harsh buying one diaper at a time :-)

We may have jumped the gun a little since we have no idea when we'll be having another kiddo, but we wanted to start working on our stash now for newborn diapers and GroVia's seem to be the brand I have loved the most. Here's the little stash we have right now...

How stinkin' cute are those?!?!

More often then not in these cloth diaper groups, people are selling brand new diapers still in their packaging or diapers that they only prepped for their kiddo but never ended up using so they're basically brand new. Now that we're taking the time to do more research on different styles/brands, I've been trying to buy a diaper from each of the ones I like or have heard great things about. I purchased this brand new Perfect Size Fuzzibunz diaper from a gal who's hubby didn't get the exact one she wanted and he didn't get a receipt so her loss was my gain! :-)

Yesterday I just purchased two All In One (AIO) One Size bumGenius diapers from a friend that didn't end up feeling that cloth diapering was for her family along with two Thirsties Duo Wraps (which I love). I don't have picture of those but I'm so excited to get them!!! :-)

#5 - Attempt to Make Some Diapers Myself

If you want to cloth diaper and do NOT want to have to wash diaper EVERYDAY, the best amount of diapers to have for washing every other day is to have about 24+ diapers in your stash. I squeaked by with 21 diapers in our stash, but I definitely want more next time.

Whenever we do have our next kiddo (which at this point we have no clue when that will happen LOL!), if we don't have the amount of diapers that we'd like to have for our stash, I really want to attempt to make a few. A couple months ago I invested in this pattern book...

All the supplies needed to make your own diapers are a bit of an investment as well, but the idea of being able to make or fix any diapers that I purchase makes it seems well worth giving it a try.

Even though Miss K has been out of cloth diapers for about 6+ months or so, it's fun to get back into the research and think about how we'll get to do it again next time and be more prepared to do it. I think I'm most excited about cloth diapering from birth. It was a pretty overwhelming experience when we started out but I think that it has been super important to go through what we did because we learned so much about what to do, what not to do, and what works the best for our household. I was super thankful that my hubby was so open minded throughout the entire process and ended up liking cloth diapers.

Do you have some cloth diaper stories, tips, tricks, what worked or didn't work for you?? I'd love to hear them! Thinking about cloth diapering and have questions? ASK AWAY! :0) I could talk about this stuff all day long ;-)

Glad to be back blogging today after my last in mid June (YIKES!) haha! :-)

Small Victories

Restarting my fitness journey has seriously never given me so much clarity! I know that sounds corny but to be honest, I'm almost really happy about the fact that I had to start over with my {One Year, 52lbs} goal because I have such a different mind set about everything involving health and weight loss compared to the first time I started back in July 2011. 

It all started when I saw this quote last month, that I shared in another recent blog post...

There was just something about this quote that "lit a fire" in me. It was almost of feeling of anger, because I was SO disappointed in myself for having to start over after working extremely hard to get where I had been. When I started my original goal of losing 52lbs in one year, I was down 18lbs by Halloween and once the force of holidays hit, I lost my focus, and discovered that I gained all that weight back when I weighed myself again on May 21st of this year. But what has turned into anger, has turned into drive, motivation, and commitment.

I wasn't sure HOW to start over...so I took a step by setting a goal to do the {No Junk Food Challenge & From Couch to 5K} Training Program on June 2nd. I've had absolutely NO cravings for any of the junk foods listed (which is amazing in itself because I had a nightly ritual of eating chocolate after dinner) and today I'm on Week 2 Day 5 of my C25K program.

When I started the C25K program on June 2nd, the very first day of the program you have to do a 5 minute walk, 2 minute jog, 5 minute walk. If it wasn't for softball, basketball or warming up for weight lifting back in high school, I never ever ran a day in my life. Period. I honestly used the word "hate" whenever people talked about having me go running with them. I was one of those people that just never did it for exercise because I disliked it so much. I hated the way I felt during running and how I felt after I had ran. My lungs would hurt, my shins would hurt, everything felt like it hurt. So, I started doing some research. My dear friend Kat, that you all have heard me talk quite a bit about (because I just love her that much!), pointed me in the direction of a looking at videos about correct running form so your body doesn't end up hurting like mine was.  I quickly discovered that I had the WORST running form, which caused my shins to constantly hurt. Here's one of the videos I came across if you want to take a peek :-)





When I headed out for my first run, I was crazy nervous but kept a positive attitude. The 2 minute jog was tough but I got through it surprisingly well, even if I was breathing like I was dying when it was over! HAHA! But, I survived! WOO HOO!

On Monday (Week 2 day 3) for my C25K run, I had to do a 5 minute walk, 4 minute jog, 5 minute walk. I was a little nervous again because when I had to do a 3 minute jog just a couple days before, it was tough, but I think the cold weather played into why it was so tough too. Derek and Miss K went with me to help me out/be my cheerleaders. When I started the jogging portion, before I knew it, Derek was saying "you're over half way done with your jog". I found myself smiling from ear to ear and kept smiling until I was done. Not only was that the EASIEST two minutes of jogging I had EVER done, the entire 4 minutes was cake! I was ELATED, to say the least. That was my small victory moment - realizing how far I'd actually come in just two short weeks - a two minute jog that I struggled with...was - - EASY! :-) What was even more fun was that the next day, I came across this...

Great timing for this, huh?! :-)

I just can't help but continue to celebrate because for someone like me that never would have run for exercise, I'm absolutely loving the rush I get from it. I know, who am I, right?!

So, after all this writing, what I'm trying to say to all of you is CELEBRATE THE SMALL VICTORIES! Please! You'll do yourself so much more good if you do. I've seen too many people (me being one of them in the past) have unrealistic expectations, set insane goals for themselves or expect immediate results and when they don't see anything happening fast enough, they get discouraged, quit or resort to crash diets, etc. If you want results, it takes TIME.

If you want to do it right, DO THE RESEARCH. If you're not sure about something, ASK! :-) If you traveled a mile, walking, jogging or running, celebrate! Don't be mad because it was easier for someone else or because some do it faster or travel farther than you. If you lost one pound, celebrate! Don't be made because it was "just one pound".

If you need help, ASK! Asking for help was the hardest part for me. I felt that I had some obligation to know more than I actually did before asking someone for help. Thankfully, someone from my hometown has made fitness his career and he has been so helpful...Tim with Tim Arndt Fitness.

I started out by signing up for his free newsletter where he gives free tips and advice to anyone who will read. I've learned so much just from those newsletters, but I wanted to get my hands on all the information I could, so I finally got the nerve to contact him through his Facebook page and asked him some questions and asked for recommendations for a nutritionist in our area. I felt bad about reaching out to him at first because I couldn't afford to hire him as a trainer so I didn't want him thinking that I was just trying to get what I could for free. I know that sounds awful but that's how I felt and that's why I was scared to ask for his help. With Tim, it was the exact OPPOSITE! He was SO willing to help, that his willingness to share his knowledge of fitness, blew me away. Shame on me for even thinking he would look at me as one of "those people" who abuse a good thing ;-) haha! What started out as just a recommendation from him has turned into something awesome. I mentioned to Tim that once I'm at a comfortable place with running, I'd love to get back into lifting weights again, but wasn't sure how to go about this since I don't want to be "just a runner" or "just a lifter" and he recommended this book to me..

Purchase Book HERE

I haven't found a negative review on this book YET! Check out the reviews for yourself but what I love about this book is that the author addresses questions that people ask and he backs up the answers with credible research. This book is amazing for people like me, that didn't know where to start, didn't know much about running to do or how to incorporate both cardio and weights in my life. It breaks down the questions to where they're an easy read AND it's also a great book for athletes who are more advanced with the exercise routines. The other big thing I like about this book is that you don't have to read it from cover to get the information you want. Find the question that you want answered, skip to that page and get it! :-) I was finding the answers I needed within 5 minutes of picking it up! I can only sit here and tell you so much about how awesome this book is, but you need to get it and see for yourself :-)

We all have to start somewhere, so for those of you too scared to go to the gym because you don't look like the rest of the fit people working out in there...they had to start somewhere, now it's up to you to take that step and go for it! If you feel like that by stepping in that public facility, that you'll be judged...bottom line: who cares! haha! It only matters what you think :-) Show those people that when you walk through the door, you're there to do WORK! And let me be the one to tell you, most people will admire you more for getting yourself in there to be a better version of yourself. Do it for YOU, not for everyone else :-) Just start somewhere.

By the way, if any of you are interested, Tim just started selling some very cute hoodies for women that he released two days ago. But once they're gone, they're gone forever. I love how they cater to the social media side of my generation :-) Pretty clever! You'll probably seeing me use the #transformation hashtag a lot through my fitness journey lol! If you want to check them out for yourself...

Go HERE for more info about these hoodies or to purchase one for yourself :-)

I just ordered mine yesterday! I CANNOT wait to get it!

If you were interested in subscribing to Tim's newsletter, go HERE. Just scroll down to the bottom of the home page and you'll see where to enter in your email address and info :-) Let me know if you do subscribe to his newsletter, would love to have new people to talk about it with! :-)

*I was in no way paid or compensated for sharing any sites or products in this post. All of the above is my own opinion and shared on my own terms*

{Couponing help anyone?? Part FIVE}

Welcome to Part FIVE of my couponing series!

If you're just joining us, this is my FIVE part coupon help series! Here are the topics, along with the first and second topics that has already been covered, just click on any of the previous segments to head directly to that post. This is the last post of the series and I hope you've enjoyed it and learned something so far about couponing!

Part ONE: Coupon Lingo and More

Part TWO: Getting Started/Collecting Coupons

Part THREE: Coupon Organization and More

Part FOUR: Learn How To Navigate Coupons Sites/Blogs (covering in today's post)

Part FIVE: Wrapping It Up!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that you have all this awesome info, coupons are gathered and organized, hopefully you will take the next step and get out there and start couponing! :-)

There are just a couple little things left that I wanted to mention briefly or explain a few random things here or there, so here goes...

Most grocery stores have their ads come out at certain times of the week, have certain sale cycles, restocking days, etc. Pick your favorite store(s) and find out what these cycles are. For Albertson's, their TTV's run from Sunday and are good until Tuesday when they come out. My hubby and I always do our shopping lists and prep work for our trips every Saturday night (or as needed) before we head out and hit the stores on Sundays. For those of you with kids, you'll REALLY appreciate being organized when you head out the door just in case one of the munchkins decides to have a "bad day" and make things a bit more difficult. I HIGHLY suggest, if you can, to get a sitter or have hubby watch the kiddos while you go out shopping. It really allows you to focus on what's happening just in case there's something out of stock and you have to improvise with your coupons and sales.

Here is a look at my organization when it comes to getting ready for our shopping trips...

 
If you DO have to improvise because the items you wanted to get are out of stock DO.NOT.PANIC! :-) I usually try to plan a couple back up plans in case that happens but if you don't get a chance to, just take some time to look around the store to see what you can find. There are some times where the couponing sites know about ALL the deals because a store might just put something on sale because they feel like it even if it's not necessarily a nationwide sale.

Another thing I love to do when I'm getting my grocery list ready on Saturdays is to plan out our meals for the week or possibly the month depending on the sales. This is where you'll want to look through all the grocery ads to cater the planning to the sales :-) Take a look around online, there are so many free printable meal planners online to help you.

When it comes to getting the best deals...there is definitely a "transaction science". I'm honestly still learning this process. For example, when you get doubles, say you buy three papers so you have 3 sets of three doubles (this is what I usually do when it's a TTV coupon week. You can only use 3 doubles per transaction and you can only have a maximum of three transactions in a row per trip through the line. If you want to exceed that three transaction limit, you have to get out of line and go back through the checkout line. Usually when I have to do that, I'll finish the first set of transactions, head out to my car to load it up, then I head back in for the next round :-)

If you're still not real sure about the whole "transaction science" idea, usually there are a lot of fellow readers of coupon blogs out there that will help you lay out your transactions. I was lucky enough to have my friend Kat, who basically taught me everything I know today about couponing, take me out on my first shopping trip with her so I could watch her do it and then she helped me get through my first big transaction with all my coupons! haha! So, I owe a big thanks to her! I wish that I could do the same for all of you and take you all out for your first shopping trips but that would be a lot of traveling on my end, wouldn't it? ;-)

If you're still extremely overwhelmed by the process, read everything you could get your hands on, or need more of a visual like I did, I STRONGLY encourage you to buy Fabulessly Frugal.'s 90 minute DVD: 7 Secrets to Successful Couponing (just click on the picture below to take you straight to the webpage to buy this DVD).

Click here to purchase Fabulessly Frugal's 90 Minute DVD

Here I am with my copy :-) Monica, who is pictured above, definitely rocks this photo holding the DVD better than I do haha!

Please don't hesitate to comment on this post with any questions or concerns, etc (I can directly reply to your comments as long as your blogger account isn't set as "no reply blogger" - take a look at my comment form to find out more details on that). Or, you can email me directly at cblakley0531@gmail.com - Just in case your email gets sent to my SPAM folder, write "Couponing 101 Post" in the subject line so I know you're not a spammer :-)

**Disclaimer: I was in no way paid by FabuLESSly Frugal to write this series for my readers. I honestly just love couponing and this site THAT much. I wanted to share all my new knowledge with you!**