Uh oh!

I'm pregnant. That is all. :)

Just kidding, that's not all. I'm about 4 weeks along based on the timing...there's really no other possible way that I am any further along. But far enough along anyway. I keep saying I'm not going to tell anyone, but it's really hard to keep my mouth shut. Oh well. :)

Started vitamins yesterday. I have my first appointment in August. So far so good - I've been waking up at 4:30 in the morning for no apparent reason. So this morning I forced my husband to get up with me and go for a walk. Then I came back, took a shower, made pumpkin fluff and am now boiling some pasta for my lunch today.

At this point, baby is the size of a poppyseed. Interesting how it has somehow made my boobs hurt and made me have uncontrollable gas already. Gross.

Have a fantastic day.

Pink Lemonade + Cake = Pink Lemonade Cupcakes!!

I love a lot of things about summer. I love lemonade, but I feel like it's just not something you can make in the winter because it doesn't taste as good. I made some fresh squeezed lemonade a few weeks ago for a July 4th get-together with my in-laws, and that turned out pretty good. It's always best to sweeten it with a simple syrup so that you don't have any grainy sugar that remains undissolved. As a side note, here's what I did:

Mix together & serve on ice with lemon slices and mint leaves!

1 cup of fresh squeezed lemonade (about 8-10 lemons)
4 cups of water
Lemon syrup (see below)

Lemon syrup:

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
zest from two lemons

Combine ingredients and bring to a boil on the stove, then reduce to a simmer. Let simmer until reduced to 1 cup. Strain out the lemon zest and discard (FYI - my husband ate it instead and said it was good).

Mix in with your water and lemon juice. Add ice to the pitcher if you are going to serve immediately, otherwise just put in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Now onto cupcakes.

I love pink lemonade and I don't know what they add to it to make it pink. I am convinced it isn't food coloring because it actually tastes different to me than normal lemonade. Maybe it's a psychological thing. In any case, I love all things pink, including lemonade.

I volunteered to make cake for a friend's wedding picnic this past weekend. Being in the middle of July, I am still thinking about lemonade. It's HOT out. I couldn't possibly do a cake with frosting because no matter what I made, it would not hold up in the heat. And nobody likes fondant. I suppose I could have opted for an Italian meringue frosting, but I'm lazy and I didn't begin baking until Friday night (and the picnic was the following day).

So I opted for small desserts. I made mint brownie bites, almond cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese filling (which, by the way, I handpicked the raspberries, oh SNAP!!), and pink lemonade cupcakes. Why pink lemonade cupcakes? Well, why not? I they sounded pretty and it seemed like they'd look pretty, and if I could get them to taste like pink lemonade, then it would be a huge success (to me anyway, because I wanted to eat them).

Running short on time, I'll admit I used boxed cake mix. But to be honest, it holds up really nice when making wedding cakes by adding a few modifications. In any case, here's what I did:

1 box of classic white cake mix (I used Pillsbury)
4 egg whites
1 and 1/3 cup of frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed to room temperature.

Bake as directed. I did cupcakes.

For the frosting, I used royal icing, but modified it so it wouldn't turn out hard and crusty, like dried glue. It set up really nice, almost like fondant. It did, however, melt in the heat...but it was super good. It's sort of like a combination of meringue and royal icing.

Modified Royal Icing:

-3 cups powdered sugar
-4 egg whites (you may only need two, but I used reconstituted powdered egg white so I ended up using enough to equal out to be 4 based on what the directions said. Then again, I didn't measure it very well so....)
-pink lemonade concentrate (the amount is based on how the consistency looks. Start out with 1/4 cup and add a tablespoon at a time until the icing reaches the desired consistency for what you are looking for. I prefer a thicker meringue like texture rather than a liquid Elmer's glue texture, but that's just me).

Mix in your Kitchenaid stand mixer (or using a hand mixer, whichever you have) with the whisk attachment on medium/high until you are happy. I kept it going until it had soft peaks. If you want it pinker, add a SMALL dot of red food coloring. I also added some lemon zest because I was feeling saucy!!! I think that the cupcakes look best with this icing if you only fill the cake liners up enough to where you still have some room after they have baked.. that way when you add the frosting, it ends up pretty even with the top of the liner. See the picture if that doesn't make sense.

Babies. Careers. Both things I want.

Everyone's having them. Lots of people that I know anyway. 3 women in my office... two of which just gave birth within a week of each other and the other could be any day now. At least 2 of my good friends, and several of my co-workers at my former job. It's going to be my turn soon. I know it. Even if my husband doesn't. HA!

I have a good job. I like my job. The only downside is the lack of job security due to my classification as a "project" position rather than a "permanent" position. By definition, in business terms, the word "project" is more often paired with the word "management," hence, "project management." This is a term defined as "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a product, service, or result." They hired a bunch of us back in October when the unemployment rate skyrocketed. Clearly, they did this to combat the number of claims coming in since they didn't have enough people to deal with it.


Under this assumption, they won't need me anymore as of July 2011, unless they extend the "projects" or I obtain permanent status. This leads me to believe that it may actually end up that way at some point. If you use the word "project" as a verb, by definition it means to "throw something forward." So once they're done with me, they'll project me into the world of unemployment. How odd to think about being on that end of things. Which leads me to another thing that bothers me.

I hate when you lose your job and someone says to you, "Well, it can only get better from here!" Really? How can you even rationalize that? No, it cannot only get better. It can actually get worse. You're unemployed. You have no income. You could lose your car, your health insurance, and your house. Now you're homeless and poor and probably smell bad.

Or how about when you get into a car accident and someone says, "Well, don't feel bad. It happens to the best of us." Um, no, it doesn't happen to the best of us. Where do you even get that idea? The "best of us" are not driving used cars which are worth half as much as when we bought them 3 months ago. The "best of us" are most likely being driven around in a limo, or flying F-16 fighter planes off the coast of a foreign country. I seriously doubt that the "best of us" would have their driver side door backed into while driving through the Wal-mart parking lot.

Re-focus. Permanent status.

How does one obtain permanent status? You wait for a permanent position to open up and then you jump through flaming hoops and sell your soul and promise your first born child to the Governor upon his/her birth. In the event that you do get to interview for the position, you are competing with many others who may or may not want it as badly as you do. Who wouldn't want it though? A state job with state benefits? Once you're permanent they can never get rid of you unless you do something so reprehensible in order to warrant termination. In any case, I don't know how, but I have an interview for the above referenced position. Tomorrow. And I am competing against many others who may be more qualified than I. That being said, I am going to update my resume and find a way to sell myself - again - to people who already know me. And sometimes that's harder than interviewing with people you've never met before.

That being said, I think once this has passed, and hopefully I get it...I can relax a bit more and actually start posting regularly, like I initially intended.

For now though - if you're interested - direct your attention to this website:

Booty Caller

If you desperately want to get pregnant (more so than the average woman), you can enter in some information about your monthly cycle and then get text messages on your phone telling you when you are ovulating, and then you can go have sex immediately. I don't know exactly what it says. I would hope it's something raunchy, but it probably isn't. It seems like a classy and educational website. Either way, even if you aren't the above referenced woman, it'd be a sweet joke to play on someone. Especially a guy. Sign someone up to receive text messages saying it's time for business. They'll never know it was you.

Pineapple.

I love pineapple. My husband loves pineapple. He's always buying them. Last summer (or was it the summer before?) we were at one of my favorite nurseries (I love plants) and they had a pineapple plant. In a pot. With a pineapple growing on it. And it wasn't for sale. They did that with a giant jade tree as well....as if to make me feel bad for not being able to have it.

Fine. I'll grow my own pineapple. And as for your 100-year old jade tree? I'll live forever and grow one of those as well. But for now, I'll work on the pineapple.

I have to say first off, that I've tried this before. It isn't that I don't know how to do it. It's that I let things go or someone else ruins it. This time will be different. It has never been a matter of messing it up in the beginning. Tragedy struck much later. The first time I tried to grow a pineapple, I planted it in the garden outside in early spring. It was doing well all summer long. Then fall came. I knew I should move him, and I didn't, and then it was too late. The frost came, and he died.

The second summer I tried, he was planted in a pot with nice cactus soil. He was good and enjoyed the patio. Then, I entrusted his care under someone else for a brief period. I don't know if he was watered too much or too little during this point, but he died. He is currently in the garage, still in the old pot, nothing but a dried up shell of what he could have been. I don't know why he's still in the garage.

In any case, it is time for round three. I did this about 13 days ago. I've waited to post about it because I wanted to make sure he made it through the first week. So far so good.

I want to first mention that it takes about 2 years (at least) for your pineapple to produce any fruit (and small fruit, FYI - but nobody will judge).

The pineapple is a member of the Bromeliad family. As such it is related to Spanish moss and some interesting ornamental plants sold in many nurseries. These guys are absorb water and nutrients from a water-tight reservoir formed where the leaves come together. The pineapple should be easy to grow if you treat it like a normal houseplant that needs bright light.

Step 1: Get a pineapple.

Go to the grocery store...or the farmer's market (if you live in an area that actually has locally grown pineapples), or go to Sam's Club. Sometime they have them on sale for $2, which isn't bad considering where I live. They aren't exactly native to this area. Get one that has healthy and firm green leaves and golden brown skin. I'd get two pineapples. Why? So you can eat more pineapple. Also, you can root them both and if one of them dies, at least you'll still have one. And if they both pull through, then you have two plants. Fantastic! Not sure what to do with the pineapple? Cut it up and eat it. Or puree it and put it on angel food cake. Super good.

Look at the base of the leaves and make sure there are no small gray spots. Those are scale insects and that's nasty. If you see that, put it back and find one that doesn't have that on it. Get one that is ripe but not overly ripe. Test the fruit to check. If you gently tug on one of the inner leaves, if it pops out easily, the fruit is overly ripe. Don't pick that one either.

Step 2: Prepare the crown!

Grab hold of the entire top set of leaves. Twist twist a few times and pull. It will come out with stalk attached. Carefully cut small horizontal slices from the bottom of the crown until you see root buds that look like little dots or circles around the flat surface.

Next, strip off some of the lower leaves, exposing up to about an inch of the base of the crown. The stalk will root, and the leaves will eventually rot. Fear not! This is normal. So the leaves will come off in a spiral type fashion. You want to have a couple of inches of stalk exposed so that the roots can work their way out as you root it. See those little small brown spots? Those are root primordia! Baby roots just waiting to grow. Aww. Sometimes you might see some mini-roots hanging out. Careful not to damage them.

So at this point, let the crown hang out and dry out for a day or two. This will keep it from rotting once you start the rooting process.

Step 3: Root & plant!

Take your crown and put it in a clear glass of water. I used a vase. Put it in a neutral location...not too hot, not too cold. I just had mine by the kitchen sink. Change the water every couple of days. If your pineapple gets moldy, rinse it off. I don't know why mine did, but it's ok. After a couple of weeks, you'll see roots growing. See pictures! Now you can plant him.

Plant the pineapple in a fast draining potting soil like cactus potting soil. Put him in an 8-inch clay pot with a hole in the bottom for drainage. Before you put the soil in, put a rock or a broken piece of pottery over it, or even just put a couple inches of rocks at the bottom to help with drainage.

Plant him in there. Water him really well. Then put him in a sunny place. Don't leave him outside overnight if it's still cold out and he has the chance of freezing to death much like my first guy.

Check him every couple of days. Don't over-water him. The soil should always be moist, but not wet and not dry. Give him 6 to 8 weeks before the stalk will start pushing out strong roots. Don't fertilize him right now.

In a couple of months, he'll be an independent little plant. You can see how strong he is by gently tugging on him to see if he's firmly rooted himself in the soil. If he comes out when you tug on him and you see he hasn't grown new roots, put him back in the dirt and wait longer. If he looks like he's rotting on the base, have a funeral for him and start anew. Use fresh potting soil.

You'll see that his original leaves are turning brown or drying up and dying. That's okay though, because there should be new leaves growing from the center. As the leaves die, just remove them. Once it gets to this point, you'll only have to water him once a week or so.

Good luck! :)

firstly..

Hi.

Thanks for stopping. Good to meet you.

I'm your typical late 20-something girl. I live in the upper mid-west. I'm married. I'm a working professional by day, pseudo-housewife by evening, weekend yoga pants-wearer.

I'm okay domestically most of the time. Sometimes have to run a load of wash more than once because I forget to throw it in the dryer and then it smells musty. Now that my husband and I have moved into a new townhouse, we don't have a washer and dryer, so I slum it at the laundromat or I sneak over to my parents house and use their laundry room. Shh.

I'm semi-Italian and the rest of me is a mixed breed of Pacific Islander and Norwegian. I could be any number of nationalities depending on who is making the assumptions. I have a temper, dark hair and olive skin, and long thick hair; so, I tend to rely heavily on my Sicilian ancestry when people ask me where I may have originated from. It's the most believable.

My day job consists of working for the government in the state that I live, and that's about all I'll say about my job.

My passion is cooking, and baking, and making things. I knit. I sew, sort of. And I hand-wash all of my lingerie.