The Pirate House!

About a month ago (I know I suck at blogging) we got to go stay in the Pirate House in Vegas (well near Vegas, its actually in Boulder City). Anyways, it was amazing! It was basically like staying at a Pirates of the Caribbean waterpark!! There were 21 rooms, 2 waterslides, 5 pools, a few hot tubs, a couple kitchens....it was INSANE! There were ships to jump from into the pool, hammocks everywhere and flat screen TV's EVERYWHERE! And they had some of the same set ups that they have on the Pirates of the Caribbean Disneylad ride. So there were pirates and skeletons and stuff all over the place. We were so lucky to be able to stay there! I have TONS of pictures of it so here are a bunch!

Diet Coke Cupcakes?

Is it true? could it be?


Diet coke cupcakes??


Really??


Yes it is true! And the even better part is that they are low calorie (well lower than normal!)



So the other day while I was at my place of employment we were discussing my co-workers (Lara...aka my kbff) birthday that was coming up. It was decided that I would make cupcakes to bring to work. Thats when Brian piped in and asked if we had ever had diet coke cake. Diet coke cake? Why no, I have never heard of it. Well Brian and his wife have lost weight and continue to lose weight. His wife was on The Biggest Loser a few years back. She was the one from Utah that made it to the finale, but was pregnant so she couldn't win. Anyways they are eating healthy and made a cake where they replaced the fatty oil and eggs and stuff with diet coke! I looked it up online and decided to try it! It is actually a weight watchers recipe. Anyways, its a really tough recipe. I don't know if you'll be able to make it unless you're an amazing cook like me. So here it is...

1 cake mix
1 can of diet coke (10-12 oz)
Mix it together and back like normal.

Yep thats it!! You don't add any other oil or eggs or water or anything! Just diet coke! I read somewhere that a whole can of diet coke (12 oz) was a little too much. So I did about 10-11 oz. I made the cupcakes the night before I brought them to work. After I mixed up the batter I tasted it. It tasted a little diet coke-ish but pretty good. I made the cupcakes and cooked them. they turned out pretty good except for they were a little flatter than usual but overall looked like normal cupcakes! I made homemade chocolate frosting (which is amazing by the way) to go on top of them. I was a little scared to take them to work because I hadn't tried them yet so I wasn't sure how they were. My kbff and I took a bite and they were AMAZING!!!




Seriously, they were so so so good! They are soooo moist! I think even more moist than regular cupcakes! All in all I thought it was a big success! Then as the day went on and the cupcakes settled in my tummmy, a little rumbling started to occur and I started getting stomach pains. Thats when I remembered that I had this little problem called phenylketoneuric (thank you amber for finding out the official name!). Considering most of you (or all) don't know what that is, let me explain! Phenylketoneuric is when you have a bad reaction to the artificial sweetners they put in place of sugar. So whenever I eat anything sugar free it makes me sick....including diet coke apparently! I haven't had soda since 9th grade so I guess I didn't really think that putting diet coke in a cake mix would make me sick! Well the night I mixed up the batter I ate a lot of the dough (not much of a surprise if you know me very well). That night I was up until 3:30 to 4:00 in the morning with stomach cramps, and well, lets just say it--some heinous gas! I didn't think that the cake batter could have caused this trauma but apparently it did! My amazing diet coke cupcakes make me sick! Does that make me not want to eat them? Nope! It just makes it easier for me to rid myself of the calories =) he he he....(Plus the actually cake batter made me sicker than the cupcakes. I think most of the soda, if not all, gets cooked out in the oven)


By the way, if you are trying to keep them even more low calorie then use lite or fat free cool whip for the frosting instead of regular frosting. And I read somewhere else to not cook the cake as long as you usually would. Cook it about 5 minutes shorter. I tried that but then ended up cooking my cupcakes as long as you usually would. Maybe its different with cakes? I don't know! Let me know if you try this recipe though!


P.S. We were bored at work which is why this blog has pictures that tells that story!

I LOVE TULSA!!

I know shocking right?? Over the past month Tulsa has really grown on me! The first week we went to our ward here the bishop told me, "welcome to paradise." I laughed and was thinking, 'sheyah right' but now my thoughts have changed! And of course I start liking Tulsa right when my time here is winding down! Oh well!
Reasons for liking Tulsa:
1. Shopping: I know right? Who would have thought! Not only is there mall here huge but they have THE BEST shoe shopping ever!! There are these 2 shoe stores that I LOVE to go to! Lisa can testify to that! I think she bought 4 pairs of shoes while out here visiting me!
2. Frozen Custard on every corner. There are literally 5 frozen custard places within 10 minutes of my house. For all of you who haven't tried frozen custard you gotta try it! There aren't very many places in Utah to try it though. I will miss my chocolate frozen custard with brownies from Freddy's...
3. Uncle Vinny's Pizza: it was voted best pizza by the slice and I agree! Plus its cheap!
4. Our neighbors: We got to be friends with our neighbors who have this golden retriever. Harley and and their retriever, Coby, became best friends! Played all the time! I'll post a picture of them soon.
5. Our ward: This is been our favorite ward that we've been in. We love it. There are a lot of young couples and our bishop is awesome! I am sad to be leaving it! Its one of the main reasons why I started loving it here!
6. The Heat and Humidity! I know, I must be crazy right? I actually like how hot and humid it is! Well to an extent! But I love going outside at night and having a hot breeze! Don't know how to explain it and I'm sure if I was going door to door I wouldn't love it!

Things I don't like about Tulsa
1. Heat and Humidity! I know I know, we have a love hate relationship. Today it is 113 plus humidity and thats a little much for me. I'm afraid I'm gonna be cold when I come back to Utah!
2. The Apartments. The first thing you see when you pull in is a big sign that says, "top of the hill, top of the line." HA HA HA!!!
3. The unusually large bugs: Just imagine one of the grossest bugs you've seen in Utah and then times that by 3...or 4. Yeah thats the size of the bugs here. This centipede was found in our bathroom. I freaked out...just a lil' bit!!

4. Looming water heater: I don't so much hate it anymore. It has kinda grown on me.
This is what it looks like though. After we took the picture I was trying to close the door to it and it broke! I busted up laughing cuz that's the story of this apartment!

Viva Las Tulsa!

Here are a few things that have been going on with us in Tulsa!
So a few Sundays ago we were taking a Sunday drive and decided to head down to downtown Tulsa. Well apparently downtown Tulsa is a business district so on the weekends its COMPLETELY dead! Not even a car in sight! And everything was closed...okay well most of the stores were closed--even restaurants and stuff. It was crazy! There wasn't even anyone to take a picture of us down there so we had to set the timer on our camera and set it on our car!! ha ha ha!


We had a great 4th of July. The hubby's all had to work (holiday's are busy work days because it means that people will be home for them to talk to) so all the wives decided to get together for a bbq! All the sales guys actually got home right in time for the bbq and then after we all went down to watch the fireworks at the Arkansas River! I guess its the thing to do here! It actually ended up being pretty cool! It was a great firework show!


And then just last week my friend Lisa came to visit! It was so much fun even though we were completely lazy! All we did was eat, go to the pool, eat some more, shop, and then eat again! ha ha ha! I converted Lisa to the amazing Frozen Custard that they have all over out here! We got one everyday and it was sooo good!!
This is us with one of our daily frozen custards

We went to Cheesecake Factory which is within 5 minutes of my house. Who woulda thought...a Cheesecake Factory in Tulsa!
This was noooot the best cheesecake choice we could have made =(


This was taken at the airport when Lisa was leaving. So sad that she had to go! Oh and we look a little scraggly cuz we'd been at the pool all morning, and then straight to shopping (after stopping and getting some of the best pizza EVER at Uncle Vinny's) and of course had to get us some frozen custard before she left. We had no time to pretty ourselves up!

Love my Lisa!

Oh how you love to remember me....

Here is a fun little game... leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time or a long time, anything that you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It is pretty funny to read the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. On your mark... get set... blog those memories!

Pool Pets

Since we have moved to Tulsa we have found quite a variety of animals living in the pool. There are 2 pools in our apartment complex--the lower pool which is by the apartment complex office, and then an upper pool which is basically in the backyard of our apartment. Since the upper pool is closer we usually go to that one. Well when we moved into the apartment complex the pools weren't open yet, they didn't open for about two weeks. When we would walk Harley at night we would walk past the upper pool by our house. I'm gonna be honest, the pool was NASTY!! It was all green and swampy and gross. Come to find out there were snakes in it! Yes, snakes were living in the pool! Finally they cleaned it out and got rid of the snakes. Sure the pool was cleaner but it was still not open to the public yet. Even though it wasn't open to the public, apparently it was open to ducks. Every night we walked by the pool after it got cleaned there was a duck just chillin and floating around on it. We thought it was a fake duck so Shawn threw a rock at it and we discovered it was real! So the duck lasted about a week and then they opened the pool and the duck stopped showing up....must not like chlorine! While I thought we were rid of our wonderful pool pets I was wrong. For the past week or two every morning we find this in the pool

Yes you saw it correctly--it is a rat. They are found in various forms; dead, alive, water-logged.... You would think that one of the surviving rats would run and tell the other rats that getting in the pool is not a good idea. But we have had no rat messengers relay this message for every morning rats are still found! I have never been so glad that I just lay out and don't actually get in the pool! While my hubby might be full of diseases,I am not! Phew, dodged that bullet! I thought the pool was bad but apparently the hot tub isn't much better. One night WHILE we were sitting in the hot tub we were informed by maintenance that it was filled with 'beer and piss'. YUMMY! That was the best news ever! Not only do I love sitting in a big bath tub filled with everyone else's filth, but now it is also filled with beer and piss. YAY! With this news of liquid options for the hot tub and various pets to choose from, I have never loved Tulsa so much!

Happy Father's Day!

Okay this really has nothing to do with Father's Day other than the fact that it happened to fall on Father's Day! After I showered Shawn with his favorite foods and gave him some new shirts (I know I know, I am the best wife ever) then we headed out for our usual Sunday tradition. The group out here always BBQ's and then we head to the pool for some fun in the sun! Today we decided to take Harley so he didn't have to be stuck in the house. Harley isn't the biggest fan of water. He used to love it when he was a puppy. Whenever I was taking a shower he felt the need to join me. But then I had to start kicking him out cuz it was a pain to dry him off every day and I was sick of smelling wet dog. So eventually he stopped liking water! Well he has never been in deep enough water to try swimming. I always wondered if he even could swim considering his numerous rolls and stubby legs. So yesterday we were at the pool and it was like 95 and humid! He was getting so hot and couldn't find any relief! I was in the pool and I was trying to coax him in. With just me around him (he didn't trust any of the guys) he actually came in a few steps and hung out in the water. But once he went to step down on the third step he realized he would be in over his head and backed up! He did like the kiddie pool though and hung out there for a while...you know just drinking the nasty chlorinated water!

Finally curiousity got the best of all of us wondering if Harley could swim. While Harley was playing a viscous game of tug-o-war with a water bottle, Steve pulled him right into the water (with the help of Rhees). Harley sunk right to the bottom! Not knowing if he was going to come up or not the guys pulled him up! I can still picture in my mind his little legs flailing and him gasping for breath as he came up out of the water with this horrified expression on his face! While I probably should have been a little worried I couldn't stop laughin at the poor lil' fella! I'm laughing right now typing the story! Anyhow, Steve helped him swim to safety!

After that whole little shinanigan we still don't even know if he could swim cuz he sunk so fast and didn't come up we didn't dare see if he would come up on his own! So after Harley took the plunge of death he was a little bit shaken up to say the least. When I went and sat down on a chair to dry off he came and sat on my lap and didn't want to get off! What a GREAT Father's Day! Can't wait until next Sunday at the pool!