Everything and anything about LOVE. Things I love, places I love, people I love, marriage, relationships, real love stories from people I know, and my personal experiences. I hope to learn more and more about how to LOVE through sharing this part of my heart with you guys as well.
I started my week 18 on Sunday. I've been feeling really sleepy and tired after every meal. I've been fighting to stay awake at work. Our baby is now the size of a sweek potato. I'm so excited to find out what the gender of our baby is in 2 weeks. I can't wait to share with you guys.
I'm in my second trimester now so I'm doing much better since I had a really hard first trimester. I had morning sickness until my 16th week. I still get it here and there but it's not nearly as bad. I'll share a few things I did that helped my nauseousness on my next baby entry. Today I want to talk about how I'm avoiding stretch marks.
One of the things I was concerned about when I found out I was pregnant was stretch marks. I did some research and found a really great cream called the Tummy Rub by Mama Mio. I've read that celebrities loved it and some youtube guru's reviewed about it saying it worked extremely well. I was a little skeptical but hopeful so, I decided to give it a try. I've been using it since week 9 and I haven't gotten any stretch marks yet. I've been applying it all over my tummy, back, sides, thighs, and my butt. I don't want to miss any spots.
I love that it's free of nasties such as parabens, sulphates, and fragrances. Also they don't test their products on animals. The smell is great as well. It's very fresh and not too over powering. It containts Omega 3, 6, and 9 which builds the skins strength and elasticity.
I was listening to this song by Taylor Swift called Mean and I wanted to share this music with you guys. If you haven't heard this song yet I would like to highly recommend for you to at least listen to it once. It'll give you a great smile or give you a great laugh thinking about all those people who were mean to you when you were trying to live out your dream.
I've had a big dream since I was really young and I had an opportunity to take control of it when I was 22. Since then I've been learning and living to accomplish my dreams. Some people thought I was crazy, out of my mind, and sometimes weird. A great speaker/ pastor name Mark Gorman said there are 3 things that'll try to take your dreams away from you. The first are the people who geniuely love you. They don't want to see you get hurt and go through struggles so they would rather you chose a easier path. So, we may have an outrageous dream but all they think might be exactly that, just plain outrageous. That's what happened to me when I told my parents my dreams and goals. They thought I was crazy and thought it would be better for me to pick a more common path. I believed in myself and had faith that my visions weren't solely just from me but some part of it was from God. That kept me strong throughout all my struggles. I had so much to learn and still do but through all the great friends and mentorship I was able to become a much stronger person inside and out.
This song caught my attention because she talks about this person who's just plain mean because they do and say whatever they can to hurt her. Then she talks about how that person will always stay just as a mean person and she's going to rise to the top. This can refer to many different people. You can be 5, 15, 21, or 50 years old. In any time of our life their may be a certain person or people who continue to hurt us or treat as if we're not good enough. If we're referring to us striving for our dream I would like to say continue to focus on your dreams because you'll achieve it and all those that laughed or hurt you will probably still be where they were when you make it to the top. Here's my favorite part of the song:
Well you can take me down,
With just one single blow.
But you don’t know, what you don’t know,
Someday, I’ll be living in a big old city,
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean.
Someday, I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me,
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean.
Why you gotta be so mean?
These lyrics aren't necessarily for my parents but it spoke out to me and thought it may speak out to someone who's dealing with something similar. Also, sometimes the biggest meany in our lives is ourselves. There's that tiny voice telling ourselves that we're not good enough, we've failed before, who do you think you are, and many more. Sometimes we just need to tell ourselves to stop being mean to me.
I would just like to say to never give up on your dreams and don't ever let anyone else take your dream away from you. We won't be loved by everyone no matter what and I hope that's not your mission in life. If we want to do great things we can't be loved by everyone. I had to learn that the hard way. Let's just try to remeber that the only opinion that matters is from above.
P.S Please let me know one thing you would like to share with others who's living out their dreams. I would love to hear from you guys as well.
If you liked what you read please share with others.
Love,
Sandy
I’ve been receiving a lot of questions about relationships and marriages. One of the most common questions was, “How do you and Chris maintain a strong marriage?” We’re not quite the veteran in this area because we’ve only been married for a year and 8 months but I can say that our marriage has been great thus far and we’re making a decision each day to keep it that way. I don’t think there’s a formula to having a great marriage but if I was to share a few things we did that helped our marriage, it would be that we knew exactly what the other person’s expectations were in the marriage and we made a decision to provide that each day.
In the beginning of our relationship, Chris asked me what I expected from him as my boyfriend/ husband. There were two important things that I expected from him as my husband which was being consistent in his love and action and showing unfailing love. I also asked Chris what his was and for him it was for me to show him respect and appreciation in any given situation. I didn’t realize how important knowing one another’s expectations were until just recently.
It was incredibly important that he was consistent in his love and action because I’ve seen too many cases where the husband or wife stopped doing all the amazing things the other person fell in love while they were dating. This goes for relationships as well. I’ve been in relationships where the guy wanted to do everything for me then one day it all changed. I married Chris for who he was. If he changed all of a sudden and stopped doing all the things I loved about him, I would feel cheated.
One thing I’m truly thankful for is that Chris has kept his promise. He has been consistent and showed me a type of love I didn't know could exist besides from God. I make a choice each day to keep my promise to him as well. A few ways I show that I respect him is through encouraging words, truly believing in him, and showing him that his words genuinely mean a lot to me. One way I show appreciation is by saying “thank you” even when he does the smallest things such as opening the door for me. I’ve learned that men will want to do more for their women if we sincerely encourage them and say thank you often. We sometime forget to be appreciative of even the smallest things they do.
Sometime last year I started realizing myself not appreciating Chris as much as I use too. I was getting too comfortable and expecting more out of him. Once I realized myself doing that I felt incredibly bad and had to apologize to Chris. Then I asked God to help me to see Chris the way He see's him once again. Once I confessed my inner feelings to Chris and asked God for forgiveness I started to feel even more appreciative towards Chris. We're not perfect and relationships will never be "perfect" but as long as we are willing to put ourselves aside and throw away our pride for our other half we can work through any difficulties. We've had our shares of disagreements but as we started to learn how to understand one another we improved ourselves as an individual and as a couple. I believe that helped our love to grow even deeper.
Do you know what your better half expects from you as a husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend?
P.S Please let me know if you would like to read more entires similar to today's topic in the future.
