Recipe- Not so much.....

Well, I thought that I would have a great recipe to post this week. Tried something new last night & decided I would make Chinese.
Started off with Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps---- pretty darn good, however, I'm a fan of P.F. Changs lettuce wraps & how their chicken is in 'oh so small' pieces. I cut my chicken, in what I thought, was small pieces, but obviously not small enough.
Chicken Lettuce Wraps, - close but no cigar.

Then I made some Kung Pao Chicken. (John & I's favorite when going to eat Chinese)- Hmmmm, good, and did the job of feeding us, but not great. John kept saying it was really good, however- I know him. When he loves something he'll say: 'Make this again! This is awesome!!!"

Made some Fried Rice to go along with it. Decided to do Brown Fried Rice to make it somewhat healthier. It was pretty good.

But overall, after thinking of all the $$ spent on ingredients, we decided that it's much cheaper & easier to just get Takeout from the restaurant.

So, maybe next week I might have a great new recipe to share with you all!

Latest Happenings

Not too terribly much has been happening over in the King household lately....
~John's been working a lot and training a couple of new reps to work in his Law Enforcement Division of the Gun store working on confiscated weapons from departments all over the United States. Which is exciting and I know that he is really glad that this will be something that will be a load off of him for his workload. Especially wonderful since Caroline is just a short 4 months away (actually less than that!)

~I've been baking baking baking away. Not just with cakes but with cookies. Cookies are such a big demand lately. (And I love it!) We've been talking a lot lately about how much I will be working once Baby Caroline arrives. John thinks I'll pretty much just stop, but I enjoy this creative outlet. I think we've decided that once she arrives, I will cut back to just wedding cakes and grooms cakes, Large order celebration cakes (servings of at least 50+), cupcakes, and themed cookies. So, I'm not cutting back too much, just eliminating the little $50 cakes here & there.
I'm going to try to work in "Monthly" cookies- dealing with the holidays that come with that month. (Feb- Valentine's Day packages, June- Father's Day, October- Halloween, etc, etc). I will only make a limited amount for each holiday, so I'm not overwhelmed with orders- I control what I make. :)

My Easter Collection this year-

This is the box of cookies for $15.

Other super exciting news is our House happening. After the last disappointing day of house hunting, John & I were just stuck on what to do. We wanted to wait for that 'perfect' house to appear, but then again, get the ball rolling on something before Caroline gets here. After church a couple of Sundays ago, John & I went out on our farm for a little picnic/ nap time. (The farm that John proposed to me on.) It was a GORGEOUS spring day, and we packed up lots of blankets, pillows along with some snacks & drinks. We headed up to the top of our farm on the hill & just enjoyed the day.
At one point, John said, "Don't you just wish we could wake up to this every morning??"
N: "I know. I just love it up here. But I know we can't afford the huge house that we want to build. It would be wonderful if we could figure out a way to build & just add on without wasting $$."

Well, that got the ball rolling. The next weekend, I had a some big cake orders along with 2 wedding cakes to do, so I stayed in town while John had to go to Memphis to be in a wedding of one of his college buddies. While he was away, I took the mornings & evenings to work on house plan sketches. When he came back on Sunday evening, I told him that I thought I had worked something out on paper I wanted him to look at. After showing him the plans & how we could actually work this thing out, I was nervous about his response. But then he looked up, smiled really big & said, 'This looks great! Let's do it!'
(Wow! I didn't even have to pour him a strong drink first (which I thought I might have to do to coax him into the idea..... Something I learned from dealing with my Dad.... (Especially wedding planning. We'd go out to the country club; I'd arrive about 10 minutes early, head to the bar, order me a glass of wine & him a double scotch then proceed to tell the bartender to never let his glass get empty, that we were there to talk about wedding plans & 'budgeting'. And it worked 99% of the time.....)

We met with a potential builder last Sunday at the farm for him to see the site. We wanted a builder to see the site & let us know if what we had envisioned was even possible.... before we start to plop down $$ to start on plans, and utilities to be pulled up there. It was a great meeting & got us both super excited. He told us a little bit about what we'd have to do & layout ideas, etc....

So, we are in the process of working on the utilities. It's hard when you want to build out in the country, on a large farm, on top of a huge hill...... But we know that it's going to work out for us! We know that we won't be in before Caroline comes, and I have my serious doubts of being in before the new year, but at least we know that we are building what we want & what we've dreamed of..... YAY!!!

Pregnancy- 23 weeks

We are less than 1 week away from hitting our 6 month mark! Craziness!


Baby bump is starting to really grow, however, I've been told by LOTS of people that my bump isn't really that big. Good or Bad? I've run into 3-4 encounters last week that when I said something like,

"Well, we can't believe that she'll be here in less than 4 months!" or "Can you help me lift this? I'm pregnant & my husband would kill me if he knew that I tried to do this on my own"-

only to get responses of, "You're pregnant? How far along are you?"

-"I'm about a week away from being 6 months!"

"whhhhhaaat?? I couldn't even tell, but now that you say something, yeah, I can see it a little."



I guess this all depends on what outfit I'm wearing. My Dad told me that I needed to start wearing Maternity clothes because people might mistake me for just gaining a lot of weight. My response: "Daaaaaddddy- These ARE maternity clothes! You want me to wear a Moo Moo or something??"

So this week, we are 23 weeks pregnant.

She's over 11 inches long & weighs over 1 lb. She's very intune to the sounds around us. Sunday, while we were in church, I whispered at Mom, "She's moving a lot!" Mom immediately put her hand on my stomach & was just sitting there snickering because she was just kicking & kicking! But when the choir would start to sing, she'd stop. Mom said, "I think Caroline really likes music & singing because she doesn't move during it." Which was very true. She'd move & kick while Pastor Scott was talking or during the readings, but when that choir would start, she'd stop. I told Mom, "Gee, I hope this doesn't mean that she'll be disruptive during the sermon during church when she arrives. "- :)


Other things happening lately with the pregnancy-

-Still finding it tough to get comfy at night.
Sleeping with pillows between my legs have never been my thing, but I love it now!


-Having to get up at least 2 times in the middle of the night to use the bathroom


-Sometimes waking up in the middle of the night with HUGE hunger pains. Strawberry Banana yogurt is a-m-a-z-i-n-g! Also, those little individual Mandarin Orange cups are delish!


-Finding it sore to sit or stand for periods of time.
Think of how sore you are after riding a horse for a couple of hours. Yep- that's what my pelvis feels like when I stand up or move my legs in the middle of the night. Achy!


-Water with lemon juice in it is HEAVEN! I drink this like it's going to be discontinued!


-Appetite isn't much (this last week or so)- Having to remind myself to eat at meal times (which never is usually a problem)- but just isn't eating as much as people say that I would be. (I've been warned that my appetite will come out of nowhere & you'd think that I'd just gotten off the show 'Survivor' )


- John's obsessed with my bump! He loves to rub it and gives it lots of kisses. He talks to her and she'll usually kick for him when he does. He loves for me to wear outfits that show off my bump. One time I put on a dress & told him that I didn't like it because it made me look more pregnant than I really was. His response, "I know! I love it!! Don't change!" (Ummmm, no!)



- Starting to purchase baby nursery items.
We got her bassinet last week, (and about to send it to a lady to sew a cover for it)-, as well as her baby book. Small purchases but at least it's something!

Dream on???

Pregnancy has brought a lot of different things/ experiences into our lives, but one thing that we were not prepared for were: CRAZY DREAMS!

I am a pretty light sleeper (which my parents think is crazy since when I was a little girl, they used to have to wake me up in the mornings by sprinkling water on my face- that's how hard I slept!)- while John is a hard sleeper. I think a tornado could come through (at times I think one has been close), and John will sleep right through it. Well, in the past 2 months or so, I've been waking up or waking John up (not intentionally) with my dreams.

Some nights I wake up crying, some nights I wake up with a big catch of my breath (like in the movies), and other nights I will wake John up with my talking in my sleep. I actually woke up one night and John was sitting there having a conversation with me (he was awake). I asked him what he was doing & he said, "You were talking in your sleep, so I was trying to get you to continue talking because it sounded like an interesting dream. What was it?" My response: "I don't know, honey, I'm trying to sleep!"

About a week or so ago, I woke up & starting yelling that the house was on fire! Boy that got John out of bed fast (hmmmm, maybe I need to try this tactic when he's on too much of my side of the bed to regain some bed control!)- Then as he's standing there wide awake saying, " WHAT??!!Where?!!! Where??!!" I said, "Oh, nevermind, I guess I was dreaming... Let's go back to sleep..."

I've dreamed that robbers are in the house, then woken up & told John to get the gun & go outside & see.., etc, etc.. I think I've about given him more mini heartattacks in the past 2-3 months with my dreams than I did with my Dad, in the entire span of 9 months, when I was telling him the cost of things for our wedding 2-3 years ago!

So, as much as I'm trying to 'dream on' over here- one positive note to all my dreams is I think I've coverted John to a not so heavy sleeper. I can simply sit up in bed to have a drink of water & John will wake up & say, "Are you ok? Is everything alright? Are you comfortable?". Which is a big thing since when I would run out of water on my side of the bed, in the middle of the night, I could crawl across John to his side to get his water glass & drink some, all while he never even moved an inch in the process.

I guess my body is training us to be super sensitive to sleep and to be alert when little Miss Caroline wakes up from her nightmares one day. So, it's worth it in the long run!

Hello there....

As usual, I'm behind on my blogging. Luckily, it's because we have been super busy lately with John's work, traveling, on the search for a house, and cakes!!

Orders Orders everywhere!

If anyone knows anyone in the cake business, they know that Thursday- Saturday are 'round the clock work! I have been averaging at least one wedding a weekend (with both a wedding cake and a groom's cake), along with at least 2 orders of other cakes (birthday, showers, anniversary, etc, etc). Needless to say, that I'm exhausted come Saturday evening and want nothing than to just relax for the next 2-3 days. I feel like being a baker is like having a schedule like a nurse. You work about 3 or 4 days/ week, but you are on 12+ hour shifts. Last Thursday I put in a 14 hour day, and last Friday I was baking, decorating, designing, etc for 18 hours!! Whew! Then Saturday is set-up & delivery day.... So, usually Mondays & Tuesdays are my "weekends". However, business has been booming, and I find myself back in the kitchen on Mondays or at the computer working on quotes, researching & sketching ideas for clients, scheduling or hosting cake tastings, etc... But I'm so happy that I'm busy and love the fact that I create my own schedule- (however, it can be my demise at times)-

I'm working on an Easter Cookie collection next week (Monday & Tuesday) , which I will be selling online, (Facebook, Etsy, here, email, etc, etc....)- I'll be sure to post pictures once I get everything tweaked to show examples of what will be available the week of Easter.

House hunting- who ever said this was fun???

However, I love to look at houses & see people's decorating style and what all I could do to make that house our own, but after the first couple, it's just pure disappointment.

John & I went out with John's mom, Sherry, yesterday to look at 5+ houses. I woke up & told John, "I just have a feeling that today is the day! We will find our house today!"- Well, after many letdown sighs, and "Well, it's a pretty house, but just doesn't fit our needs" later.... We are back at square one. We will find something soon- keeping our fingers crossed & praying praying praying!

Pregnancy- 22 weeks- (almost)

In just a few short days, we will hit our 22 week mark. 5 1/2 months pregnant! Woah!

Baby Caroline is a whopping 1 lb this week and 8 inches long- about the size of a small doll. She is seeing (if we shined a flashlight at my stomach, she would move away from the light)

gripping (the umbilical cord, since there isn't much else in there to hold onto)

hearing (voices, Cooper barking, gurgles in my stomach, TV, radio etc-)

tasting (everything I'm tasting)

Last Wednesday morning, we got out of bed and I went to the kitchen to make John's coffee, and noticed that I wasn't standing as close to the coffee maker as usual. Looked down and BAM! I have been told that the bigger bump will just appear one day and that was the day. I called John in there & said, 'John, look at this!" His reaction- "WOAH!" We had gone to our Dr. on Monday & he warned us about it. He told us that I was about to hit a growing spurt and to be prepared. Well, even though we were told, it took us aback for a minute.

She's been kicking and moving around a lot. She moves a little in the morning as I'm waking up, after I eat meals, especially dinner, and she feels like she's in there dancing away when I lay down at night. John always puts his hand on my stomach to feel her & he's even said how much stronger her kicks and punches have gotten.

I will try to update this more frequently.... I promise that the further along in my pregnancy, the less work I have taken on, so I will be able to blog more...

Also, if you are missing the "Recipe of the Week" entry, worry not. It will come back as well. I have started to sift through my recipes and plan on compiling them into a "cookbook" for myself. I have all my recipes on those little recipe cards at the moment, and have decided to convert them over to a typed book-style. It's one of my 'nesting' projects that I've already preplanned for myself since we haven't found our house yet, it is to fill the void of organizing & cleaning like crazy in this little cabin. :) So, once I start to really get going on that project, the recipes will be so much easier to blog about!