Yeah it's been a while

For some reason I've gotten out of the blogging groove. Maybe it's because there is nothing to write about. Life has been on the dull side lately. It seems all we have to talk about is work, diapers and poop. How can you find things to talk about when life is dull?

Anyhoo...Yesterday was Ari's 2nd birthday!! I can't believe the little lady is 2 already. Sadly we didn't do much since Mr. Man got stuck working :( Ari got a singing Little Mermaid card from my parents and I am ready to throw it out the window. I know they are just getting revenge. She got some other stuff too, but this was her favorite thing. I took the kiddos to have dinner at Outback so Ari could kind-of have dinner with daddy. We will be having a little party for her soon I hope.

Eli is 6 months today! He is rolling over now and is still cute as can be.

I am so excited because we will be hosting the annual Thanksgiving potluck at our house this year!! This means getting the house in order by then which is good because then it will be ready for when my parents and sister come for Christmas. Goal #1 is to find our kitchen table again. I want to start decorating too. I love fall, but in the south it is not the same. Somehow I need to bring fall into our house without being tacky. I really want to make some placemats and napkins for Fall and Christmas. The only problem with this is I need to relocate my sewing stuff to the basement because I can't sew in Eli's room, and he's not ready to move into Ari's room yet. Oh the trivial problems.

Along with getting the house pretty we need to start working on getting Ari out of diapers. Any tips for potty training/learning? I think the first thing I'd like to do is stop using any form of stay-dry liners unless she is sleeping. I don't think we will be doing any serious work on this until the semester is over, but we need to start thinking.

Here's a random sauce recipe I came up with the other day. I took a few different ideas from Betty and here's what I got...

1 c milk (You can use low fat but if you like sauce really creamy use less milk and throw in some heavy cream or half and half to make it equal a cup)
2 T butter
2 T flour
1-2 cloves garlic minced/chopped (I used the stuff in a jar 1/2 tsp)
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper (if you like it spicy)
Parmesan cheese (about a palmfull-Rachel Ray style)

Melt butter in a sauce pot with garlic on med/high heat. Let the butter start to bubble and add flour. Cook for a minute or so to get rid of the flour taste. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Slowly add milk stirring as you go. Bring to a simmer. Turn heat to low and add Parmesan cheese.

This sauce is thick but if you want it thinner use 1 T butter and flour instead of 2 or just thin out the sauce with some pasta water. I put this sauce on tortellini but you could use it on any pasta. Throw in some chicken and/or veggies and you've got a quick meal.

One victory for the domestically challenged!