What's It to Ya?

Some hilarity from the past couple of days:

"What to ya, Mama?", Ella's version of our standard reply of "what's it to ya?"

"Oh, Mama. So silly," Ella said as I was laughing at the above comment.

"Ella WILL!" said to her daddy when he told her to quit doing something she wasn't supposed to do.

"NO! Mama, turn 'round. Don't look. Ella busy picking nose," said when I turned around to see why she was so quiet in the car.

"Guy kick NUTS! Run away!" repeating part of a story she heard her daddy telling me, about a guy who fended off a mugger by kicking him in the groin.

"How are you a-day sir?" singing her favorite part of "Where is 'pumpkin'".

"Ella have fit! Hit Daddy. Get big pubble. Go out car." Rehashing our rather dramatic trip to Barnes and Noble.

Favorite Things

This sunny day has me in such a great mood! I've been thinking about things that make me happy today, and decided to post a few here for reflection on a less-sunny day.

• Sunny days!
• The Bakery's incredible Choux La Creme (cream puff). Their choux pastry is some of the best I've had. Sean surprised me with one the other day and I just finished it with a late cup of coffee (they're gigantic). Delicious.
• Cute little Ella eating lunch! With a fork! I had to record this event for posterity.
• Listening to the birds chirping outside at the bird feeder.
  
• The feeling of having accomplished something. I just dug up my much-maligned patch of Star-of-Bethlehem, and am hopeful that I won't have to do it again this year.
• Sweet anticipation of my spring vegetable garden. On the list this spring: peas, lettuces, spinach, and a few other cool-weather tolerant veggies I haven't decided on.
• My raised garden beds! This is the first year that I won't have to do loads of work just to prepare the soil for a garden. My spring garden can actually happen!
  
• Ella hugging me this morning and saying, "I love you so."
• Last but certainly not least, a husband who is so incredibly supportive, helpful, and thoughtful. Sean calls me every single night on his way home from work to see if I need him to pick up anything. He cleans up my inevitably huge dinner mess every night. He takes Ella to the park on his days off so I can have some time to myself. He does all of the grocery shopping. He is in charge of Ella's bedtime and usually bathtime. And he surprises me with Choux La Creme!

Invisible Food!

Sean and I have a running joke about "invisible food". This pertains to my ability to conjure a meal out of seemingly nothing, with an empty fridge and a grocery list a mile long. I thought it would be fun to post these "invisible meals" here as they occur. I'd love to hear of your own invisible food!

Today's invisible food is a variation on a favorite comfort food, macaroni & cheese. Sean has renamed Sunday "Baconday", and has written it into the bylaws of our marriage that Sunday MUST involve bacon. Because I didn't make my usual big Baconday breakfast this morning, I made up for it at lunch. Tonight we'll have leftover pasta with a big salad & steamed veggies.

Pasta shells with cheese & bacon

1/2 lb. bacon, chopped into 1" pieces (smaller if you prefer)
1 lb. pasta shells (or any pasta you have on hand)
3 oz. cream cheese, cut into pieces
1 tbsp butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk
~1 Cup shredded cheese (I used Monterey Jack & Cheddar to make it toddler-friendly, but anything you have on hand will work)

Saute bacon until crispy, reserve 2 Tbsp bacon fat and drain off the rest of the fat. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted to water to a boil, cook pasta according to directions. Drain water from pasta, return cooked pasta to pot. Add bacon fat, butter, and cream cheese, stir until cream cheese begins to melt. Stir in 1/4 cup milk and shredded cheese. Stir over low heat until all of the cheese melts, adding more milk as necessary until sauce is at desired consistency. Stir in bacon and salt/pepper to taste.

Voila! Not gourmet, but edible. Sidenote: this would be even better with snipped chives. You could also begin with a basic bechamel sauce if you don't have much cheese on hand. Stir bechamel and whatever cheese you happen to have into pasta after draining and proceed.

Snippets from today

A few of Ella's gems today:

"Petah, Petah, Petah PAAAAAAN," a song Ella made up about Peter Pan, sung complete with hilarious British accent, has evolved to, "Petah, Petah, Petah PAAAAAAAAANTY," reflecting the recent potty training efforts.

"Good God, Maggie!" Exclaimed when Maggie emerged from the bathroom wet after a bath.

"I'm serious, Mama." (Serious pronounced "sewious".) Letting me know she would *really* like to have a tea party. Right now.

Potty Training Begins, and A Summary of a Marriage

Ella woke up this morning and told me she wanted to wear her "big girl panties" today, so I thought we'd give the potty training a concerted effort. She did really well for the first part of the morning, but after three accidents in a row I decided to give it a go again later. Wish us luck!

In the meantime, this relationship questionnaire is running rampant all over Facebook, so I decided to post it here.

What are your middle names?
My middle name is Eve, Sean's is Richard.

How long have you been together?
We've been together for just over 5 years, married for four and a half.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
I met Sean in the Scary Chair at his former dental office, as a very phobic patient with what I thought was a giant cavity. I had been having nightmares that my teeth were turning black & falling out, so I asked the guy I was dating at the time to call his Friend the Nice Dentist and see if he'd see me. Sean and I were both in relationships at the time, so we didn't start dating for about two years, after we both found ourselves single.

Who asked whom out?
We went out as friends to get some sushi, so no one asked anyone out, per se. By the end of the night it was clear that we were headed down a more-than-friends road.

How old are each of you?
I'm 32, and Sean is 37.

Whose siblings do you see the most?
Well, Sean is an only child, and I only have one brother so there's not much competition. We're lucky enough to live relatively close to my family, so we see my brother often.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
In the beginning, parenthood was definitely the most challenging situation we had faced as a couple. It continues to be a challenge, but now the biggest problem is that we don't get much time together, or much time to ourselves as individuals. It has certainly gotten much easier as Ella has gotten older and more able to express herself.

Did you go to the same school?
No. I went to the University of Utah, and Sean attended Augustana College for his undergraduate degree and Southern Illinois University for dental school.

Are you from the same home town?
No, but we're both from very small towns. I grew up in Fillmore, Utah, and Sean grew up in Elmwood, Illinois.

Who is smarter?
We both have our strengths. My memory is better (probably due to his multiple head injuries), but he is less likely to fly off the handle and explode, which is a much smarter way of dealing with things than I tend to do.

Who is the most sensitive?
See above and flying off the handle (me).

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
Takashi is probably our top place, for sushi and in general, but we also love Chanon Thai for great, incredibly spicy food, and Fresco for a nice, intimate meal with great service.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Vanuatu.

Who has the craziest exes?
I don't think either of us have crazy exes, per se. Any imploding relationship results in some craziness, but the people themselves are perfectly rational, normal people.

Who has the worst temper?
No question, doubt, or competition. Me.

Who does the cooking?
I absolutely love to cook (nothing makes me happier than sitting down with a cuisine magazine or a cookbook to find new recipes), so I do most of the cooking, but Sean is great to take on the clean-up.

Who is the neat-freak?
I think messes bother me more than they do him, but I wouldn't necessarily call myself a neat-freak.

Who is more stubborn?
That's hard to say - we're both pretty darned stubborn.

Who hogs the bed?
Definitely me, but if he wouldn't try to get away from me I wouldn't have to chase him all the way over to the last sliver of his side of the bed.

Who wakes up earlier?
Sean, but he also goes to bed hours before I do. Nighttime is sewing time for me, so I'm often up until the wee hours.

Where was your first date?
Sushi at Shogun in Salt Lake, then back to his place to play pool.

Who is more jealous?
Neither of us are jealous.

How long did it take to get serious?
About 4 hours. Hahaha! We both knew almost immediately that we wanted to be together, so not long at all. I had moved into his house after 2 months, and we were married in 9 months.

Who eats more?
Sean, unless we're talking about ice cream.

Who does the laundry?
I do most of it, but Sean pitches in.

Who's better with the computer?
Definitely me. We grew up on either side of the huge recent leaps in computer innovation, so when I was a freshman in college setting up my first email account, he was already in grad school.

Who drives when you are together?
Sean. I'm not sure why, it just kind of worked out that way.

Photos!

Some of the newest Piddies! Pink bunnies. The last pair I sold were a men's 10.5 - I love it!

Ella helping me cook in January.

Ella with her favorite person in the entire world, her cousin Connor.
This photo was taken on the night of the First Ever Jammy Fights. When my mom told Connor he was "jammy-fied" when he came into the room wearing his pajamas, he instantly jumped into a total kung-fu stance and declared, "JAMMY FIGHTS!" Chaos ensued. Jammy Fights are now a nightly ritual at our house, and consist of general rough-housing and running around while sporting pajamas.

Sean, Ella, and "Melmo", taken in December.

Cool cat on her way to the park in January.

Here we go...

As the title of this blog indicated, I apparently don't have enough to do already, between the cooking, cleaning, slipper-sewing and designing, Etsy-ing for Piddies and RobisonMetalWorks, MOMS Club duties, and doing what I can to help Sean's office, not to mention chasing a very, very busy 2-year-old around all day, so I thought to myself, "What ELSE can I add to this very full plate? I KNOW! A BLOG!"

Those of you who know me well know that according to the Tau of Pooh I am a Certified Tigger. Tigger's major flaw is that he overestimates his own abilities by orders of magnitudes (BLOGS?! Blogs are what Tiggers do best!). This tendency leads me to believe that I can accomplish any number of things in a given day, despite the rather obvious fact that the time required to complete these things is far greater than the 24 hours I have been allotted. It is this same tendency that leads me to believe that I can maintain and regularly update this blog. Apologies in advance for the certain impending doom in that department.

My main goal in starting a blog - something I've resisted doing for years - is that I think it will be nice to have a regular account of the goings-on around here, for us and for Ella. I always intend to keep a journal, but other things get in the way and before I know it 6 months pass between entries. Why I would think this will be any different is anyone's guess, but I'm going to give it the old college try. It will hopefully also serve as a window into our little world for family & friends who are far away or whom we don't see as often as we'd like.

With that, I'm off to do my nightly sewing. Lots of Piddies to get out this week! (YAY!) Tomorrow, photos.