Bump update!

How far along? 30 weeks (wowzers)

Total weight gain/loss: I think like 19 pounds or something...crazy that I don't really feel it

Maternity clothes? Oh yes!

Stretch marks? No

Symptoms: Still feeling really good. Noticing that I'm getting a little more tired and slower, and bending to pick something up is becoming a chore, but still feeling great.

Sleep: Still sleeping great...since I'm getting a little more tired, I'm falling asleep rather quickly. Definitely appreciating this sleep while I have it.

Best moments this week: Celebrating Larsen's life with her family and friends. Also, our weather has been quite beautiful this week, and next week it's going to be even cooler...I'm so excited about a non-sweaty Halloween.

Movement: Yes, yes, and yes. He's definitely moving. Love watching my whole belly shake from a good kick that I'll feel on both sides at the same time. I'm sure he's getting cramped in there. :)

Cravings: Nope

Gender: Boy!

Labor Signs: Noticed that I'll feel a tightening on my whole belly that makes it feel like a rock, I'm wondering if that might be a braxton hicks contraction...I'm keeping an eye on it.

Belly Button in or out? Still in!

What I miss: Bending over with ease

What I am looking forward to: Well the shower is in less than two weeks now, crazy, crazy. I'm really looking forward to that and seeing lots of friends and family.

Weekly Wisdom: I've finally accepted the wisdom that not everything on my mental list needs to be done before baby boy comes. It felt like a huge burden was taken off of me when I really accepted that and let go of a few things that I had on my priority list that are really not a necessary priority.

Milestones: 30 weeks sounds like quite a milestone to me! My goodness. Also, my appointments are now going to be every two weeks since we're getting close. My, oh my, this is getting real.

Dance With Me

In honor of Lar's passing two years ago today, I wanted to share a favorite worship song of hers that I recorded last year. I remember her coming home from camp and excited to share this new song with me. I can see it all so clearly...me sitting on the floor of her bedroom as she sang and played it for me on her guitar. The song has grown to bless me in numerous ways, so I wanted to share it on this blog as it may be a blessing to some of you.

Dance With Me

Love you always, Lar. You're forever in our hearts.

Oreo Truffles

Let me start out this post by giving a shout out to the recipe, found here on Chef-In-Training.

I found this recipe last year and have made it numerous times. I truly make it for Rob's enjoyment as this man has described his experience with these truffles as "an indescribable experience that makes him want to cry" I guess with joy, because he loves them. :)

Best part about this recipe is that it only requires 3 ingredients. Double stuffed oreos, cream cheese and dipping chocolate.

First starting with the oreos...

I dumped the whole bag into a large ziplock bag...

And then mashed the cookies with my hands/fists/elbows until they looked like this...definitely burned some calories in the process. (if you have fancy kitchen gadgets like a food processor, that definitely works)

Then I dumped the contents into a mixing bowl. I should mention that if you mash the cookies in a bag, you have to scrape the bag a bit to get all of the cream off of it. The cream is very important for the consistency.

Added about 3 1/2 oz of cream cheese (recipe calls for 4 oz, however for Rob, 4 oz was a tad too cream-cheesey) Then got to mixing...with my hands...

Then I rolled the mixture into about 1-1 1/2 inch balls, and placed them on a wax paper covered tray.

Oh yeah, sportin the sweats. I then placed the tray in the freezer for about 15 minutes and got to melting my white chocolate.

The recipe calls to immerse the truffles in the chocolate, but for Rob that was too much chocolate, so I ended up just dipping the tops of them in the chocolate...it was way too late to try to be more creative.

Found these at Target for $2.50...and sprinkled them on the white chocolate...

And ta-da!

Oreo truffles with a Halloween-y twist. I thought later it could be fun to make these truffles look like eyeballs...however, it was just a nice thought. Maybe next year...and maybe if I hadn't started these at 10:30pm. Eek.

I should also mention that I doubled the recipe. This is how many truffles come out of two bags of double stuffed oreos, just to give you an idea of the serving size.

Happy mid-week everyone!

Whaley The Whale, Part Two

Well...whaley just wasn't sitting right with me. Not that he didn't look good, but the whole look I'm going for Finn's room has its specifics. So here's what whaley was looking like before...

I think I figured out what was bothering me about him. I think the stripes were feeling a little too babyish for what I'm going for in his room. I'm totally into stripes, but for some reason it just wasn't cuttin it for me.

So, I did a bit of that. Cuttin, that is...

Yep. After all that time of coloring those stripes and measuring them...it's now just scraps. Lol, but I think I got what I wanted now.

I found some brown paper behind Rob's desk and crinkled it up real good to add some texture. Then secured whaley to that...and here she blows, part two...

Simple, but definitely more up my alley...or shall I say galley. Nautical puns are getting too easy. :) I think this shall be the last and final part of the whaley chronicles.

Overwhelmed by the response to the post about Larsen, but shouldn't be surprised. She touched many lives, and continues to.

Love to you all!

Just Thinking of You...

For those who don't know, a close friend of mine, Larsen Hunt, was murdered almost two years ago by her ex-boyfriend in an act of domestic violence.

It was a shock, a knife in many hearts, a whirlwind. And even as the days and months and now years move forward, it still feels surreal.

So much can be said about Lar, she was a beautiful woman. It might have been the first thing you would of noticed when meeting her. However, the more you'd get to know her, you'd see she was so much more than that. She was strong, determined, driven, outgoing and deeply caring and she taught me a number of things during our years of friendship.

I feel like she taught me how to be a good friend. She wasn't the friend that would be solely concerned about her own life and what she was doing, she cared about what I cared about too. She was artistic and so creative with her thoughtfulness. I remember it was one of my birthdays at home and I woke up that morning to Lar sitting on my bedroom floor, indian style, with balloons all around her and a big decorated box with my birthday present. I still remember that cheesin smile she had when I opened my eyes, lol.

One more thing...when I was away in Fort Myers in Masters Commission for a year, Larsen sent me mail all the time with pictures of random friends and family holding a framed picture of me as if I were with them. It was one of the most comforting things as I was living away from home for the first time. Goodness, there's numerous stories of the caring things she would do. I can't express how thoughtful she was.

She taught me to be more bold. Larsen and I were far from similar. She was more outgoing, whereas I liked to kind of hang out in the shadows. We were an interesting mix. She brought out a side of me that I hadn't known was there. Her boldness and determination was, and still is, inspiring. When her mind was set on something, she'd do it. Watching her go through all of the emotions of having Aidric and taking on the role of mom, and facing his struggle with autism will always be inspiring.

She taught me how to rock the poof. For those who don't know what a poof is, refer to my hair in the picture of me and Rob in the "About" section. Lol, yeah, this may seem not a big deal, but trust me, I'm proud to have received my skill from THE pro.

I feel like she also taught me how to laugh. I don't remember a time before my friendship with Lar that I would laugh so hard I would be on the floor. We used to have the same honking laughs at one point, and often would debate who started it. I still totally think it was me, just sayin.

Oh Lar, I miss you. But I know you're in a beautiful place that we cannot truly fathom. With our Savior, Jesus. The Lover of our souls. And I know that your little boy is in the care of your loving parents and so many others who continue to love on him. And I know that I'll see you again.

But I still miss you.

And I'm so sad that your life here was cut short.

But I'll remember the good times. The lessons I learned from you. The joy you brought into my life and many others.

Love you always, friend.

Verse-a-day

I'm usually always in a rush in the mornings during the weekdays. Yes, I do try to fathom that it will be even more hectic with Finn, but I'm looking forward to him making me more responsible. I can't believe I'm going to be seeing this boy in a few months!!

But anyway, I came across this site, Light for the Day. It gives a daily verse along with a photo. I'm a visual gal, and love to see beautiful photos and this site has beautiful photo pairings to go along with the verse.

Anyway, thought I'd share. I love simple reminders to keep my mind on track.

Whaley The Whale

Well, it's no secret that Rob and I both have a thing for nautical. Even in more particular, Rob has a thing for whales, and squids, and ships. So there's going to be a bit of that showing up in Finn's room here and there. Trying not to go overboard. Lol, punny.

Anyway, I'm still trying to let this piece grow on me. This is a drawing I did with colored pencil and a thin black sharpie pen. Still letting it settle in. It's a little hard because I have to visualize all of the stuff in his room without knowing exactly what's going to be in there. So anyway, here she blows.

Whaley the whale...

Will see if she'll be a keeper in the long run.

Off for some needed laying-on-the-couch time. There might be a cheez-it or two involved.

(Update: see part two of whaley here)

My First Homemade Wreath

Ah, fall is lovely. Even if all we Floridians get is a slight break from humidity, I'll take it.

After updating our door from this...to this...

...I was inspired to create a wreath. And since I'm pretty cheap, I had the idea to create a basic wreath that I could simply change out the flowers/decor depending on the season.

Had no idea how I would actually do this, but I found myself leaving our local crafts store with a foam circle, some felt, floral wire and a glue gun. I had the idea to use some of my leftover burlap and hot glue strips of it all around the wreath. So I started there.

Let me also mention, hot glue and I have been reunited in a glorious way. I have forgotten the wonderful ways of hot glue. It's so instant and so effective. My kind of combo. Just under 4 bucks for this baby...oh yeah.

Anyway, back to the wreath. So I hot glued strips of burlap all around the wreath. I then had come across a few felt flower tutorials. Found here and here. Super easy, however, in reference to the red roses, originally I went through all the hassle of cutting out a template, tracing it on the felt and cutting it out. When really, all you needed to do was cut a swirl. So I only used the template once, the rest I cut out by freehand.

So after I finished my flowers, I wanted to figure out the dilemma of how to get them on the wreath in a way that I could take them off so I could interchange my wreath from season to season. I landed on hot gluing the flowers to a single floral wire. I then wrapped two separate floral wires around around the wreath (weaved through the flowers wire) and tightened the wire by twisting it in the back.

It surprisingly worked to my relief. I then used some old cinnamon broom branches (yeah, from last year...lol) to surround the flowers...and ta-da!

Here you can see the green floral wire that I wrapped around the wreath to secure the flowers...

Here's a close up of the flowers...didn't take step by step photos, but I truly just followed the instructions mentioned earlier (minus the cutting out of the template part, I just cut them freehanded)

And here she is again from far away...

I'm almost happy with it. I plan on adding a little banner across the center of the wreath to say something like "Welcome" or something season appropriate, but I haven't gotten my head around what material to use, cause paper wouldn't last long out there.

Overall, I look forward to watching this little wreath evolve. I could see making flowers for spring with bright colors and even having a birthday banner that goes across it for our birthday weeks.

Anyone else crafting it up for fall?

Bump Update!

How far along? 27 1/2 weeks (third trimester!)

Total weight gain/loss: Not sure, I find out at my next appointment

Maternity clothes? Just two pairs of maternity pants, but just received a large amount of hand-me-down clothes from a friend. So appreciative! Just when I really was running out.

Stretch marks? No

Symptoms: Feeling great, get a little leg crampage here and there, but nothing major.

Sleep: Sleeping great still...but starting to realize it's going to get harder and harder to get out of our platform bed...it's soooooo stinkin low.

Best moments this week: Lots :)

Movement: Definitely feel movement, however he's not a huge mover still. I'll feel him here and there, but it's not constant. I'm thinking he's pretty comfy. :)

Cravings: Nope

Gender: Boy!

Labor Signs: None

Belly Button in or out?  In-ish

What I miss: Nothing really right now, just enjoying this pregnancy

What I am looking forward to: Many things, but trying not to be anxious and impatient though. Just trying to maintain trust and faith right now...the feeling of having the whole house together and ready weighs on me, but really I know everything will work out. Oh and I'm really looking forward to the baby shower!

Weekly Wisdom: The orange drink to test your glucose really isn't that bad. (gonna find out on Friday!) Update - the orange drink wasn't bad at allllll! Tasted like orange soda with no fizz. It was even chilled to my delight as I had it in my head it was going to be room temp...anyway, glucose test is officially conquered!

Milestones: Finn should be about 2 lbs now! So amazing. It feels like he was just a grain of rice a few months ago. Also reaching my third trimester is quite a milestone, I'm able to pre-register now at my hospital. 9 or 10 months never felt so unbelievably fast.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I thought it would be fun to show the reality of our home right now. You know, sometimes looking at blogs or Facebook, you can think that some people's lives look so put together and so dang perfect. So I thought it would be slightly funny to show a bit of our home's realness...in all its goodness, lol.

So let me start with the first room you are greeted by when you walk into our home. Doesn't it just scream, "Welcome!"? lol

First, I'll state that Rob and I are going to be getting new carpet in the three bedrooms soon. So we started emptying the closets in two of the rooms and we're in the process of going through all of our tubs and randomness. We hope to have an attic floor built soon to store this stuff instead of keeping it in the closets.

Even though it looks like madness and I totally can't stand this room, it's definitely the chaos before the calm. Getting truly organized has been something I've really wanted for us. Thankfully, I don't feel the need to hold on to every single little thing, so we've been able to throw/give away quite a few things that really we don't need/want.

The reason I felt inspired to write this post is all due to when I was taking the below picture of my new burlap pumpkins...I found it comical what a little good framing will do that prevents you from seeing the craziness lurking only feet away, lol.

Also, here's a little sneak peek of what I'm dreaming up for this room...

So let's move on...here's the other two rooms that we're having to pull everything out of. We haven't moved any big stuff out yet since we're not exactly at the point of getting new carpet installed.

Beautiful, huh? :)

And well, here's our back porch. Yep, that pressure washing only lasted so long before the dirt blew right back in! Rob and I both have dreams for this space. One thing's for sure, we're getting rid of the Jacuzzi. We tried it when we first bought the house (after extennnnnnsive cleaning) however it's just not our thing. We could see even closing the porch in one day and making it another bedroom/den as well as a fully functioning laundry space (right now the washer/dryer is located in our main hallway).

As far as trying to keep the lanai clean, it doesn't help having Jack who runs outside in the dirt/rain and brings all the muddy goodness in with him. If only we could train him to wipe his little paws.

Here's our backyard...definitely green, but also most definitely cray-cray. If only Rob or I loved the act of yard work...one day we'll get to hacking at this area and make it nice...front yard in my first priority though. Maybe we'll wait till Finn is a little older and we can recruit him to help us back here, lol.

So there you have it...there's some bad and ugly for ya. The nice thing is, I can just retreat to a finished room in our house and forget about the craziness lurking around us. It doesn't work every time, but it works. God's helping me to learn to not let it all affect me...it is hard when you're an environmentally affected person, but He's helping me.

So here's to life and all its realities! The good, the bad and the ugly.

M&M Cookie Pie

When Rob came home from NYC, I wanted to make a little something for him. Ya know, try to be domestic. I found this recipe on Pinterest for an M&M cookie pie. It was super easy even though I'm so inexperienced, that I didn't even know what it meant to cream something. I know, don't laugh all you bakers and kitchen pros!

Basically it's just an M&M cookie baked in a pie pan (glass or metal)...once it's done you just slice it like a pie and you've got yourself a cookie pie. Genius.

It was pretty tasty, definitely will make again. If only baking and cooking didn't produce endless dishes...