Cool Thing Friday #8 - POPSUGAR Must Have Box {May}

Today's cool thing is the POPSUGAR Must Have Box.  We've talked about the Must Have Box before.  I don't know about you but I still think it's wonderful to get good things in your mailbox!

Unfortunately moving 3 times in six months means our stuff keeps getting lost in the mail.  Thankfully this box of goodness was sent to our first stop of address changes (aka Mom's house) so I was was able to get it back quickly.  Yay!

Let's open it, shall we?

Lot's of goodies!!

To begin, these fancy black out eyemask.  I am totally intrigued by this thing.  I always imagine these as something fancy ladies wear with silk robes trimmed in fur.  I will try it and report back.
More importantly Kerry Cassill makes really beautiful bedding and linens, you should click the link and check it out.

This looks like something to do after I deliver this baby.  Right now pre-natal yoga, walking and sleep are my friends.



















I would be up for this right now.....

















Let's see what's next!

Ohhhhh, beauty supplies!

Let's talk about perfume.  I have such trouble with perfume.  What smells like beautiful flowers or cinnamon on you will probably smell like sour old lady on me.  I don't know what it is but my body chemistry just does not agree with all scents.  Needless to say, I was skeptical.  This perfume says it smells like sunscreen on the beach. Guess what?  It actually smells like sunscreen on the beach on me!  I really like it a lot.  Score!

I have not had a pedi since February.....I've actually been polish free for quite awhile and it is an adjustment.  I love getting pedi's but I have been reluctant to breathe in a bunch of fumes while prego....even though a good foot and leg rub sounds decadent.  Since this is a vegan polish I figured, why not?  It's not my typical color, but it's fun and seems to be staying well.  Plus, I'm enjoying having polished toesies again.



















Case in point.

Say hello to the Citrus Zinger.  This is a pretty clever idea.  The bottom of the bottle screws off and has a juicer.  You can "zing" your favorite citrus and screw it back on to the bottle, then fill the bottle with water and you have a fancy lemon water bottle.  I only wish the opening was bigger so adding ice would be easier.

Of course with drink we Must Have snacks.  These Skinny Sticks aren't skinny on taste.  They are actually really good and kid approved at our house too.

















So there you have it!  If you are interested in subscribing to Must Have, please use the following coupon!

Code: MAYSELECT10
Offer: $10 off 3 month subscription
Ends: 6/7/14

Click here to order.

Happy Friday everyone!


♥TCW

The First Trimester

Well, here I sit at nearly 19 weeks and the belly has begun to pop.  So far I think being pregnant is really a wonderful and exciting thing.  That said I have been incredibly lucky to feel so normal, completely skipping nausea and all of the yucky first trimester stuff.  The biggest thing I can complain about are headaches here and there but all in all they're not even worth complaining about.

Some changes since my last prego post....we know what we're having now...

Blue or Pink,
What do you think?
Pink or Blue, 
What say you?

If you said pink,
you had a good think!
We are thrilled to announce
news of our daughter.

With Love,
Baby O's Mother & Father

Yep!  It's a girl.  We are so thrilled.  We had a little gender reveal party with our parents...everyone guessed girl and they were right, as told by the cake.

By the way, I used this recipe and didn't color the frosting or add coconut and strawberries to the top.

So, are any of you wondering how we already know what we're having?  Well.  When you're an old lady (36=old by pregnant standards) you get access to magic new genetics tests.  Instead of a scary amnio (which I would have refused on personal grounds), I was offered a simple blood draw.  That's right, two little vials of blood and from that they could tell us all sorts of things, including the sex, to a very high level of accuracy. Woot!  (Here is the test info, in case you're curious.)  Most importantly we had normal results and then came time to decide if we wanted to know what we had happening.....and we did!  Cheers to pink, tu-tu's, dolls and coloring!

Once we knew for sure we were pregs, I bought two things:

What to Expect When You're Expecting, 4th Edition

From Pea to Pumpkin: A Pregnancy Journal

I like What to Expect...because it gives straightforward answers and covers each week in a short paragraph. The glossary is also easy to use.

You may remember me talking about Pea to Pumpkin before.  This little journal is a gem.  It is filled with prompts that make it easy to keep a cute record of your pregnancy and the illustrations are so sweet.  This would make a great gift for a newly prego lady, or you should buy it for yourself.  I'm so glad I did.

All in all things are great!  Because I like to talk about food and decor, you'll hear prego talk from me again at the start of trimester #3 (like whoa!).

Cravings:  Grape jelly, peanut butter, hard boiled eggs, frozen yogurt.

Weird smells: Chicken broth (eww).

Feeling:  Fab!

♥ TCW + Bump

Dinner Last Week #7

Hey friends, what's new?

I feel like I'm starting to fall back into a normal routine after all of our moving and life events over the last year, but I still haven't managed to find my blogging groove.  If there could only be 1 more day in every week....free day that is.  Anyway, I know every woman/mom on the planet probably suffers from this as well, so cheers ladies!

MONDAY - Grilled Steak and Joy The Bakers Pistachio Crusted Asparagus with Feta

This was actually supposed to be Sunday's dinner but someone rolled in super late (you know who you are)....so we ate it on Monday instead.  No photo of the steaks but I got them at the Sunday Farmer's Market from Lucky Dog Ranch; they were delicious as all of their products are.  I had prepped the asparagus on Sunday (ground pistachios and vinaigrette), so we were ready to roll with that.  You can find Joy's recipe here.  This was a nice twist on our typical grilled asparagus and would do well as a dinner party or fancy brunch side.

TUESDAY - Ravioli with Homemade Steak and Asparagus Marinara aka Monday's leftovers made into pasta

Source

So, I used Trader Joe's Porcini Mushroom and Truffle Triangoli, cooked as directed on the package.  In a skillet I sauteed about 4 cloves of minced garlic and 1/4 cup of olive oil, then added 1 can of tomato sauce.  I turned up the heat to med-high and stirred until the oil and tomato sauce started to come together. While that was happening I chopped up our leftover asparagus and steak, then dumped it into the sauce mixture (including all of the vinaigrette and pistachio mixture in the container). Once everything was warm, I added the cooked trangoli and served with shredded Parmesan.  This was actually way better than we were expecting and made a nice use of our leftovers.






WEDNESDAY - Seriously, I can't even remember

And that's no joke.  So instead I want to tell you about this:

Shutterbean's Quinioa & Tabouleh Salad

You can find this recipe here.  This is a really delicious and hearty salad, plus its vegan, if you dig that.  I first made it on a weeknight, if you do this I recommend at least cooking your quinoa beforehand. It takes a long time for that shindizzle to cool off, so it makes for quicker prep to do it the day before.  Tracy uses pomegranate molasses in her recipe, which I couldn't find....even at Whole Foods (where did you get that stuff Tracy??).  Instead I used regular molasses and about 1/2 teaspoon of grape jelly to sweeten it up.  This salad was so good we made it again for our family at Easter.
P.S.  Please ignore the two large pieces of bread.  The end.





THURSDAY - Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

Yep, Taco Thursday strikes again at our house, although these days we're eating them as chicken burritos. Recipe can be found here.

FRIDAY - A bowl of cereal

Does it seem fancier when I italicize it?  We had a great catered lunch at work from Mama Kim's and nobody else was hungry either, so cereal it was.

That's that.  What have you been eating lately?

TCW