The Bunny

Meet the Bunny.


















He is an integral part of our lives.  Bunny came to us in a Christmas package from Ella's Nana and Dude (James's parents), and the moment that she saw him, she dropped everything, hugged him, and ran off to play with him.  I don't think she's willingly put him down since. 

He's her best friend, her comforter, and her playmate.  When she gets in trouble, so does Bunny.  She spanks him, loves him, puts diapers on him, and even wipes his nose for him when she has a cold.  She isn't allowed to take him to bed with her, because he can't seem to stop talking and playing when the lights are out, so he keeps Ella from going to sleep.  Maybe when he's a little older, he'll be able to sleep in the bed with her, but for now, she tucks him into his bed with his blanket before getting into her own.

Bunny loves to watch Curious George, too...



















He's a good buddy.

Where in the World is the Sagar Family?

Well, we sold the house...Hooray!!!  I'm so glad not to have to worry about that anymore.  I had been starting to feel like we would NEVER be able to actually leave St. Louis, since we'd be tied to that house for the rest of our lives.  (I could picture myself as a little old lady, coming back to make sure the front flower bed was weeded...) 

The contract came through in early March, and we were supposed to close on March 30, so we had to move fast.  We put our stuff into a moving truck on March 29, and Allied Vans drove it down to Savannah and unloaded it for us the following week.  Belle and I flew down to Savannah to oversee the moving process, and my mom came down to chauffeur us around and generally help us get things done.  My friend Katie drove up from Florida one day to help us unpack, and between myself, Mom, and Katie, we actually got most of the house ready!!!  I couldn't believe it.  A huge THANK YOU to Mom and Katie!!

Since Bank of America was handling the buyer's mortgage, of course we didn't close on time...not even close.  (Have I mentioned how much I don't like BoA?)  There was no good reason for the delay - they just didn't feel like getting it done on time, and they took it slowly.  We actually closed ten - yes that's right TEN - days late, but at least we closed.  Being the lawyer that I am, I also made the buyer pay us the extra money that we lost by having to pay our mortgage for ten extra days.  Hopefully she'll learn to use a good bank next time she buys a house. 

Of course, since we've moved our furniture and belongings, we needed a temporary place to live in St. Louis until we actually moved to Savannah.  Thankfully, the seminary where I work has a retreat center, and they had some extra space.  We're all living in a big bedroom with our own private bathroom, and there is even a kitchen, towels, sheets, etc., so we didn't have to keep any of that here with us.  We can't live here the entire time, so the final two weeks of our St. Louis life, we'll be imposing on friends, but it is great for these seven weeks that we're here. 

I'll post some pictures soon, and I will also be writing about Ella's new favorite activity, which involves rocks, water, bugs, her daddy, and the back yard of the retreat center.  Stay tuned!

Belle-isms

Belle has become quite a talker in the past several months.  James and I really love to hear her talk (most of the time) because it allows us a window into her tiny little heart.  Here are a few things she's been saying lately...

"Mama/Daddy, LOOK!  I'm doin' it!" - translation = "Aren't you proud of me?"

"Stop it." - I'm not sure she knows what this means, because she doesn't really say it to anyone.  She just walks around whispering it under her breath. 

"NO!" - Thankfully, she doesn't actually say this to us much anymore.  (I think she learned not to do that.)  But when she gets frustrated about something, she often punishes her stuffed bunny rabbit and tells him "no," while simultaneously inflicting corporal punishment on him.  It's hilarious. 

"Mama/Daddy, I wanna hold you." - translation = I need you to pick me up and cuddle me and make me feel secure.  She's been saying this a lot the past few weeks since we sold the house.  I have to admit that I LOVE finally having a little girl who wants me to cuddle her.  She's never been very cuddly because she was always too busy running around.

"Ta-Da!!" - translation = "Delight in me!!!  Tell me that I'm wonderful!!"  - We hear this one several times a day, and we're not always sure what she actually did, but it's still easy to tell her how great she is.

"All Right!" - translation = "I'm happy!"  We hear this a lot...whether it's because she got some juice or because she gets to go play with a favorite friend.  I love my happy girl.

"I want night night."  - translation = put me to bed.  Yes, she actually tells us that she's tired and wants to go to bed.  It's awesome.

"Puh-weese?" - this is her version of "please."  We hear it a lot, since she doesn't get things without saying it.

She also talks a lot about her friends and family, and she calls them by the following names:
"Weesa" - her aunt Lisa
"Talow" - Tyler
"Maween" - Madeline
"A-Tate" - Anna Kate
"Viyet" - Violet
"Mayen" - Meghan
"Tom" - pretty much every kid in our family says Tom's name first 
"Tatie" - Katie
"Missa Marssa" - Mary Martha
"Towie" - Chloe
"A-pil" - April
"A-Beta" - Rebecca
"Lilly" - Lillian
"Panut" - Peanut Butter (he's a dog)
"Pawik" - Patrick
"GG" "Papa" "Doo" and "Nana" - her grandparents
"Deowy" - Gerry

...and many more...

Back on the Market

You might remember that we had our house up for sale last year for a LONG time.  And it didn't sell, despite the 30+ times that people came to see it.  (Translation:  despite the 30+ times I had to spend 2-3 hours cleaning it, fixing it up, buying/cutting flowers for vases to put on the tables, packing up my baby during what always ended up being her naptime, and for several months my dog too, and leaving my house for an hour or two with nowhere to go.) 

Yeah, I don't really like having my house on the market.  I once heard a friend describe it as "being forced to live in a museum, where you're not allowed to touch anything."  That's a pretty good description. 

Well, we're back on the market again.  We put the house back up last week, and within 24 hours, we had three showings scheduled - 2 for Saturday and one more Monday (tomorrow).  I guess I should be excited about that, but my past disappointments with this experience have conditioned me to not actually believe that showings lead to offers, much less sales.  It just seems ridiculous to have had more than 30 showings in the past, and NO OFFERS.  We're really hoping that we'll have a better experience this time, especially now that we've lowered the price again. 

Okay, time to change the subject.

In other news, my belly is still getting bigger, and we're getting close to finding out if this is a boy or a girl...hooray!  (James is still pretty sure it's a girl...)  I don't really care which it is, but I want to know so that I can start making some plans and choosing things.  (Hear that?  I'm talking as if I have money to go buy stuff...ha, ha, ha!) 

Belle still doesn't understand that she's going to be a big sister, even though I've talked to her about how there's a baby in mommy's belly.  Any time I mention it, she pulls up her shirt to show me her belly button and then hands me a baby doll.  I guess the whole connection between "belly" and "baby" isn't intuitive.  I can't really blame her, since it seems strange to me sometimes, too.  I guess she'll figure it out when Peanut makes an appearance during the summer. 

16 Week Reveal

Here are some pictures of my 16 week belly, for those of you who haven't seen me in awhile.  I look HUGE already, even though I've only gained about 2 pounds.  Maybe Peanut will be a big baby, like their new cousin Josey!

Scrapbook

This post will not have anything to do with scrapbooking.  I just figured that I'd spill out whatever came into my head, and it will probably seem like a scrapbook of ideas when I'm done.  So what's been going on lately?  Hmmm...

Belle News
The Belle has been hilarious, as usual.  She got some kind of weird rash underneath the toes of her right foot, so we've been having to put two different ointments on it five times a day.  Then we have to make her wear socks to keep the ointment on, rather than rubbing it all off on the floor.  Unfortunately, one of her favorite activities is pulling off her socks and shoes.  Oh, well.  At least it's on there for a few seconds each time.  She must believe in art therapy, too, because I keep finding crayon drawings all over the house.  I'll need to go around and clean those up this weekend, since we're putting the house back on the market this Wednesday. 

House
So speaking of the house, if you'd like to buy it, let me know.  We still have to sell it, and it's a good price!  (Like, it will drain all of our savings to sell it to you at this price good.) 

Peanut
Peanut is doing well, too.  We had an obgyn appointment this week, and we got to take a quick sonogram look.  At first, Peanut was kicking like crazy, but when we tried to see his/her gender, suddenly he/she got very shy and squatted down with the umbilical cord between his/her legs.  For the record, James thinks that while Peanut was kicking, he saw that it was a girl, so he's pretty sure that's the case.  I guess time will tell, since we have a full ultrasound on February 28, where we're supposed to be able to tell the gender.  Hopefully Peanut won't be feeling shy then! 

James
Belle definitely got a fair share of her hilarious personality from her daddy.  As I type, he's watching Magpul rifle instructional videos in our living room and doing drills with his assault rifle.  I'm sitting in the far corner of the room, so that he doesn't accidentally point the gun at me, despite the fact that there is no ammo in the vicinity.  I keep hearing Chris Costa yell out "BUST 'EM!!"  Nice.

Work
Things have been extremely busy for me this past 6 weeks, since I've been writing the grant report for the seminary's Lilly SPE grant.  It's a lot of work, and I have to pull together a ton of information that is lodged in the brains of a lot of different people.  I'm probably 80% done, though, and I am really looking forward to handing this puppy off to someone else for final editing.  Hopefully it's not terrible, because at this point, I am too close to it to be able to tell.  You know, like when you have a baby that's ugly, but you can't tell because it's yours?  Hopefully this baby's not too ugly.

Me
I feel creaky, achy, and huge...and still pretty sick, but much better thanks to the prayers and the medicine.  And I'm only 16 weeks along...but my belly is already huge.  Maybe later I'll feel brave enough to actually have James take a picture, but I'm not sure.  I guess we'll see.  Poor Belle will soon not be able to sit on my lap, because it is already disappearing at an alarming rate.  I haven't gained much weight, though.  I guess being sick sort of balances out the expanding belly. 

Okay, I'm going to eat something and go to bed.  Goodnight.

Mommy Lesson Learned #1

Okay, so this is definitely not the first "mommy" lesson that I've learned...it's probably closer to number 39485...but I've decided to start a new blog series with this title, and this is the first post, so I'm labeling it number 1. 

Lately, Ella has really gotten into crayon art.  Back in November, I taught her how to make "hand turkeys."  You know...those things you used to make in kindergarten when you'd have somone trace your hand, and then you'd decorate it like a turkey?  Well, she didn't care about the turkey part, but she really got into the "trace your hand" part, with the result that I now have to trace her hand at least 25 times every day.  And that's where it all started. 

But that's not where it ended.  Oh, no, my friends.

We now have crayons all over the house.  ALL OVER THE HOUSE.  I find them between the seats of the couch, in the refrigerator, in my bed (how in the world??), in the plants, and in the bathtub.  Sometimes I dream about them.  They're taking over.  It's no longer my house...it belongs to the crayons...

Where was I? 

Oh yeah, Ella's art.  Well, she's a true artist, in that she doesn't like to be bound by traditional art forms.  For example, most people use crayons to draw on paper.  And she does that, too...but why stop there?  The refrigerator door is so blank - why not make it "pretty?"  The windows are so clean and bare...why not add a little crayon action?  In fact, why not draw on the freshly painted white window frame, too?  The possibilities are endless.

That's why we have a washable crayon only policy in our house.  You can wash those things off walls, refrigerators, windows, and floors with just a little soap and water.  Easy peasy.  Smart mommy, huh?  That's what I thought, too. 

Until today.

Today I found crayons in a new place.  The clothes dryer.  NOT COOL.  Ella often "helps" me do the laundry, and occasionally when I'm loading the washer, I find a toy or a stuffed animal stuck in the clothes...I guess she likes her toys clean.  But somehow I missed the pink crayon that she hid inside the load of white stuff I was washing last night.  I didn't discover this until they came out of the dryer...pink tie-dyed bath towels, kitchen towels, and shirts.  AHHHH! 

I couldn't figure out what to do.  It was melted onto the clothes, so I didn't know how to get it off.  So I did the only thing I could think to do.  I put the whole load back into the washing machine with hot water, soap, and bleach.  I figured it couldn't hurt, and it might help. 

Friends, it worked.  It WORKED!!  When I took them out of the washer to put them into the dryer again, the pink was gone! 

So what is the mommy lesson here? 
Is it to examine all of your clothes before you put them into the washer?  No.
Is it to keep your kid out of the laundry?  No.
Is it to limit your child's crayon usage?  No.

The lesson is...drumroll...

ONLY buy washable crayons.  They're awesome.  And don't teach your kid about hand turkeys.

Flyin High

First of all, THANK YOU to all of the friends and famly that prayed for me today while Ella and I flew to Atlanta.  I was very nervous about this flight, since James wouldn't be there to take care of Ella in case I got sick.  I woke up this morning feeling pretty bad, and I finally decided to take a double dose of my Zofran.  You can either take 4mg every 4 hours or you can take 8 mg every 6 hours.  James made the executive decision to have me take the high dose, and I had a much better day today. 

We took a wheelchair to the plane, since I wanted to rest as much as possible.  Ella and I flew AirTran, and I love this airline.  The people are helpful and friendly, and the flight attendants are so accommodating.  I really appreciate all of their help today.  Ella was also a perfect little angel on the flight.  Usually she gets antsy and wants to get down on the floor and run all over the place, but today, she just sat quietly on my lap, read books, and ate animal crackers.  She smiled and cuddled, and even let me get up to go to the bathroom, while the flight attendants watched her.  That's a HUGE deal, since she usually gets hysterical if her parents go somewhere she can't see them.  But not today.  She just read her book and hung out until I got back.  Praise the Lord!!!

Now I'm at my parents' house, and I'm going to get a shower and go to bed.  Tomorrow we've got cousins coming over to play with her, and then on Wednesday, James will be here.  Thanks again for all of your prayers.  Please keep praying for me...I'm not out of the woods yet.

Checkin' In

Hi again.  I feel like I should warn you that I have no idea where this post is going.  I just realized that it's been awhile since I wrote anything, so I figured I should put something up on the blog.  I guess I'll update you on how everyone is doing at our house...

James is very tired.  He's been having to play super-daddy every day, since I'm out of commission.  He adores his little girl, and he loves to play with her, but it wears him out quickly.  He took her out of the house all morning and all afternoon today, since I had a very rough day and needed rest.  She loved the attention, but he's just DONE.  So I advised him to sit on the couch and play Call of Duty for a few hours tonight.  He put on his headphones, picked up his PS3 controller, and checked out.  Poor guy.

Ella is doing pretty well, but she's definitely feeling a lack of hands-on playtime from her mommy.  She's so used to having me down on the floor with her or reading books in the rocking chair during the day, and I know that she's confused to see me lying on the couch.  She keeps coming over and trying to pull me off the couch, like it's a game of hide-and-go-seek or something.  Poor baby.  Thankfully, she and I are headed to my parents' house for a week tomorrow, with James to follow us on Wednesday, so she will get lots of attention while we're there.  Hopefully she will let people play with her and not go into "I don't know who you are and I want my mommy" mode.  I guess we'll see.

And how am I?  Well, I'm sick.  Really sick.  I had a BAD afternoon, and if that keeps happening, I'm going to talk to my doctor about putting me on the Zofran pump rather than the pills.  Right now, I'm dealing with extreme nausea, vomiting, severe headaches, stomach cramps, dizziness, and other things.  There are some good moments when I feel almost normal...but they are fleeting and rare.  Hopefully this won't last 70% of my pregnancy like it did last time, but I'm not going to get too hopeful and set myself up for frustration and disappointment.  Mentally, it's just better for me to be prepared, and then I can be pleasantly surprised if it is better than I expect. 

Okay, well I would write more, but I need to go throw up.  See ya.

Blessedly Sick

Weird title, I know.  But that's just how it is these days. 

I'm sure you've all heard by now our wonderful news that I'm pregnant with baby number two, and we're very excited!!!  However, this comes with a catch...I'm pregnant.  And when I get pregnant, I get a little monster called "hyperemesis gravidarum."  Those of you who were here when I was pregnant with Ella will remember that I got this beast of a medical condition, which is defined as, “debilitating and potentially life-threatening pregnancy disease marked by rapid weight loss, malnutrition, and dehydration due to unrelenting nausea and/or vomiting.”  (You can read about it at http://helpher.org/ if you are interested.)  Last time, I had to be hospitalized to get it under control, and I had been hoping that wouldn't happen this time. 

Well, I wasn't so lucky...and last Saturday, I ended up in the emergency room at Barnes Hospital with pretty bad dehydration.  They pumped me with not one but TWO liters of IV fluid, and I felt well enough to go back home.  Thankfully, my body responds to a medication called Zofran, which was developed to help chemotherapy patients deal with nausea, and is safe during pregnancy, so I am taking that every 4 hours, all day.  This medicine has side effects of its own which aren't fun, but they're better than constant debilitating nausea, so I'm really thankful to have it. 

So that's why you haven't heard from me in awhile.  I'm currently seven and a half weeks along with little peanut, so I've got a long way to go!  I'm due a few weeks after we move to Savannah this summer, so this will be a Georgia-born kid.  Love it.

Here's a picture of little peanut from the ER sonogram machine, at a little over 6 weeks along...

Here's a closeup...

I'm scheduled to go to the OB's office for the first time on Wednesday, so hopefully we'll have more pictures to share!

Cinderella

What was Ella for Halloween? 

I'm so glad you asked!

She was...drumroll please....Cinderella! 

It seemed appropriate, given her nickname, as well as her overwhelming obsession with the movie.  It's one of two Disney movies that she asks to watch every single day...all day.  No, we don't actually let her watch tv every day, but she would have this one on repeat if we allowed it.  She was delighted with her costume...

I've never taken her trick-or-treating before, but the block behind our house is really safe, and we have lots of friends back there, so this year, we did it.  Here we are, all ready to go!

James had a really bad cold, so he didn't feel up to going.  Instead, my friend Katie came with us.  She was pretty excited, and Ella was thrilled to have her along!

Once we got home, I bathed Ella and put her to bed.  Then Katie and I ate her candy.

The End.

How Deep the Father's Love For Us

Have you ever heard this song?  I've been thinking a lot about it lately...

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that left Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

...more on why later...

Prepare for Landing...

Normally, I try not to share diaper incidents on this blog. 

Okay, maybe just one.

Yesterday, I flew with Belle from St. Louis to Atlanta on AirTran.  We're going to attend my sister's baby shower and my mom's birthday party this weekend.  Since James is coming on Friday after work, I decided to go ahead and bring both of our bags, so that he wouldn't have to take luggage to work.  This made it cost-effective for me to upgrade to business class, so I sat in row 3, right beside a kind middle-aged gentleman, with Belle in my lap. 

This kid has been on some airplanes in her 19 months of life, by the way.  29 of them, in fact.  She's a pretty frequent flyer.

Okay, back to the story. 

So there I am, sitting with Belle, happily reading Goodnight Gorilla, when the pilot comes on the intercom to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are beginning our final descent into the Atlanta airport.  Please remain in your seats with your seatbelts fascined, and we will be on the ground momentarily..."

That's when I smelled it.

And it was BAD.

About a thousand thoughts rushed through my head all at once...
"What did she eat for lunch??"
"So THAT's why she wanted to squat down on the floor!"
"I hope it didn't get on her clothes."
"I wonder if these people think that's ME."

But the thought that crowded out all the others was this...I'm in BUSINESS class.  These people did not sign up for the full Ella experience.  They paid good money for these seats, and they shouldn't have to smell this for the next 15 minutes.  I've got to fix it.

So I risked my life, stood up, laid her on the seat, and changed her then and there. 

Yes, I took one for the upper middle-class team, of which I am not even close to being a member.

I broke a federal law for a dirty diaper.

Recurrence of the Plague

So, we're all sick.

Again.

Thanks, mom of that little kid in the cry room at church who let your sick kid grab all my healthy kid's toys and wipe snot all over them before telling me TWENTY MINTUES LATER that your kid was "really sick." 

That was really considerate of you.

If You Give a Toddler a Cookie...

Have you ever read that children's book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?"

Well, here's the Ella version...

If you give a toddler a cookie, she's going to want a glass of milk.

If you get her a glass of milk, she's going to remember that it comes from a cow.

If she thinks about cows, she's going to run upstairs to the playroom to get her book about farm animals.

If she runs upstairs to the playroom, she will stop on the stair landing to play with your glass candle holders.

If you ask her to stop playing with the glass candle holders, she will turn around and run up the rest of the stairs to the playroom.

If she gets to the playroom, she will start sorting through her toys to look for her book.

If she sorts through her toys to find her book, she will find her bucket and shovel that she used to play in the sand at the beach.

If she finds her beach toys, she will run to her room to find her bathing suit.

If she pulls out her pink bathing suit, she will want to wear it.

If she wants to wear it, she will put it on...over her clothes. 

If she puts on her bathing suit over her clothes, you have to take a picture.

If you have to take a picture, she will have to smile and look adorable.

If she looks that adorable, you will inevitably give her another cookie.

Don't believe me? 

Well, here's the proof...

Porch!!!!

Our front porch is a disaster.  Or, rather, it was a disaster.

See?

The sad tale of the porch cracking history is unknown to me, but I do know that these cracks have made it impossible to sell our house.  We haven't had the money to get the porch fixed, but recently we faced the fact that it had to be done, found a good contractor, and took the plunge. 

 This week, the guys showed up to do the work, and it was really interesting to watch it happen!  Let me introduce you to Rusty, the guy in charge of the work crew.  He likes to use drills, hammers, and chisels...

 

They took off the top layer of tile and cement...

 

 This is what it looked like at the end of the first day, after they carted off most of the rubble.

 

 On day two, they dropped by for half an hour to power wash the surface.

 

Then, on day three, they laid wire mesh before pouring the concrete.

We had to wait a bit for the truck, but at last, it arrived!

Ella was so excited.  She had been supervising the process carefully in her pajamas.



















The guys started bring up wheelbarrows of concrete and dumping them over the wire mesh.

Then they spread it out with these little hand tools.

They did the initial smoothing with a 2 x 4 plank.

Then they used this thing to push the concrete down and make sure there were no holes underneath.

Despite the fact that it was nap time, Ella pulled her chair over to the door and watched the whole process.  Notice the change of attire...she let me change her clothes, but she wouldn't leave her observation point.

This was another smoothing tool.

Here was how it looked after they smoothed it with the tool above.

 

At this point, I had to leave to go to work, so I didn't get any more pictures.  They waited for the surface to harden a little, and then they smoothed it one more time and scraped a special tool over it to give it a little bit of texture.  

Then we waited 2 days for it to harden....and voila!  A new front porch!

 

Hopefully potential buyers will think that this is a big improvement, and someone will make us an offer.

Raising Belle

You might have noticed the new blog title.  Or maybe not!  In any case, I've been trying to figure out what to name this blog since we don't have our dog anymore, and I've settled on "Raising Belle." 

Wanna know why? 

Well, it's pretty simple.  Our little girl has several nicknames, one of the most popular of which is "Belle."  This is really a shortened version of Ellabelle, which was another nickname of hers.  (James is big on the nicknames....he's got a million of 'em.)  It's appropriate for several reasons.  First, she's beautiful, and "belle" is the French word for beautiful.  Second, her mama is Southern, and soon she will also live in the deep South, so she will be a little Southern Belle.  Finally, she's a little wild woman, so it makes sense to give a nod to the expression, "raising hell"....thus, we are Raising Belle!!

Enjoy!

Adventures in Spaghetti

I might have gone a little bit nuts at the farmers' market in Tower Grove Park this morning.  Okay, maybe I went a LOT nuts...whatever.  Since James is on call all weekend, I figured I'd spend a little time in the kitchen working on my spaghetti sauce recipe.  Over the past 10 years or so, I've used a spaghetti sauce recipe that starts with a commercially jarred sauce, simply adding fresh ingredients to that base.  But I thought it would taste even better if everything in the sauce was fresh, so today I decided to experiment.

Here's the lineup...onions, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, carrots, olive oil, wine, garlic powder, onion powder, san marzano tomatoes, and fresh herbs.














A really huge cast iron pot...

...an even bigger cutting board...

...lots of fresh herbs on the back deck...

Unfortunately, I had to buy the tomatoes, since the local wildlife have already enjoyed ALL of mine on my behalf.  Stupid squirrels.

So here's what I did.  I chopped up the onions.

...and the carrots...

I made the carrots really small, so they'd soften quickly, and I tossed them (along with the onions) into the pot with olive oil to soften up for about 8 minutes. 

Meanwhile, I peeled and grated the garlic.  Yes, I grate my garlic rather than chopping it.  Just call me Rachael Ray.

The next step is where things went awry.  I thought that I would make the tomato puree by pulsing some canned San Marzano tomatoes in the food processor.  They are supposed to taste great, because they grow in the fertile soil at the base of Mount Vesuvius in Italy, and they're really famous.  Well, let me tell you that I didn't really like the taste.  SO....I made two batches - one with the SM tomatoes pureed, and one with some tomatoes from the farmers' market pureed.  I liked the fresh stuff much better.  Lesson learned.

Then, I chopped up some (like a LOT of) tomatoes and threw them in the pot. 

For some extra tomato goodness, I put in some tomato paste.

Then I picked some basil and oregano from the garden, chopped it, and tossed it in.

Then I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a little sugar, and about a fourth of a bottle of chianti.  I let that simmer for about an hour, and it was fabulous!!

The stuff with the fresh tomatoes was much tastier than the stuff with the canned ones, although they were both much better than what you buy in the spaghetti sauce section of the grocery store.  Why not try to make your own?  It's actually not hard, and it's delicious!!

House Cleaning

Ella's hanging out in her high chair eating lunch, chowing down on hotdogs, black beans, spanish rice, and wheat bread.  Someday, she'll realize that those things aren't meant to be eaten together, but for now, she thinks I'm the next Paula Dean, so I'm going to go with it.  Besides, I'm having brain freeze.

Why, you ask? 

Well, I'll tell you.  I just cleared over 3000 emails out of my inbox.  I had to sort them through, rather than just deleting the whole inbox, because there were some things in there that had to be saved.  It's mind-numbing, which is why I haven't done it in probably 2 years.  I'm so glad that's done.  I really need to do my other email address's inbox, too, but I'll save that for another day. 

In other news, we're back home from Saratoga, and we had a BLAST.  I'll do some blog posts about it soon, so that you can see what we did.  I've unpacked the suitcases, straightened up the house, and now I need to go to the grocery store. 

Okay, Ella's done with lunch and wants to get down, so I'd better go.  Bye!

Backyard Fun!

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard about the mythical "heat dome" that is trapping a horrible weather system over the midwestern United States, causing record high temperatures for weeks this summer.  And if you haven't heard about it, I want to know where you live, so that I can live there, too. 

But anyway.

After six straight weeks of telling Ella that she couldn't play outside because it was too hot, James and I realized that we needed a new strategy.  Our little girl has breathing problems, and they get worse (like scary worse) when she gets overheated, so I couldn't just let her run around in the yard.  Then, we went to the seminary's summer picnic, where they had kiddie pools set up outside, along with a slip and slide (blast from the past!) for the kids to cool off from the heat.  (The Dean of Students also climbed into the pool and took several runs down the slip and slide, too.  That's why we love him.)  That gave us an idea...we needed to buy our own pool!

So the next day, we went to Target and got a fun little blow-up pool, and Ella thought it was the greatest thing ever.  Here's how it works.  Ella wakes up, and we do our usual morning and afternoon routine.  Then, around the time that James usually comes home from work, she starts making periodic trips to the front door to look out at the street and see if daddy is home yet.  I eventually get her a little popsicle to combat the heat, and we go out to sit on the front porch and wait.  Before too long, she sees his car pull up, and he gets out.  She squeals, "DADDY!!!!" as he walks up, and she starts to jump around and run into the house.  Before he even gets his shoes off or puts his keys down, she starts trying to pull him towards the back door.  After a few minutes, he humors her, and she leads him to the garage, where they pull out the swimming pool, as I head upstairs to get swimsuits for both of them. 

It's adorable.  Seriously. 















You might notice all of the letters and numbers floating around in the water...those are her bath toys.  She loves to bring them downstairs and put them in the pool.

Ella doesn't seem to think the pool is nearly as much fun if James doesn't get into it and splash with her.  She's such a sweetheart.