Here's to 2016!

Well, we're 11 days into 2016 and I'm finally getting around to a New Year blog post. Yes, it's been that kind of year already! 

Ok, actually it was just a rough end to 2015. It was a blur of birthday celebrations, a quick trip to Oregon, holiday celebrations, then a powerful ice storm that left us without power for several days, and then the new year was upon us! It feels like I'm finally getting caught up now. 

So let's catch up. As I said, December was a busy one. After the birthday celebrations, James and I headed up to Oregon with my parents to visit my little sister and her husband. I'd never been to the Pacific Northwest (and neither had James), and I have to say, it was pretty beautiful! James wasn't a fan of the tiny plane we took from Seattle to Medford, but it wasn't too bad. (Though the bathroom was miniscule - if I'd been much further along, I don't know if I could've used it!) 

We were only there a few days, and I can't wait to go back. Maybe in the summer when it is a bit warmer! Though we'll have a little one to take with us then :) 

The holidays are a blur. We didn't even get a Christmas tree this year! I decorated the mantle and hung a wreath on the door, but that's all the holiday cheer we had around here. We came back from visiting family just in time for that ice storm I mentioned, and I got to experience three days in the dark. Thankfully we have a woodburning fireplace and James was able to procure us a generator on the second day, or it would've been truly miserable. I used to love building a fire when it was cold enough for one, but that little experience might have cured me of that. It was during this crazy week that I had the opportunity to drive a brand new Toyota Camry, which I'll tell you about later this week! 

And then there was the new year, which James and I celebrated with a mediocre dinner at Red Lobster, a tiny bottle of champagne, and Red Box. (No, I don't want to talk about that play off game.)

I did stay awake to ring in 2016, but we actually missed the countdown because we were watching my belly move. It is super weird to see your stomach move because there is a little human inside kicking!

Which pretty much brings us to today. I'm growing bigger by the second, it seems. And I'm staying busy with work. And when I'm not working, I'm trying to get our house cleaned back up. We're in the process of turning my office into a nursery (and our guest room into an office/guest room), so everything is topsy turvy. We have a dresser in the living room, baby clothes all over the place, and a general mess going on. 

So that's where I'm at. Trying to stay afloat in a sea of chaos. I'm going to just use this as practice for when the baby actually gets here - which will be in about 14 weeks! 

I promise to be back with at least one more post this week! Until then, Happy Monday!

Previously on Mrs Robbins Sparkles...

The Big 3-0

This weekend I turn the big 3-0. 

In my early twenties, I tried to imagine what my life would be like when this milestone hit. And while I envisioned several different scenarios, I don't think I could have known what it would actually be like. For example:

I had no idea I would be almost 6 months pregnant, trying to build up my business before our little girl makes her big debut. I had no idea I would live in a house in a small town outside of OKC with a husband who was several years younger. I had no idea I would be totally happy with all of those things, including the fact that my 30th birthday is going to be a totally laidback affair involving a few close friends, dinner, and a free water taxi ride. I had no idea that I would be so excited about finding a limited edition version of the Audrey BumGenius diaper. (It's a cloth diaper, I'll explain another time.) 

None of those things would have made sense to early twenty-something Jennifer, except the small birthday celebration with friends, because those friends are the same ones I had back then! 

But it all makes perfect sense now. The only thing that might bother me about turning 30 is that I didn't finish my 30 Before Thirty List. I did some amazing things in my twenties - I traveled to foreign countries, got married, took risks in my career, pushed myself in ways I didn't know I could. But I didn't do everything I set out to. 

And that's totally ok. I had lots of plans for this fall and winter; I was going to do the muddy rough 5k that I wasn't able to do in May when it was cancelled. I was going to take a cooking class, throw a dinner party, and buy a house. Instead I spent most of this fall hugging a toilet! The idea of cooking didn't start sounding good again until November, and simply the idea of hosting a dinner party exhausts me. The house thing went out the window when I left my banking job (getting a loan is hard when you're self-employed), and obviously the 5k wasn't going to happen. 

But guess what? Life isn't ending at 30. I can do all those things in the coming years, and so much more. My twenties are coming to an end, and I'm pretty happy about it because I cannot wait to see what my thirties bring!

Previously on Mrs Robbins Sparkles...

Hello, December

Well hello there, friends. I've been quiet since the big announcement, huh? I actually wrote a Quick Lit post for November, but the internet ate it. Twice. I'll just do it in December, because I've barely read anything the past couple weeks! 

So what have I been up to? Well, our wonderful little puppies have become total Houdinis and keep escaping from the back yard. The weekend before last I went chasing after Winchester (Remington came to me like a good puppy!) and ended up falling face first onto a concrete driveway. Thankfully all the damage was superficial - I didn't break anything, and baby girl Robbins and I are totally fine now. (Except for a bruised knee, sore teeth, and some scrapes and cuts that are still healing). But it looked pretty nasty when it happened. Here's my edited picture I shared on social media - I still don't to show you the pictures I took straight on. Not pretty!

This past week I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family, watched OU dominate in the Bedlam game, and came back home just in time to spend Sunday with no power thanks to the ice storm. It was a great weekend; I got to go through boxes that my mom saved from when I was a baby, and I ended up with lots of things for our little girl to wear/play with. Plus I got in some orders from ThredUp, including this precious coat for our little girl to wear next winter! (Complete with matching hat and muff! Don't worry, she also has camo and pink John Deere boots so she won't be too precious :) ) 

I also got a little carried away over Black Friday weekend. I am not a Black Friday shopper - the idea of battling crowds sounds absolutely awful to me. But saving money by staying up a little late to order online? Totally cool with that! I took advantage of some amazing deals at some cloth diaper online stores, and fell down the rabbit hole of cloth diapering. There's a full series of posts on that coming soon, I promise. But seriously, how cute are these diapers? I ordered two each of the ones on the upper right and lower left (2 different sizes so when she outgrows the small one we can move to the bigger one). Can anyone guess why I chose those two? ;)

And somehow it's December already! I turn 30 this weekend and I'm still trying to decide what I want to do to celebrate. I've already accepted that lots of things on my 30 before 30 list aren't going to be done - and that's ok. 

I'll be back later this week to talk about the big 30! Until then, stay warm friends!

Previously on Mrs Robbins Sparkles...