[Insert title here, cause I'm not creative]

For some reason I go back and re read my blog posts (mostly cause I can't even remember when I updated, what I updated, and hate repeating myself. who wants to read my blog let alone my blog on repeat?) and I crack myself up ! I sit and laugh at all my little jokes, and how I write stuff exactly like I would say it (or in my head how I say it) and I just sit and laugh. You think I write this blog for you... but really? I bet you don't have as much fun as me !

So yay two weeks without an update. Mostly cause there isn't anything to update except that I've been dying. I know, waaaaah. Shut up. I read a blog post about third trimester colds and just be prepared and I swear, self fulfilling prophecy cause guess what I've had for about a 1 1/2 week +.... THE WORST COLD EVER ! Can't breathe, can't swallow, can't talk (not that you hear anyone complaining) can't taste anything. Just exhausted and can't take my heaven sent NyQuil (EVIL don't drug your baby nonsense!). I swear one night I was sitting in the bathroom trying not to cry as I woke up for the 75th time that night to breathe, cough, hack up my lung, whatever and stared at the bottle in my medicine cabinet... just one sip right? No one would know ! People do multiple bad things during pregnancy and their babies are fine. ONE SIP of NyQuil won't kill my kid.. right?! Hard pass... I miss you NyQuil. So before you think I have a mental breakdown about a cough medicine, I'm doing better. My voice sounds relatively normal. I can't breathe as long as I keep my box of tissues nearby. I sleep pretty normal. Still get up to pee but at least I'm not gasping for air. Scary. So no more blogs telling me what "probably" will happen cause apparently I have some Jedi mind over body tricks and make it happen. NO MORE I SAY !

 Went thru madness to get my stupid Rhogam shot. And I got a fancy face mask since I was carrying the plague and could take out the whole hospital.

"Mommy, what's wrong with that scary wide eye pregnant lady in the face mask?" 

And my million dollar smile doesn't help to comfort anyone cause you can't see it ! Anywho- shots. Love them. Don't care to get them, except when they take two days. Let's draw your blood to make sure. Uh... didn't you draw like 10000 vials of blood in my first trimester ? What was all that for! I need my blood ! I know they know I'm Rh neg. and there's a huge pink sticker at my Ob on my chart... So why not draw more blood and wait two hours. Lame. Go back to get my shot cause hello, I know I need it. And apparently my little lab card was expired, that I had just used, 2 hours ago... What? So I had to come back the next day so everything could reprocess cause I wasn't about to wait another hour. Just give me my shot ! It was fun to sit in the little Labor and Delivery room where I'll get checked when I think I'm actually in labor !! And that everyone knows my mother in law. And how excited I am for everything. Except how utterly afraid I am at the same time and how this next 7 weeks can go as sloooooow as it wants.

So any other news? Can't wait to buy our tickets to Utah. Keep talking dates and can't seem to settle on one. Any help? August would be best since older baby = better. I'll be more able and hopefully less insane. Work just isn't working with August. Or maybe it is. We might just have that month off while our boss is in India. Who knows?! And July just sounds SO HOT. I don't know. I'm not eager to spend a ton of money, but I am eager to plan the trip cause I love planning and I love Utah and my co-worker just went and I was so jealous and now he wants to live there and I do too. Not with him. But I totally agree with him.

AND THE HOUSE ! Ah, so we're still in our apartment... I ignore this major stressing factor in my life because it will be resolved, and it will all work out and its nothing anyone can speed up. It is what it is. And what it is, is stressful! Anyways. So, our pile of baby stuff keeps getting bigger, and our empty spaces get smaller and smaller. And I need to plan, and prepare, and nest and unpack and settle and, and and AHHH. Well good news (here I go jinxing it) all is still on schedule to be closed by the end of the month (in case you're semi out of it like me, the end of the month is uh... next week. where did march go?) YOU MEAN I CAN MOVE! AHHHHH... Can't even begin to tell you how excited. No idea about anything cause I stopped mentally planning since houses kept disappearing and stuff wasn't working out, and the planning disappointment cycle was starting to take its toll. But now... oh the sweet peace of this moment. So maybe keys next week. Maybe packing. Maybe turning in our notice to the evil manager lady that is Pam. So the joy. Can't wait. Can't can't wait to finally be as ready as I can possibly feel to have this cute little chunk of a baby. Especially if my 7 1/2 weeks left of pregnancy turns into 5, or 4... or who knows !


How far along? 33 weeks. When did it get so far
Total weight gain: Um... 14ish? or something? I forget... 
Maternity clothes? Favorites.
Stretch marks? Not on my belly. Thank you baby oil ! 
Sleep: Is fine when I'm not sick and dying.     
Best moment this week: Getting dressed up in my fancy red stretchy dress. 
Miss Anything? Not being sick. 
Movement: ALL THE TIME. Like morbid alien busting out of me movements.
Food cravings: Seafood. Finally some decent "in season" fruit. Can't wait ! 
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope... knock on wood !  
Labor Signs: Nope. Maybe some BH contractions, but I have no idea...
Symptoms: Heartburn. All the time. Oh and... kroger brand tums are NOT as good as real tums. fyi.
Belly Button in or out? Still in. COME OUT LITTLE BELLY BUTTON!  
Wedding rings on or off? off. unless i only wear one, then on :] I alternate 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Just sick mood. Tired mood. But still loving life 
Looking forward to: Finding out about the HOUSE !! AHHH

Monster BEH-BEH

I don't post anything for two weeks and then I go and post two days in a row ! What's up with that? Oh just some stuff I wanna get out there and super cute pics of my baby. My monster huge behbeh.

So I had my forever long appt this morning. I really shouldn't complain because half of it was the ultrasound. The wait was just long before and between and that's why I always have 830am Thursday appts and not Wednesday 930am appts. So I love our ultrasound tech. She's super cute and she says we're cute and she wishes all her patients were like us. Oh yeaaaah. And she measured and measured little Logan all over the place. His head, his back, his belly, his super huge femur that's rock solid from all the calcium Tums I eat. I grow good baby bones. She does some fancy computer magic and tell us Logan is 2 weeks ahead of schedule. COOL. Cool little fat baby. I love fat babies. They're so rolly polly and pudgey with their little cheeks. But i'm wondering if I should exchange some super cute newborn outfits.. and start stocking up on size 1 diapers and skip the newborn sizes... Lame. Well, I guess it could be worse and he could be super tiny and somethings wrong. At least in this case fat = healthy. Fat behbeh !

And he's got the cutest little chubby cheeks. Already ! Goodness. He's supposed to be packing on the weight now.. not all in 2 weeks. He's 4lbs 2oz. Um... What else. We're not concerned (well Chris is) that he'll end up coming two weeks earlier than the original due date. I think... we'll just have to see. I'm only 30 weeks and some days. so... really? He could have just had some random huge fat growth spurt this last month and then this next month... barely nothin'. So I vote until we're after 35 weeks and the doctor starts talking about early induction or whatever, then I'll start panicking. Especially since there is SO MUCH we still have to do. And I might have just lost 2 weeks !?! Breathe.. don't think that way. Let Chris think that way. Other than that, I passed my glucose test (could you imagine if I'm already growing this HUGE baby and then fail that and how much bigger he could have been ! OH-MEH-GAH!) As long as I can deliver. That's what I keep saying. I know, I know... "be flexible" blah-dee-blah. Obviously if my huge hips can't accommodate this babies huge head then... what can I do? So passed everything. Time for my Rh shot. Woot. And... Yeah. Uploading the super cute baby pictures.

 Baby face ^^^

 3D.. say what? LOOK AT THOSE CHEEKS!

 He wouldn't move his hands, dang baby. So dang cute!

So, I had NO idea we would be getting the 3D (why does everyone say 4D...? What's the difference... Confused!) And apparently its a flip switch on the computer and she uses a different probe thing. Bam. Cute squishy baby face. We have videos too. I can only tell what like 3 are. So... Sorry. They're just like ultrasound stuff. Not worth it. Enjoy the super adorable pictures of my baby ! Big Baby!

Time is a-flyin' !!

I've totally been meaning to update but I swear it seems like I just updated. When actually it was two weeks ago. Where is the time going ! Oh I know ! Whenever you need it to just chill for a second, it goes SO fast. Cool. Cool, time. I hate you.

So good news, we're pretty sure we'll be able to get into the house, or at least have a house available by the end of the month. So only a few more weeks. I was almost happy paying rent cause I hate our manager/land lady and can't wait to tell her to bite me. But good things. The house is absolutely adorable ! It's right in the best neighborhood right by family. It's got so much space and all the lovely things I want and need to help me live a happy life. I'm excited. I think we're just waiting for things to process and get approved and all that. Fifth times a charm, right? I need to nest. I need to get unpacked to ease my nerves. I think we'll be fine for the baby to come and all that, but right now, we have no room, no big things because we have no room. So I get stressed, but at the same time, I'm not stressed because we're not staying. So it's this weird cycle of pulling-my-hair-out-screaming-stressed to perfectly calm and at ease since we have so much time. (Um... 9 weeks. Not much time. HELLO pulling my hair out!)

I have an ultrasound tomorrow. I'm pretty excited because it's been a while... about 3 months. Lame. I wanna see my baby ! But, I'm getting one cause I'm measuring bigger than I am weeks along. Lame, again. I'm pretty sure it's just the box(es...) of girl scout cookies, nutty butter bars, etc etc I'm eating that's caused the bigger measurements. I don't think it's the baby measuring big, since he's been tiny or right on schedule. Pretty sure I'm fat. Don't judge. But, whatever. We get to see the baby tomorrow and he gets measured and we'll know everythings ok. Chris panicked a little and thinks something is wrong. I told him, unless the doctor starts to get nervous and freak out, I'm fine. And I'm guessing I passed the glucose test. The drink wasn't horrible. I'd probably love it if I like orange soda. I almost had to redo it since they didn't take my blood at 1hr exactly. My doc was like eh... 1 hour, 90 mins, big difference. Who cares. Gimme your blood, mwha-ha-ha. 

So yay baby stuff. Paula (my house lady/former coworker) gave us 4 bags of baby clothes. SO MUCH CLOTHES. But I had fun going through them and awe-ing over everything. SO MUCH CLOTHES. Pretty sure our kid that isn't even born, has more clothes than me. I might even venture to say me and Chris. Jealous. I'm excited though. It's such a huge help and since I had holes in our sizes of clothes where I got a ton of 0-3mos and like nothing at 9mos... I think I'm set now :] Blessings ! Now I just need a baby room to set everything else up, get the big stuff in, and just sit in the room crying and panicking and being excited all at the same moment. 

Oh and we don't have to switch our church ward (ward=congregation) since the house is in Barboursville. I was getting death threats when I mentioned a house in Chesapeake, cause we'd have to switch. Death threats= me not really wanting to stay anyways. Weirdos. Otherwise church is great. Same old. I'm looking forward to the "break" I get in organ playing, conducting, teaching etc because I just did my time and with the baby coming, who knows when I'll be back. Mwhahaha. Jk. I'll hate not being at church. I'll be there quite possibly the next Sunday. Just no touchy the lil baby.

Work is fun. I want to kill one of the students. Not really. But I'm already stressed and then he breathes and I want to hurt him. Poor kid. Luckily I'm not sure he realizes it. Maybe he does. IDC. Everyone's gearing up for vacations (Brent's going to Utah, and NOT taking me. LAME-O) and then everyone else is going to Boston for the Biology conference... I wanna go. Dang third trimester and due date and no flying. And no real reason for me to go. And then we have another mouse study.. UGH. Not excited.

Um... that's all I got. Chris' aunt found out she's having a boy. Aw... us too ! They're naming him Marshall which Chris loves and is super jealous. He's like, "we're having ours first right? we can just name ours Marshall first..." Silly kid. So many babies !

Ok. Survey.  

How far along? 31 weeks. Ah. Crazy. 
Total weight gain: Last appt was... 11 lbs... find out tomorrow ! Big baby !
Maternity clothes? ... what about them ! 
Stretch marks? Not that I can see, but.. I can't see much these days. 
Sleep: I hate sleep. Between peeing all the time, Chris snoring (hello ear plugs !) and not being comfortable... I almost like being awake.     
Best moment this week: Baby clothes ! And all the belly rubs from no creepy people. I haven't had creepers, knock on wood. 
Miss Anything? Breathing, bending, pretty sure I'd never had heartburn before now. 
Movement: He's going to be a soccer player. Kick, jab, ya, high-ya !
Food cravings: Seafood. And strawberries. <--- pretty much the same. Totally buying strawberries tomorrow. 2 for $5, wud up! 
Anything making you queasy or sick: Today was nasty burping up pita pit. ::shiver:: yuck  
Labor Signs: Nope. 
Symptoms: Heartburn. Lack of brain. ie. yelling at Chris for leaving a light on that i apparently had just turned on... uh no I didnt honey !       
Belly Button in or out? Still in. COME OUT LITTLE BELLY BUTTON!  
Wedding rings on or off? off. :/ 
Happy or Moody most of the time: I have my moments of snappyness. I think I need sleep. 
Looking forward to: Seeing my beautiful baby boy tomorrow !

Here, enjoy some pics. 

30 weeks. Aw cute. 

31 weeks ! Ahhh belly ! There's two, and not much difference. Shut your face. I looked cute. Even tho my expressions always look fake happy. I promise I really am happy !

Belly, belly, & more belly

It feels like my belly is stretching, all the time. But... it doesn't look any bigger from my angle. And then Chris has been calling me huge since... forever ago. So he's not a reliable source. Little Logan is ~3lbs, holy cow. And most of the evil jabs I feel are knees and elbows. Getting a little cramped there kid? Sorry ! And he has one favorite spot right under my ribs on my right side. Constant evil little jabs of love. I was watching my belly dance all over the place the other night. It's fun. I'm a control freak so it's weird I'm so in love with this out of control feeling. I am hitting some exhaustion reminiscent of the 1st trimester. Lame. Everyday when I get home from work I just want to nap, and usually do. Hopefully that's all that comes back. Hello cankles. Gross. I hope my feet stay tiny. I don't want to get bigger feet ! I have my glucose screening tomorrow. Not excited. I've had the little drink in my fridge since last appt a month ago. That way I can drink it at home and get to my appt ready to go instead of having to sit there for an hour. But I'm not excited. Everyone says it tastes like flat orange soda. I HATE ORANGE SODA. Let alone anything flat. Yuck. I am super afraid I'll fail and have to do the 3hr test, or have gestational diabetes. Not sure what factors push that, but if anything I've been eating lately is an indication I'll have it or a huge baby. Hello valentines candy. And just normal candy. And soda. And anything else with sugar in it. We'll see ! Fingers crossed.

Work. Is. Work. I wish we had updates. But... I guess I don't hate it so that's good :]

Remember I said I didn't want to say anything about houses. We're on to house 5, or 6, or 7. I forget. No worries. Right? No stress? It will all work out. RIGHT?!?!

Valentine's Day was fun. I made Chris a rootbeer/swiss roll cake. Thank you pinterest. I had NO clue what to give him. Basically he has everything. And he got me a chocolate bouquet cause what pregnant lady wants real flowers vs chocolate ones. Oh yeah ! He knows me so well. And he was all dressed up when I got home, and had our song playing in the living room and we danced for a second and he said go get dressed and let's get some food. We were going to go to Longhorn (cause it's the best food ever, duh) but we ended up looking at a carseat/base/stroller combo and wanted to buy it. And Nick and Patti were going to Outback and we never get to do anything with them and we wanted to. So we turned around, saw a car on fire. Random! And so yummy dinner. No lobster. Stupid 86 lobster. I hate you. And I got my stroller, and car seat and base. And its cute, and easy and fits together. And I'm happy. Now we just need a diaper bag, and we're set as far as survival. Even though we need a bunch of stuff.  No biggie. No stress. We're ok. Right..?

And... we went to the Temple. I love it. I'm pretty sure I saw a girl from one of my NJ wards. It took me FOREVER to remember where I knew her and then she had her married name on her nametag so that threw me off. And then when we were leaving I couldn't find her. Lame. But we had lunch with the Welch's and it was a blast. Tried to spend out Bed Bath and Beyond gift card, and didn't find anything. Thank you online shopping. Glad to spend the day with my hubby though. And our little family being in the Temple. There isn't a better place.

And... that's all I got for ya ! Getting closer to having a baby. Weird ! Can't believe how fast it's going. Someone said you're either thinking it won't be over soon enough or the complete opposite feeling like there just isn't enough time in the word to get everything ready. I'm the 2nd. I'm freaking out ! But it will be fine. We got this. Baby survey !


How far along? 29 weeks. One more and we'll be 3/4 of the way. Weird! 
Total weight gain: A ton. I can feel it. I'll die tomorrow if it's not like 20lbs.
Maternity clothes? Loving them 
Stretch marks? I don't see any... but I can't see half of my belly  
Sleep: Has been hit or miss. Waking up sick, pounding head ache, tossing. Yuck.    
Best moment this week: Watching the baby belly dance and getting the travel system !
Miss Anything? Breathing....
Movement: A ton. All the time.
Food cravings: Seafood. And strawberries. 
Anything making you queasy or sick: People talking about nasty stuff at work  
Labor Signs: Nope. I think a few BH contractions. No biggie. 
Symptoms: Heartburn. Yup.       
Belly Button in or out? Pretty sure it will stay in. Sad day.  
Wedding rings on or off? On.
Happy or Moody most of the time: So happy as far as I know. I've had my days. 
Looking forward to: Moving. Getting the last little bit we need. Figure out stuff. And bed time in a few hours.

Hello Third Trimester !

So I've been a slacker. Oops. Sorry my avid readers :] So big life updates?

Not so much. I really can't think of what to update.

Work is work. It seems like someone is sick or dying every week. Still laid back. Still working. People call us liars, we prove them wrong. Take it jerk. And then we have annoying neuro-gods telling us we used fake kits, and then they're too expensive so we should do the testing for him... how does that make sense? Loser.

The baby is all over the place. It's random and stupid blogs say all this stuff about finding a pattern, and learning sleep patterns. NOPE. I get random kicks, or spread eagle moves all the time. But I love it. Even when I wake up 2x a night to pee now. UGH, and then feel little kicks forever and it keeps me up. I really do still love it. I love being pregnant. I see why people love it. I see why people miss it once they give birth. Minus the insane nausea I had towards the beginning-ish, it really has been an incredible experience. Sob sob, ok moving on.

We had our hospital birthing class this past weekend. HA HA HA HA. So I was really concerned cause you can't say butt around Chris without him giggling. I kept thinking, my husband is going to be "that guy" in the class, where every time the nurse says vagina, he snorts. But I kept this thought to myself and said I love him, no matter what, and if he's that guy, well he's mine, so everyone else in the class can suck it up. Well apparently, we had the class full of all "those guys." We'd watch a birthing video and you'd see ALL the business (gag) and all the girls are being mature and such and the nurse asks if there are any questions or comments and some guy in the back is like "gross". Cue all the dudes: snickering. So it was nice that everyone was so down to earth. That we can talk about how real and disgusting it all is. I'm sorry, but I think it really is a beautiful thing to create a life, and the whole process and how it all works and the human body is amazing. Developmental Bio (all about babies developing from conception to birth) was one of my all time favorite classes in college. However, seeing multiple live births in that class... not my cup of tea. And I wanted to be a doctor so stuff doesn't bother me. But there was just something... about it... I don't know. I'm not being all immature about it or whatever. But I don't mind seeing how it goes once. But I could never see that on a regular basis and think "oh its so beautiful!". "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." But other than that, the class was good. The nurse worked with Angel forever, and actually helped Patti when she was having Zayne. She recognized Chris as a Perry as soon as we walked up. It was fun. I liked being told what all the options were and what could go, not wrong, but all the different scenarios. Obviously I have a game plan of how that day will go down and I'm sure my baby's like HAHA you're hilarious. And of course the tour was my favorite, not because I wanted to see everything. We've seen it all with Patti's and Sarah's births. I love stopping by the nursery :] It gets me super excited ! And then so thankful we still have 3 months lol AH, only 3 months !

Update on the house. I want to name this something. The Livingston House Saga or something dramatic. It's been so insane. So house #1 on East Pea Ridge didn't pass inspection. Townhouse #2 (or should I say condo, jerks) had stupid owner drama and fell thru. House #3 I didn't even write about cause... I seem to be jinxing things. It was a 4br 2 bath house in Chesapeake. Way more room than we needed but there was so much I loved about it. That ended up being in the wrong school district. So they put a bid on house #4 AH. I'm afraid to ask for updates. This one is in the perfect location. It seems teeny tiny... but, has a big yard? I haven't seen inside except for creeping thru the open blind slats, so... we shall see. Hopefully there won't be a #5 unless its big...ger. Or something. I don't know. So hopefully we get a house. Every time I see our manager lady at our apt I want to yell at her and can't wait to give our notice. And have somewhere to put the pile of baby stuff in our living room. My living room always smells good though. Like little babies. And I get to stare at all the fun stuff I got and then freak out at everything that is missing.

Let's see...  that's all my brain can think of saying now. So onto my baby update that I've been behind on since forever ago.


How far along? 28 weeks. THIRD TRIMESTER! 7 months ! AH ! 
Total weight gain: Um... 6ish lbs I think at last appt 3 weeks ago.
Maternity clothes? They're roomy and nice. Even my "big" tshirts aren't big. They're tight. Cool. 
Stretch marks? Not yet. I feel the stretching, and put lotion on my belly all the time  
Sleep: Sucks. Little things are waking me up and I have to pee at least 2x a night. And the stupid dumpster guy next street over. Die Die DIE.    
Best moment this week: Strangers asking about my baby :] No molesting yet, just questions
Miss Anything? Honestly... no. I'm loving things right now.
Movement: Lots and lots. Until I call Chris over to feel and then he stops all movement
Food cravings: The other night was reeses, baby carrots and pepsi. Yum.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Not at the moment.  
Labor Signs: Nope. Still waiting to see what Braxton Hicks feel like... ugh 
Symptoms: Heartburn, stretching belly. Pregnancy brain.        
Belly Button in or out? In. It's getting so tiny but not poking out yet 
Wedding rings on or off? On.
Happy or Moody most of the time: So happy lately I love it ! 
Looking forward to: NOT my appt with the glucose screening. Ugh. I guess just more regular movements so Chris can feel him more. And our house/apt/condo/whatever lol

Geography lesson

Checking my blog stats is totally helping me relearn countries. I'm like what the heck is that country? google help ! Ooooohhh, there it is. I remember learning that sometime in HS. So hello to anyone who randomly stumbles across my blog :] I find joy in seeing the foreign places listed. It's incredible how small the world has become over the last few decades, and I'm young and can't even truly take it all in. Nevertheless, I still recognize it. What can I say, I'm wise beyond my years. 

Speaking of wise. I got this quote in my inbox today and it really is the whole reason this update is even happening even though I'm behind on my normal weekly update. But it's a quote for this past LDS General Conference from Quentin L Cook. Enjoy: 

"Parents must have the courage to say no, 

defend truth, 

and bear powerful testimony. 

Your children need to know that you have faith in the Savior, 

love your Heavenly Father, 

and sustain the leaders of the Church. 

Spiritual maturity must flourish in our homes."

It's from his talk "Can Ye Feel So Now?" I highly recommend it like I do most of the conference talks. But I thought it was a nice little nugget of love to remind me what part of my responsibility as a future parent is. I think a majority of the issues with kids today (and even some young adults) stem from the shirking of responsibility of their parents. Be courageous, say no. You're not their friend. They have plenty of friends. They need parents. And in a world that is only getting more confused and more lost day by day, what's right and what's wrong, we need to defend the truth we know and have, and bear not just a testimony but a powerful testimony. 

This quote gives me a simple self check. Am I [going to be] courageous? Am I defending truth? Am I bearing powerful testimony? Do I have faith in the Savior, love my Heavenly Father, and sustain the leaders? (Which I could go on and on about how we should sustain them but so much more than raising our right arm at conference) 

Ok rant over. I thought it was pretty   (fill in the blank cause I can't think of the work)  . Intense? Poignant? Profound? Wise? I don't know. Pregnancy brain :] Love it!  

Productive !

Not really sure where all this productive energy is coming from (and not, I'm not feeling all energetic and such, still tired from growing a human) but maybe cause I can't nest and put my efforts into baby stuff, I just put it into other things. ie my fun project today !

So Chris is getting super into this whole budgeting thing and how awesome the app is (ie it tells us we eat out too much, guilty as charged...) So in my attempt to help keep us in our budget and not get yelled at for eating out so much, I wanted to find a more efficient way for me to get dinners made. I hate working, coming home to clean the kitchen, to cook and dirty it up, to clean it again. Lame. I'm tired. I don't care enough. I'd much rather get a $2 meal deal from taco bell and call it a day. Step in handy dandy Pinterest (seriously what did we do before this thing!). I've pinned things for forever about freezer meals, or make a billion meals from $100 and blah blah and thought I'd check it out since that's why you pin stuff right? To use it later? And then some of the meals actually sounded good, and I'm thinking, "hey, I can actually do this!" I looked up a few different pins and pulled some of their recipes, cause some sounded weird, or expensive or they found a certain meat way on sale and yeah, that's not going to happen. So I picked and chose (sounds weird) what I wanted to try, and tried to vary a bit since Chris gets sick of chicken.

The meals I decided on: Garlic Honey Chicken, Garlic (something?) Pork Chops, Teriyaki Chicken, Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo, Beef Stew, Chicken Tacos, Rotisserie Chicken with Potatoes, and 2 bags of Meatballs (cause I love them <3). That's 9 bags, 9 dinners, which the recipes say serves 4ish, so they had better be enough for dinner and then some left over for lunch (which is my big perk since I always go out to lunch at work and really should bring lunch). Oh I'll put recipes in a sec. Don't fret !

 So I got my shopping list together with all the things I needed for the recipes (and a few extra things) cause if I don't make a list I'll just buy. And the point of this is to stay on budget. It's such a cute list :]

And then I came home unpacked everything and set out what I needed for my freezer meals.

My teeny tiny counter. This was pretty much everything, minus the meatballs I haven't found yet, and some canned stuff I already had in my cupboards and didn't set out before my picture (I'm new at this tutorial, what I did thing). 

Then I needed to sit down for a second cause I'd been on my feet for a bit to long and little baby is still chilling on my back and my hip was killing me. I needed to label my ziploc bags anyways (Do this before ! It seems like it'd be so hard after, and another BTW, buy FREEZER bags. I'm lame. Pregnancy brain. I'm thinking I'll be ok because I don't plan on storing these meals for months, but just in case, get freezer bags. I'm really hoping I didn't ruin everything!)

Bags are all labeled and ready to go :] Just recipe name, and what to do with it to cook. I didn't put recipe cause... everythings in it, unless it requires something after. Just "thaw, cook for 4-6hours on low" etc. Easy!

Now came the fun part. Just pick one bag, find the recipe and start dumping in the bag. It was soothing to watch the counter of ingredients disappear and these clean little bags fill up with yummy food. It took me a little less than two hours (yikes) but I was distracted by Downton Abbey (!!) and moving slow. You could probably do it quicker. Two hours later and I'm short 1 piece of chicken (I can't count apparently) and just need to track down meatballs, and I've got bags full of yummy (hopefully) meals !

Aren't they beautiful? Yummy... 

My single bag of chicken tacos (just a closish up example) labeled, directions, all the pretty layers of food!

And they stack up all pretty in my tiny freezer and I have plenty of room ! So exciting !

So time for recipes ! Since I've had a few requests. 

Garlic Honey Chicken

1 1/2-2lbs chicken breasts

3 garlic cloves

1/2 cup soy sauce

2/3 cup ketchup

1/4 cup honey

Mix in bag. Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 5-6 hours.

Some type of Pork Chops (call them garlic brown sugar, or I don't know)

4 pork chops ~1in cut
2 garlic cloves
2 TBS brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix and cook 4-5 hours on high, or 6-7 hours on low.

Rotisserie Chicken and Potatoes

Whole Chicken
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp pepper
4 garlic cloves

Mix spices and rub over chicken. Put garlic inside chicken and put into freezer bag.
Day of cooking: Thaw, cut 3-4 potatoes and wrap in foil. Place these in the bottom of the crockpot. Place chicken on top. Cook on high 4-5 hours, or 7-8 hours on low.

Chicken Tacos
1 1/2 chicken breasts
2 TBS taco seasoning
1 can of corn
1 can of black beans ( or any you like I'm sure)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tbs (I used a tiny can) of diced chilies

Mix in bag and the recipe I got it from said cook all day. Yeah, really specific. I'd say 6 hours give or take on low, but keep and eye on it. I plan on shredding the chicken and mixing it all back in together. Yummy. Serve with tortillas, on rice, etc whatever you want to do !

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
1 1/2 lbs chicken breast
1 bag of frozen broccoli
2 16oz jars of alfredo sauce

Mix in bag (YUMMY) and cook on low 4-6 hours. Serve over noodles or rice.

Beef Stew
1 package beef cubes
4 carrots (I used 1/2 a bag of baby carrots)
4 red potatoes (I sliced them, the recipe didn't specify)
1 packet of onion soup mix
2 cream of mushroom soups
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
1 bag frozen peas

Mix in bag. Cook on high 5-6 hours or low 7-10 hours.

Teriyaki Chicken
2 chicken breasts
1/2 bag of baby carrots
1 cut red onion
1 large can of pineapple chunks
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup of teriyaki sauce

Mix in bag. On day of cooking: add 1/4 cup of teriyaki sauce and cook on low 6-7 hours. I plan on serving this with rice.

Meatballs (!!) for 2 bags
~36 frozen meatballs (or homemade if you're super ambitious. I am not.)
1 16oz grape jelly
1 20oz (I got 18oz) BBQ sauce

Mix in 2 bags. Cook on low 2-4 hours. I think I'll do bakes potatoes and veggies with this to make it more than just a little appetizer, party food type thing.

So that's my recipes. That's my ambitious day. I'm super excited to try stuff. I can't wait. OH and I also made my own disinfecting wipes (go me right?!). I love the clorox ones, but they're so danged expensive. And I'm excited about the homemade ones, except some of the negative nancys that post comments. So we'll see if we get some mutant disease or my house is filled with fumes. Or I might have just wasted my money. Whatever. But they smell delicious (I love pine sol) and they seem to work well. And they are definitely cheaper. Cut a roll of bounty sheets in half (harder then it seems, even with a sharp knife), but in a rubbermaid container that fits ( make sure not to waste money on new ones that are too small and end up using one you already had) and I made a mixture of 1/2 cup pine sol and 2 1/2 cups water. Give or take. And poured it over the paper towels in the bowl. Put the lid on and shook it up. I used a little too much liquid, oh well. They'll take longer to dry out. Took the top off, used a sharp knife to cute a horrible little whole. Pulled the cardboard tube out of the middle and found the end sheet and threaded it through the horrible lid whole. Tada! And I have plenty to make another batch. Probably will last a little longer than the $7 clorox wipes I love. Yay me !

Here's some of the sites I got ideas and recipes from (and there's a ton more you might want to try) I don't remember which came from which. Sorry ! Blame the pregnancy brain!

http://joelandkitty.com/4o-freezer-meals-in-about-4-hours/
http://www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.html
http://www.savingyoudinero.com/2012/06/12/1-hour-1-mess-5-crock-pot-meals/
http://melissafallistestkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/09/freezer-cooking-slow-cooker-meals.html
http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html

Now my house smells like garlic and pine sol. My back is killing me. But it was totally worth it. And now I can't decide which meal I want to try first !

I'll try to remember to update on how the recipes turned out. Or if you try them first, let me know !