Using What I've Got

So Micah and I are getting ready to move into the home we are going to rent, and I'm feeling like I need a change when it comes to my furniture. But unfortunately I don't have the finances to go buy new things. So...what I decided to do is use what I already have and just mix it up a little! And because I'm having so much fun, I wanted to post about the changes I am making. I'm trying to do everything the cheap way! And since most of my friends are frugal like me, I thought you guys would enjoy. ;)

My first finished project was to update my cheap bookshelves I bought from WalMart 5 years ago. I realized that some of my wrapping paper I bought 3 years ago matches the colors I'm doing for my living room perfectly. I had the idea to just use spray adhesive and basically make the wrapping paper into wallpaper for the backside of the bookshelves. So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought the Elmer's Spray Adhesive, and got started! From start to finish, it literally took me 20 minutes to do TWO bookshelves. So fast and easy, I can't believe I didn't do it sooner.

  
Have a great day! ~Meghan

A few months in

     Well, little Lucy Anne has now been around for 4 months!!! 4!! I can hardly believe it. And on top of it, I can hardly believe I ever survived without her.
   
      I've heard mom's say before about how once they have children it is as if that child had always been there. And I never really believed it until a few weeks ago when I attempted my first 'me-time'. I handed her over to Micah for literally 80 minutes. I hopped in the car and I immediately felt like I had forgotten something important. Once I was satisfied I was ok to go I soon realized I didn't know what to do with myself! I settled on going to Barnes and Noble, and I found myself just sitting there not sure of what I should do while there. I never used to be this way, I used to be soo independent! I could be on my own perfectly content for hours! But now, I couldn't handle more than an hour before I was dying to get home.

     This little girl has completely won the remaining part of my heart not already owned by her father. I am more and more in love every day. I never thought I could get excited by the most mundane things that she does, but I do.

     As of right now, Lucy can use her hands to touch, bat, and grab. She loves her feet, mouth, and Micah's beard. She can blow bubbles, and loves to make delighted screams and squeels (sometimes laugh). She is trying very hard to sit up on her own, can roll over from tummy to back, and enjoys splashing. She still loves being held, and gets very angry when she isn't center of attention. But of all these things, my personal favorite is morning-time. She is very smiley and happy, and that has become our bonding playtime.

   All those times that I prayed to my Heavenly Father begging for a child I promised that I would love that child and do my very best to raise her. Some days I feel overwhelmed, but over-all I feel like so far I have kept to my promise, and will continue to. Besides, she is so cute, its easy to love her! ;)

Have a great day! ~Meghan

The delivery: When 2 became 3!

I don't know if this is of any interest to anyone, but I wanted to write down my delivery story so that I can remember it all later. :) Here it goes!

The week before I delivered, my family came to visit. I was so huge I was miserable moving around, but I kept trying to get labor started. We went on a couple walks as a family, and Micah and I tried ALL the other recommended labor inducing theories. Nothing seemed to be working, I didn't even have contractions besides my normal braxton hicks. My family planned on leaving to head home at 6 am on Sunday Nov 25 , so in a last attempt at inducing labor I drake 2 spoonfuls of castor oil at noon on Saturday. YUCK! The oil didn't work the way I wanted it to, I just had to go to the bathroom a lot....LOL. That night we stayed up talking and playing games, and went to bed at 10:30.

At midnight I was awakened with very strong contractions, already 4 minutes apart. I had two contractions before I woke up Micah. He told me we would continue timing them for 7 or 8 more contractions and then head to the hospital. I downloaded an app on my phone to time them, and after only 4 more contractions we realized we needed to start getting our hospital bag. I let my mom know we were headed in, and we took off to the hospital around 12:45. I could have killed Micah on the drive there, he drove sooo SLOW!!! Normally I am nagging him to slow down, but in that moment I wanted him to hurry! I was so worried we wouldn't get there in time (even though we only live 5 min away).

Thankfully I was pre-admitted, so they got me up right away. By the time we got me hooked up with the monitors and they finished asking me questions, my contractions had gotten closer together, and I was really starting to struggle with the pain. It caused me to throw up about 5 times because of the pain. At 2:35 they officially admitted me to the hospital and we sent out our texts to our friends and family. My mom arrived quickly after.

I was only dilated to a 2 and I was 80% effaced, so I thought I had a ways to go. Boy was I wrong! My contractions started to peak, only go down a little, and then peak again. No resting time in between. So I started to dilate quickly. I warned the nurses, my mom would dilate to a 4 and then jump to a 10, so they kept a close eye on me. I did the same thing as my mom. Thankfully they got the epidural for me, and also enough antibiotics for the Strep B so Lucy wouldn't get sick, before I delivered.

I pushed for only an hour before Lucy was born. Because of the epidural, I couldn't move my left leg, but unfortunately I could feel a lot of it because the machine that is supposed to allow me to press the button and release more meds wasn't working. By the time they caught the problem it was time to push. At first I was shaking uncontrollably, but the oddest thing happened when I actually did push, I stopped shaking. I felt good. It feels like a dream, probably because I had my eyes closed for a lot of it. I was trying to focus and I was so tired that I couldn't use any energy on my eyes. lol.

The moment she was born I felt this amazing sense of relief and emotions run through me. I began crying, and I found Micah and so was he. I just wanted to hold my baby girl, and know that she was healthy and ok. It was amazing that first feeling of holding her, I couldn't stop crying and looking at her. She was born at 6:52 am, 8 lbs, 20 inches. I was so overwhelmed it felt very surreal, but I was very happy.

We are now so glad to have our precious baby. Its finally starting to sink in that she is OUR baby, and we couldn't be more happy! We love this little angel. :)

Have a great day! ~Meghan

Over halfway there!

 Its about time I post again! Sorry about the huge delay. :) I am now at 23 weeks into my pregnancy, and I'm feeling great! The baby is kicking her little life away and I'm starting to feel all the other aches and pains of pregnancy that hadn't affected me thus far. I don't know if any of you have experienced this, but I have been having some really strong pain on the outside of my left foot. My massage therapist friend says she thinks its because I'm over-compensating. I have a pinch in my back above my right leg that makes it hard to put too much weight on it, and she thinks that I'm putting to much now on my left. On top of that, I think I'm starting to develop shin splints. Lol, if its not one thing then its another. But, even with all those aches everything is soooo worth it. I get to feel the cool things too, like the feeling of her kicking. Its such a neat sensation, I get excited each time and immediately grab whoever is next to me to see if they can feel it. Unfortunately, my future daughter is just like her parents and is already very ornery, and doesn't like to cooperate with that. hahaha. Oh well, soon enough she will be so big that she'll have no choice but be felt by everyone as she wiggles around.
I'm starting to get all these stresses and worries about the future and everything concerning the baby, work, housing, money, etc. I just keep trying to remember to lean on the Lord and let him direct me in the way I need to go. I'm sure it will all work out if I have faith.
We are both so grateful for this blessing, she has already been a source of inspiration for us and we are both seeing the world with a new perspective and drive to make sure whatever we do is what is best for her. :)

Have a great day! ~Meghan

Our Cruise

Its been 2 weeks since we've been back from our cruise, so it is definitely time that I finally post about it. Micah and I went on a Carnival cruise to Baja Mexico. IT WAS AMAZING! We had such a blast. It was long awaited for to be able to go on a trip just the two of us, especially since we never really got to take a big honeymoon. And now that we have a mini Espinoza coming we wanted to make sure we got a trip in before he or she comes. :) So here is the quick version about our trip!

We arrived in California on Monday morning, and we were happily surprised to find that everything just fell into place perfectly for our travels and arrival. Everything from the gate, to baggage claim, to arriving early and getting checked in quickly just worked out in our favor.

Then Tuesday we arrived in Catalina Island and they had boat taxis to shuttle us back and forth from the Island. Catalina was personally my favorite port, and I think I could take a guess that it was Micah's too. It was so gorgeous, and the whole town was super cute and unique. The coolest part was that no one really drove a regular car, they all drove golf carts!  And you could tell each families personality by their golf cart. Some were painted cool colors, others were tricked out, some were extended for more people, and my favorite, some had carseats in them! They all were so unique it was really fun to walk around and see them all.

We decided we wanted to go snorkeling with a group from the ship, and we were sure glad we did, it was soooo fun. That was both our first times doing that, and we got some funny pictures of ourselves. I ended up getting nauseous at the end of the activity, I think the baby wasn't too fond of having my stomach pushed in from the wetsuits.  LOL. Over all it was a marvelous day, and I got extremely sunburned. hahaha.

Wednesday we were in Ensenada Mexico, and Micah and I went with a bus to Rosarito to go to the beach. It was cloudy almost the whole time, but we enjoyed being on the beach, and Micah loved having his first time swimming in the ocean. There was a group of couples next to us, who were obviously LDS, and so I called one of the ladies over and talked to her about it for a while. A few minutes later I noticed them all digging in the sand, and turned out one of the women there had lost her wedding ring. Of course we had to help them look. So we sectioned off parts of the beach that it could have fallen, and gathered about 13 people to look for it thanks to my wonderful bilingual husband, who convinced locals there to let us borrow their tools to look in the sand. I remembered my friend Alea Peters, and how she had had a similar situation during family photos so I asked Micah to see if anyone had a metal detector. Unfortunately they didn't, but they did have these scoops that sifted through the sand well.
Long story short, we found the ring 5 minutes before we had to be back to the bus, and her husband was the one to find it and become "her hero!" :).

Our last full day was Thursday, and that was a hard day, because the boat was rocking super badly. I was very sick from all the motion, but Micah being the genius that he is figured out if I could at least see the waves it would make me feel better. So we sat out at the end of the boat for a long time until I felt better.

We got to watch a lot of fun performances and we really enjoyed just doing whatever we wanted. It was nice to just relax and forget all our responsibilities in the real world. But by the time we came home on Friday we were ready to be back to our normal lives, and we missed our puppies. :) Overall, it was a fantastic trip!

  
Have a great day! ~Meghan