Other Pinterest Projects

Lately baths have been a necessity for me to relax for the day.  So, when I saw a post on pinterest for homemade bath salts, I thought I would give it a try because it looked really simple, and for those that know me well know that I have to have lotion and lipgloss/chapstick or else I start having anxiety problems if I have dry skin or lips. It was easy mainly because it required Epsom Salt, Vaseline Bath Beads, and Baking soda.  I personally do not know if there is a big difference if you just use the Salts or Beads, but regardless it was moisturizing.

Next up, Homemade whipped coconut oil body butter recipe.  This recipe only called for two ingredients: Coconut oil and Vitamin E oil.  All you do is use your mixer and mix the two together with a wire whisk attachment for 6-7 minutes until it has a light and airy consistency.  I expected once the oils were whipped that they would double or triple in quantity.  But, that was not the case, but it is really moisturizing and can be used as lip moisturizer too. And, you will probably like it if you don't mind feeling like you just jumped into a bath tub of oil! Although I was not that impressed by either they still do the job.

30 weeks have come and gone!

Only 10 weeks left!  I'd have to say for the most part time has gone moderately fast, but I have a feeling the last ten might go by very slowly since we are so anxious to meet Bryan's mini-me-to-be.  The nursery is coming along, I have been working on transforming some items we already have to work in the nursery and have been working on some artwork to fill some frames.  Although I am trying to be crafty and cheap, what I have painted so far does kind of look like toddler quality work.  But, they are bright which brings some liveliness to the room and  I never have said that I was artistically talented.  Soon, Bryan will try his hand at some artwork as soon as I can get him sat down for craft time.  I am pretty sure that The Lakers emblem will most likely be what he tries to paint, but we shall see.  We have another Doctors appointment on Wednesday to do the screening for gestational diabetes, which consists of drinking Glucola, I am sure that is going to taste wonderful...I have come to the realization that the pregnancy books and Internet sites are not helpful with my pregnancy.  They say weeks 29/30 I would start noticing less movement because the baby is growing so rapidly that he is running out of room, thus he won't be as active. This baby is the opposite, probably because he is use to limited room.  He moves from side to side, top to bottom and punches and kicks like crazy all the time.  It becomes so painful at times that I walk aimlessly around the courthouse trying to get him to take a nap.  Oh the joys of pregnancy. Fortunately I am able to sleep at night with only one or two bathroom breaks.

Cupcakeathon

For a bridal showering coming up I signed up to make the cake...That seemed like a rather large task, since cake is not one of my favorite desserts and if I am making a cake for many to see and enjoy I would want it to look good, say a three tiered decorated cake.  Since, there was no way I was going to manage that task right now, I figured the next best thing would be to make cupcakes.  So, I thought I needed to practice my cupcakery skills to make sure I am not bringing crappy cupcakes.  I gathered a few recipes and started baking.  All together I made 72 cupcakes, crazy I am aware.  All were recipes I found off of Pinterest, but I tweaked them all to accommodate to my laziness.  Since I love Coconut Cream pies I decided I had to try Coconut Cream Cupcakes.  I was not in the mood to make the cupcakes from scratch so I used a white cake mix instead and to make them better I used coconut milk in place of the water.  They were delicious, however next time I make these I think I will add more of the coconut cream filling to the cakes.  And, because I made a chocolate cake mix for another cupcake I used some of the coconut filling to fill those as well.  Both were great, however the coconut cupcake ones were better than the chocolate filled with coconut filling.
Next up were Chocolate Peanut butter Cup Cupcakes.  These I knew Bryan would like since he is a chocoholic.  To make these extra chocolaty I used a chocolate cake mix instead of a white and to enhance the chocolate flavor I substituted coffee for the water and only used peanut butter frosting instead of the combo because I was not in the mood to figure out how to do the swirl with two frostings.  These were also good, except for some reason the peanut butter cups sunk to the bottom of the cupcakes instead of being in the center.  And, because I am lazy I only put peanut butter cups in half of the cupcakes and the rest stayed plain chocolate cupcakes and the other half were filled with the coconut filling and topped with whipped cream.
And, for the best cupcakes, in my opinion were Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Filling.  These were by far my favorite cupcakes.  As with the others, I made them the lazy way and used vanilla cake mix, substituted milk for the water, and zested some lemon into the mix.  The filling took longer than expected, but was well worth it.  And, I did not make the meringue because I do not have a hand mixer so they were topped with homemade whipped cream and lemon zest.  I think next time I make these I will try some lemon juice in the batter to make it more lemony or maybe use pineapple juice instead of the milk to make it more tropical...
All in all this was a successful baking experience, especially since all tasted very good.

Ashley says I am nesting, maybe I am, but I thought after the baby is born I will probably not want to do something like this for awhile.  And, this is good practice for all the little ones birthdays that we will be celebrating in the next year! 

Welcome to the Boat Show

This weekend I caught a ride with the Perkins to Tulsa and spent the weekend with Ashley and Alex.  Alex really wanted to go to the boat show, mostly to show Ashley his dream boat.  So, to the boat show we went.  Of course I love being on the water, but the chances of Bryan and me buying a boat are very very slim.  On the other hand, Ashley and Alex chances of purchasing a boat are much more promising.  My idea of a boat would be one with enough room to lay out and relax, perhaps a Yacht?  A yacht would be fantastic!  But, on the more practical side, a ski boat will suffice.  We stayed at the boat show for almost three hours (at least that is what it seemed, an eternity) and I managed to find the one girly booth and bought some Scentsy.  After the boat show we went to a home goods market, had lunch at the Ripe Tomato, and then, possibly the most productive part of the weekend was our shopping trip to BabiesRUs.  Later we dined with Alex's parents and then capped off the weekend by watching KU lose to Missouri.

Practical? Maybe not, but who would not enjoy boating on this?



Welcome to the 3rd Trimester

This week marks the start of my 3rd trimester.  At 28 weeks my belly has not changed much since last week, but I have noticed I have been knocking it on doors because I am not used to needing so much clearance.  Co-workers are not use to me taking up so much space either because I have been knocked into the printer by one of them backing into me. Other than big belly issues, not much has changed. I had another 3D Ultrasound done last week, but we were not able to get a good picture of his face because he was chewing on the cord the whole time with the cord bunched in front of his face.  He is a stubborn boy, that is for sure.  He is also, I'm guessing, practicing his swimming strokes because he is all over the place.