Thursday Thoughts

    I am linking up again this week with Jennifer at Ramblings of A Suburban Mom for Thursday Thoughts. 

~We get to see Baby Boy No. 2 again tomorrow for our anatomy scan. (Also, I need to come up with a nickname for him other than No. 2 - any suggestions?) Not to mention a real name, but we'll get to that eventually. We have a few contenders. Anyway, I'm really excited about seeing the baby again because I've never gotten to see an ultrasound this late in the pregnancy (almost 21 weeks). I know that it's not technically "late" in the pregnancy, but the last time we saw an ultrasound of Owen was at 19 weeks, I think? I can't wait to see him again and compare photos to those we have of Owen. I don't think we got particularly good ones when we went the other week so I'm hoping for some better ones this time.

~ I am expecting some subscription boxes before the end of the month: Citrus Lane, The Little Book Club, and Goodies Co. And Julep will reveal their May colors and products on Saturday and I'm hoping that I like them this month since I've skipped the past two months. 

~Our broken dishwasher that I mentioned we were replacing yesterday? Well, it may or may not be broken anymore... Yeah... But I'm still pretty happy that it forced us to get a new one anyway because the old one really does a poor job. 

~ So I was excited to be chosen again recently for an Influenster brand challenge. For those who might not know, Influenster is an online company that gives away free products for review in exchange for honest reviews given my its members on all variations of social media like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Youtube, and more. I have been a member since last summer when I received my first "Voxbox," which is a box full of different products to try out. Since then I've also been chosen to do a brand challenge to try out Palmolive dish soap.   Although I am happy to have been chosen for another brand challenge, I am a little bummed because I feel like I've been pigeon-holed in some type of "mom" category where the only items I'm going to get are cleaning products and soap. This time, I will be getting Ivory's 2-in-1 shampoo and body wash. Not really something that I would normally buy, but heck, I'll give it a try. I just hope that at some point I will get another Voxbox and get to try out some fun beauty products. 

~ Have you seen the show Ready for Love? It's a new reality dating show similar to The Bachelor, except there are three guys trying to "find love" at the same time and there are matchmakers who choose the women who will date each of the guys. I have mixed feelings about the show. I was really excited about the matchmaking aspect of the show and so far, those parts are my favorites of the episodes. Their insights into the impressions each of the women are giving off and things like that are really interesting. On the other hand, the actually dating portion of the show is really awkward. That may be partly because they have allowed a couple of the guys' exes on the show to add some annoying drama in the "house" or maybe its just all the fake beauty pageant winners acting like they love building houses for poor people instead of going on expensive dates (seriously, one guy has both a Miss America and Miss Puerto Rico vying for his heart!). I don't know. I guess I just had higher hopes for this show. What do you think? Have you watched? 

~ I received my limited edition Birchbox Home: From the Garden yesterday and I was super impressed. I've never done Birchbox before, but I thought this one time box looked so great from the description and I love anything home-related. The box is $32, but contains $89 worth of products. And there wasn't a single thing in the box that I didn't love, which is rare for a subscription box. I will post a review of the box soon so you can see all the goodies that came inside. 

~ For anyone else who apparently was living under a rock like me for the past few days, the movie trailer for the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire debuted at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday night. I found it on Youtube and watched it yesterday and I am so excited about it. Unfortunately, the movie won't be released until the end of November so it's a little early to be getting too excited about the movie, but... I have always liked the second book of the trilogy best and I'm happy to see that the movie looks like it will be even better than the first movie as well.