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Two Birthdays (The Blog and Mine!) Plus A Little Update

  May 19

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budget blonde twinsI am experiencing a rare moment of quiet. I love my new desk in my new apartment.

My office nook has a window, and it overlooks our really pretty tree lined street. My last apartment was really dark, and my desk faced a wall. This time, I was hoping for something filled with tons of natural light, and despite a crazy last minute apartment search, I actually got that.

Today is also my birthday. The big 2-7 folks. Thing have been so crazy lately that I didn’t even know it was coming up. My husband mentioned something yesterday about celebrating my birthday early, and I kind of stared at him blankly. I think that’s what happens when you have two babies. Your brain kind of stops working.

The blog also turned 4 years old two days ago. That’s pretty amazing to me. 4 years of recording the happenings in my life. 4 years of hitting that publish button.

When I started my blog I was in grad school living in Blacksburg, Virginia. I was sitting in my room one day and just decided to start one after being an avid blog reader for so long.

The name Budget Blonde came pretty easily, and I remember being really happy that it was available. Since then, my blog has recorded me moving to Richmond to be a park ranger for the National Park Service. It showed the hubs getting accepted to med school and moving to Grenada several months before me. Then I left the park service and moved to Grenada too. Then, of course, I wrote about all the crazy times living in Grenada, getting pregnant with the twins, moving back to Louisiana for a few months while hubs took his board exam, and then now…

If you would have told me when I started my blog that I’d be writing a post today living in New Jersey of all places with newborn twins sleeping in the next room, I wouldn’t believe you. I promise you that. Back when I started this blog, my life was on a completely different path going some other way. It’s amazing the twists and turns life takes you if only you let it lead you there.

I feel as though a lot of the unique things I’ve been able to experience the past few years came from my willingness to allow them to happen to me. It was scary to move to the Caribbean, it was scary to quit my job and become a blogger, and the scariest thing of all is that every day I’m responsible for two little lives.

I’m not going to lie – the past few weeks have been really hard for me. A lot has happened really fast. I feel lucky that I am used to change, used to moving, and used to living away from my family. At least those experiences gave me the tools to process the madness that seems to keep happening to me.

I’ve had days where I thought I’d have to shut down the blog and all my freelancing altogether. I’ve had days where I got four posts done and felt like a rockstar. I’ve had days where I’ve held both babies in my arms as they both screamed and I had no idea how to fix it. I’ve also seen some of their first smiles, some of their first little chubby rolls, and heard some of their first little noises.

Of everything I’ve done in the past 27 years that was unique and challenging – all the education – traveling – living abroad – getting married – teaching college – supporting hubs through the grueling first two years of med school – being scared and pregnant with two humans for 9 months – out of all that with the highs and the lows, the last two months being a mother to twins has been the absolute hardest, the time where I’ve questioned myself the most, where I’ve lost and regained my confidence more times than I can count, and where I thought I’d never be able to have a minute to write a blog post like this one.

So, let’s just say cheers to the madness, cheers to the quiet moments, cheers to 4 years of blogging, and cheers to 27 years of living. Above all, thanks for reading my story every week. Your support and continued reading of my blog has given me the ability to work from home and watch my children grow up. I can never, ever thank all of you enough for that.

And now I just heard the first little chirping of babies who want to be held. I better go get them before it turns into this:

budget blond twins

Have a great day everyone!

22 responses to “Two Birthdays (The Blog and Mine!) Plus A Little Update

  1. You’re a rockstar! Twin newborns and still blogging. Happy Birthday, my friend! 🙂

  2. Happy Birthday! Life is always a mystery and it will only get better!

  3. Happy Birthday, and congratulations on four years of blogging! You’ve accomplished so much Cat, and you’re seriously such an inspiration to so many. I’m also glad you were able to grab an apartment with some natural light. We were living in a basement apartment previously, and I’m really enjoying the windows we have now!

  4. Happy 27 years Cat and happy 4 years Budget Blonde! I’ve loved reading your posts all these years and following your journey. It’s been amazing! Your style of writing always draws me in and I know that your blog will continue to have great things in the future. Cheers to you, your little ones and your blog! *raises a glass*

    My blog turns 3 years old next month, so maybe we can do a virtual celebration together? 🙂

  5. Parenthood is hard! I love the honesty here though and I love that you’ve stuck with it. Oh, and those kids are wicked cute!

  6. Happy Birthday lady. As you’re discovering birthdays (and everything to do with yourself) becomes an afterthought with kids. Make sure you don’t forget about yourself too 😉 it’s amazing what even 30 mins alone can do for your soul. Have a great day!

  7. Happy Birthday to you and the blog!!! What an amazing journey you have been on! And I know that you have definitely faced numerous struggles recently, but you are doing amazing and just remember that crying is great exercise for babies, especially since they aren’t mobile yet.

  8. Happy birthday! You are amazing wether you know it or not. Taking care of 1 baby is hard enough (I’m told) so taking care of 2 with a husband in med school and being a freelance blogger, wow! You go girl 🙂

  9. Happy 27th and Happy 4 Years to Budget Blonde! You have done so much in the past year, it’s unbelievable. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have twins and keep up the freelancing you’re doing. Great job! Have an awesome Bday 🙂

  10. Happy Birthday, Catherine! I hope you have a really nice day. I’m so glad y’all made it to New Jersey safely with those little angels. They are so cute and have grown quite a bit since I’ve seen them. I hope the hubs likes his “job”. Tell him hi for me. Have a blessed day. Love y’all!

  11. Happy birthday, Cat! I love the pictures of your sweet babies, even when they are crying. 🙂 It’s a little bit amazing how much lung power something so small has! I didn’t realize you had been blogging for 4 years – congratulations! That’s a huge achievement too. Motherhood is definitely rewarding but there are rough days where you can’t remember it’s your birthday, much less the last time you showered or ate. And then there are those moments when you’re holding your baby and her hand curls around your finger and you don’t think your heart can get any bigger. Or the moment any more perfect. Those are the moments you treasure and hold on to on the tough days. The days of the screaming and crying are the ones you’ll laugh about later. 🙂

  12. Happy birthday Cat and congrats on 4 years of blogging! Even though this is such a crazy time in your life, you’ll be able to look back on it someday and laugh at the insanity. You’re doing such a great job juggling motherhood, all the moving, keeping up your business etc, it’s really inspiring to watch.

  13. Happy birthday Cat, wishing you more birthdays to come! We’re almost having the same birthday, mine is tomorrow and I almost forgot it surprisingly, my daughter is much more excited than me. And oh by the way, this really makes me laugh “being scared and pregnant with two humans for 9 months”. 😀

  14. Happy Birthday, Cat! And to your blog! 🙂 I love your writing and enjoy following you around the web. You are doing an amazing job given everything you’ve been through and I really appreciate your honesty here. I know it can’t be easy. We’ll be here for you, so just keep doing what you are doing!

  15. Happy Birthday to you and the blog and touching post. I love how I’ve followed so many of you through your journey and I have jumped into the blogosphere just a year ago. Four years and it’s all documented. Think about the day your twins will be old enough to read and relive your journey. I think that’s awesome.

  16. Happy Birthday Cat! I guess we have something else in common besides being bloggers – we both started our blog right around our birthdays. I can’t imagine what you are going through as a new mom to twins, and it’s a small miracle in itself that you were able to move cross-country in such a short period of time.

  17. Happpppppppy Birthdayyyyyyyyyyyy! An incredible 4 years indeed, my friend… Can’t wait for my two babies to meet your two babies one day 🙂 It’ll be a cute explosion! Haha… Keep pouring your heart into this site.

  18. Happy birthday Cat! Your twins are gorgeous, I know you’ve heard that before! I can’t wait to have babies of my own. Ana’s got a few pairs of twins in her family, maybe we’ll be lucky enough to have our own one day. I know parenting can be hard, what’s the one thing you would say I should do to get Ana and I prepared for the journey?

  19. Ahhh I pretty much can resonate with every word you wrote except for the twin part…obviously. I think motherhood is SO much tougher than you can ever have expected or predicted and when other mothers tell you it’s hard before you have your baby or babies in your case, you just can’t really comprehend it until you have them in your arms and are dealing with being a mom 24/7. After having Ryan, though I loved her to the moon and back, I had moments of severe panic almost every day for probably the first 3-4 months. I was so overwhelmed all the time and I thought to myself, what on earth have I gotten myself in to, and perhaps I wasn’t meant to be a mom if there are moments every day where I wanted to just run away. My mom assured me it was normal and it did pass. Now, at 10 months, I only feel that way like once a week. 🙂 I never knew how little patience I truly had until I had a baby. It gets better. I think months 2-4 are/were the toughest. You aren’t alone even though you feel that way. I can’t even imagine twins so to me you are truly rocking it all. 🙂

  20. You are awesome Cat! Happy birthday to you and your blog. You do great work over here and I am glad to have connected with you. I hope everything is going well with all that you have on your plate. I know us bloggers love to keep those plates full 😉

  21. Happy Birthday and Anniversary of your blog! What a great look back! Parenting is the hardest but also brings the greatest joy! You’re doing great!! 😀

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