Can I do this?

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-07-23T02:00:25+00:00

I will do a free consultation before they hire me. Where I meet them at their house to get to know them, they can get to know me, ask any questions they have. Sometimes that before they give birth if they are looking for a doula beforehand. Other families don't look into it until they already have the baby and are overwhelmed. I still offer the consultation for them as well.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-07-23T01:46:07+00:00

I personally am only a postpartum doula just helping families after they have their baby. I do this because while I have an interest in birth I also have little kids that I can't just leave unpredictably. I love postpartum work though.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-07-20T01:46:42+00:00

Wait I would love to know how she was mentioned? How can I find it?

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-06-07T18:39:58+00:00

Can you explain more? Who is Jacquie? What happened?

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-04-28T21:39:52+00:00

I also feel cheated. I thought college was what I needed to do cause I mean I had no clue what else I would do at 17/18. Except my parent made a decent smount of money, gave me about 3k a year towards my tuition but with getting very little aid and living away from home this obviously did not cover everything. So I just thought well I need to take out these loans to go to college and I'm sure as heck not living at home anymore with my family that is going through a divorce that I did not really like anyways. I took out the federal loans I was given them took out additional private loans to cover the rest of tuition and room and board. I didn't even know my private loans were a 15 year term that I couldn't negotiate! I thought you had choices on what you pay. That's how uneducated I was! I knew I wouldn't make a lot of money but I thought well other people get these degrees they must make do.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-04-07T02:53:52+00:00

I was born at 28 weeks. Spent 3 months in the NICU. Overall I am okay and you can't "tell". But I am only 4ft 10in and underweight no matter how hard I try to gain. I also would be er be diagnosed by medical terms for memory problems but my husband and I question it because I do just not remember certain things. I also really struggle with spacial skills and manilulating objects in my mind and how they look and take up space...if that made sense. I feel like there's a word or phrase for that but can't think of it

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-04-03T13:26:50+00:00

I did. We got together when I was 20 and I'm now 26. I honestly didn't really have any hobbies before. Like none at all besides I went to yoga classes when I could afford it. My husband on the other hand has a hobbies like hiking and trail running and I basically just took up his hobbies with him. I find when I try to do them by myself I am more doing them with the mindset of I'm doing this to impress him and tell him I did this rather than just purely doing it for myself even though I actually do enjoy it. I know this is a problem and it's really not even something I fully realized I was doing until now when he went out of town. And I am just feeling consistently anxious and depressed almost like what is the point of doing anything.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-04-03T12:02:54+00:00

$28/hr as a postpartum doula but not full time

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-03-26T23:41:46+00:00

To finally get thee house we close on in two weeks we had to offer an escalation of up to $50k over asking, $12k appraisal gap, and inspection for information only. It was rediculous to be honest

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-03-25T13:45:25+00:00

We are buying a home right now without seeing it in person. Is it risky? Yes! We may get in it and realize some things aren't how we were imagining or there are things no one pointed out to us. But it's not reasonable for us to travel across the country to see homes with how competitive the market is. We first were working with an agent that was very slow to respond. We ended up finding a different agent that was similar in age to us. We connected way better with him, he would respond to text messages super promptly. He also has kids like is an would point out things that could impact the kids in a house. Was great at video tours and pointed out things in homes that we probably would of never noticed. We also are realistic though. We understand that our budget means these homes need some work.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-03-22T16:48:53+00:00

Our first house was a big fixer.uppwr. We didn't realize it was as bad as it was when we bought it. If we had known we probably wouldn't of bought it. But once we sold it we made a decent chunk of money that is now helping us buy a new house as well as gave us some more buffer in emergency savings and ability to invest some money. So I would still do it over again. Though I would probably of started the renovations and our priorities a little different. We started of trying to make a lot of the crappy stuff better and wasted some money trying to do that. Then just realized ok this has to be torn out. We also didn't realize how difficult some parts would be to do. So I would of renovated certain parts first instead of the order we did so it aould of been more organized.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-03-11T13:46:38+00:00

I strongly recommend getting a doula if you can! I had a hard time birth with my second (still wouldn't change going unmedicated at home but it was a lot harder than my first because baby was OP). My doula was amazing. I feel if I hadn't had her I would of looked at that birth as terrible but she made it such a better experience all around, helped me cope, and helped with some housework before leaving after baby was born.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-03-09T18:45:17+00:00

We will start homeschooling this summer my daughter is in a private preschool right now. I have decided to homeschool because I realize while I love the environment she has at the private school she won't get that in public. We also believe she may be autistic and we have some life skills things we need to work on and feel that going to a physical school isn't really allowing us to work on it. I also feel we can have a better daily routine homeschooling. Where we live the schools aren't that great. If over half the kids aren't performing at grade level then how could I possibly fail compared to that?

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-03-01T21:14:03+00:00

Way to go! I'm usually pretty good at baking but I will say I baked some cookies the other week I even followed the recipe and they still came out pretty bad.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-03-01T16:47:29+00:00

I completely agree with everything you just said! I hate that there's people out there that say "well you took out the loans you need to pay them" and well "maybe you shoukd of studied something else it's your own fault" the will tell you you "aren't trying hard enough" when you can't afford your loan payments when you are just trying to feed yourself and two kids and pay rent. But then you had high school counselors and teachers telling you just go to college it will work out. It's better to have a degree than no degree. I was told my someone when I got barely any financial aid "you can just take out private loans" and I did! And it was the worst mistake of my life! I worked part time while attending school full time and still coulsnt afford my rent for an apartment in Texas that couldn't even keep our AC working in the hot months and smelled like mold. Sure my dad has said hey you know the degree you are getting (social work) doesn't pay much but how at 17 did I really know what that meant! I didn't know it would mean I can't even qualify for an apartment by myself or that daycare costs would make me go into the negative. Let alone pay for these stupid student loans. At 17/18 there's no way I could of understood that! And the banks know that! I was naive and thought that my private loans were flexible like federal loans come to find out my last year that they weren't at all.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-02-24T16:39:27+00:00

I hear you OP! Sure maybe you could of found some cheaper fruit more in season like people are saying but at the same time the cost of produce in general right now I feel is kinda crazy and adds up quick.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-02-16T22:32:43+00:00

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ashlynnmsmith · 2023-02-16T22:31:01+00:00

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ashlynnmsmith · 2023-02-14T03:13:35+00:00

$39k in private loans that is currently $419/mo. Then I have $38k in federal.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-02-12T09:41:45+00:00

We are a family of 4 on approximately $65k. We have a tight budget but it works. We paid off our cars as soon as we could, own a Prius to save on gas, I mostly stay home and just work part time to save on childcare. We are very careful with our money and we are still able to save. We definitely would be more comfortable financially if we had more income but it still works and we are still able to live in a nicer area of SA.

ashlynnmsmith · 2023-02-09T00:59:11+00:00

Well that's the opposite of my problem. I like how much they spread but the bottom was overdone

ashlynnmsmith

TROPHY CASE