Moved to a new blog!

I moved to a new spot! Come check me out at My Charleston Baby

New Blog

I had imagined that with a full time job (that has become a night job), and school part time and being pregnant full time that blogging would be the furthest thing from my mind. True, I have never been a devoted blogger like the blogs I love, Mrs in Training, Practically Perfect, Footprints in the Sand etc, but when I first moved to Beijing, I really loved the outlet. Now I realize that with the new journey of motherhood in front of me I really want to start another one. Just not sure what to call it...or which site to have it on (use Blogger again or try Wordpress etc...). All I know is that I have been spending so much time designing the perfect nursery for my little boy, reading pregnancy blogs, researching which cloth diapers are best for newborns, how to make baby food and I want a place to put all my findings and get advice. Anyone have any ideas for me?

Picture Update

Just a quick picture update for anyone still checking in :)

No longer Paid in China

I have taken quite a long break from blogging I'm afraid. BUT, I do have a pretty good excuse. In mid October, I had my first ever positive pregnancy test. As I may have mentioned before, I chart my cycles and when I noticed that my period was later than ever I started wondering...I decided not to jump the gun though and give it two more days. I bought a test and after 15 days post-ovulation, Will woke me up at 6am (thanks babe) to take the test before he went to work. I lit up with two bright blue lines the second it hit the counter top...no need to wait 5 minutes. I nearly stopped breathing. I walked out a little stunned and told Will that it was positive.

6 weeks

We had always said that we were in China for 3 years unless I got pregnant. Do people have babies in Beijing? Of course. Was I going to? No. The bad air, the expensive Western healthcare (that is very c-section friendly), the distance from home and we decided that it was time for a change. We already had our round trip tickets home for Christmas and we ended up making those one way tickets. Turns out we saved about 1000 dollars by buying them round trip...makes tons of sense to me too.

14 weeks

So, after the United Airlines trip from hell...delayed 5 hours, missed our connection to Atlanta, no more flights for 2 days, renting a car and driving 13 hours (after a 13 hour trip on the airplane) back home...we were finally home. The day after Christmas I had my first prenatal appointment with a wonderful midwife practice and heart the heartbeat for the first time. As soon as she found the heartbeat I wanted her to stop to save myself from bursting into tears on the examination table. I was 14 weeks at that point and although I had morning sickness, I wasn't 100% sure it was real. What if we moved home and I wasn't even pregnant? But, alas, I was and I have never been happier. We will be in Atlanta until right after the baby's due date, June 27th, and then moving to Charleston, Greenville or maybe Charlotte. We are keeping our options open.

Atlantis, Nassau

So we are back in the US with our first baby on the way. We had a wonderful Bahamas cruise before New Years and now we are back to real life, saving money and getting ready for the baby and then moving to a new city, again. So Paid in China is going away. Not sure if I will be starting another blog in the future but this one was fun while it lasted! I will definitely keep reading blogs, just not writing one for a while.

Happy 2013!

Water Park at Atlantis

Obsessing

Everything involving school lately...SUCKS

I have a tendency to obsess over things (I know its obsessing and my husband loves to remind me) and everything school related is my newest thing. I have work, which I am actually coping with better now and the regular classes, no big deal...but then I got 100 extra helpings of new shit to stress over. 

1. I need to find a practicum placement preferably between next January and May. 

This gives me the training I need to put to use the knowledge I have been collecting for the last year and a half. I want this practicum to be a real learning experience and something that will bolster my resume when it comes time for me to look for an internship after graduation. Yet, finding one has been difficult. No one is taking on practicum students right now and that ones that are taking them are NOT in Atlanta (not exactly the mental health hub). I can't and won't spend the money to stay in a totally new town for the 2-5 months this practicum will last so I am stuck in Atlanta. Unless anyone that reads this blog happens to have a spare bedroom and connections to any sort of marriage clinic/mental health facility :) 

In addition, the places that have gotten back to me want to know when I can come in for a F2F...December 21st? Yeah...no. No one considers Skype or any other video chat...you can't come in for a face to face, you are NOT a candidate. Awesome.

2.   Either the USPS or the IRS misplaced our taxes and now I can't do an IRS link to FAFSA. That doesn't sound so bad right? Wrong. That means that now I owe 3500 dollars to my school, instead of it going to my "pay later when I graduate" file. This is not good.

Sorry to get on here and bitch but I need to release this tension and sometimes writing this blog really helps. I hope everyone else is experiencing no such problems and having a great week :)

Homemade Toxin-Free Deodorant

I have been cutting out every toxic product that I use one by one. Deodorant especially has all sorts of unnecessary ingredients that are not good for you and are pretty toxic...leading to organ toxicity, cancer...all sorts of things I don't want. The good thing is that making your own is very easy, very cheap and customizable to be exactly what you want. Below is the recipe. If you make it, let me know how you like it!

Ingredients:

6-8 Tablespoons of Cocounut Oil
1/4 cup of Baking Soda
1/3 cup Cornstarch
1/4 Teaspoon of Shea or Cocoa Butter
10-12 drops of your preferred essential oil (something with antibacterial qualities would be a perk: Lavender, Sweet Orange, Lemon etc...)

Directions:

1. Heat the coconut oil if needed, then mix the Shea/Coconut Butter
2. Once those ingredients are mixed add in the dry ingredients and then the essential oil. 

I have read a few different variations of the next steps...either

• Let it dry completely and then put it in an old deodorant bottle or jar OR
• Let it cool down but not harden and then add it into the carrier and then pop it in the fridge

Movies and Military

Movies because I went with hubs yesterday to see Batman and Military because it was a short drive and a long walk to the theater. The entire main road near our neighborhood that leads 75% of the way to the theater was blocked off by police last night in Beijing. Why? The dispute over who owns the Diaoyu (Chinese name) / Senkaku (Japanese name) islands. Their has been a growing "anti-Japanese sentiment" here in China and after some particularly heated rioting around their embassy, the police and military took over. At first we just saw police cars but then we saw military trucks, military paddiwagons and finally military tanks that hubs explained were for shooting out streams of water to disburse a crowd...I felt like I was in occupied Germany. Apparently all buses that make stops near the Japanese embassy have also either started passing over those stops or have been put temporarily out of commission. Very eery evening but at least the movie was awesome.