Six Mois

I'd just like to take this opportunity to say how happy I am to have been married for the last six months. And I really like the date today: 7/27/2007. Isn't that pretty?

Anyway, Happy Half-year Anniversary Halfiversary, Bug! Thanks for getting up the nerve to pop the question in May 2006, dealing with me as we planned the wedding, and ultimately going through with the whole thing six months ago.

Now, I'd say that it's high time we sat down and wrote out our thank you cards. ;)

Gnocchi dokey!

I searched online to find creative ways to use leftover mashed potatoes. I made way too much for a dinner over the weekend (no shock there -- I always make a bunch of leftover mashed potatoes). The thing is, I grew up in a house where these potato leftovers never went to waste, because they were always a favorite. Now, I struggle with leftovers in a house with only two people, especially two people who aren't home much, and who like a little variety. And I can only eat so many mashed potatoes for lunches at work.

Long story short, I went searching and found potato pancake recipes, shepherd's pie recipes, etc. My favorite recipe of the lot was one with only three ingredients (ding ding ding, we have a winner folks!): mashed potatoes, flour, egg. Who knew gnocchi could be so simple? I've never considered making gnocchi in my life. I'm not the biggest fan, actually. I don't hate them, but I tend not to order them in restaurants, because they're usually in thick cream sauces, and are boring after like 5 bites.

But at home, gnocchi were so much fun!! I pulled out all of the ingredients, and I was eating gnocchi ten minutes later. (Sharlene, are you reading this? I know I just emailed you this story, but I was so excited, that I thought I'd blog about it, too!!). I was home alone tonight, so I cooked up a serving, and flash froze the rest, then put 'em all in one bag. I think Jesse will be thrilled, because gnocchi are high on his list of things to order at Italian restaurants (probably topped only by chicken parmesan).

So I served my homemade gnocchi with a little butter, fresh pepper, and parmesan cheese. I will make this recipe again in a heartbeat! It's so easy. And SO cheap. I don't think I'd ever buy gnocchi in the store now... I'll just wait until I inevitably make an excessive amount of mashed potatoes again.

Lifting weights.

I've been thinking a lot about blogging lately. Unfortunately, I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to blog about, exactly. I thought there was nothing going on in my life. I thought I was "not doing anything." But here's the thing! I've figured it out! I wasn't doing nothing -- I was overwhelmed by too much stuff. Here's my list:

1. The company I work for was acquired by a big, massive, rich company.
- I had to go to meeting upon meeting about this
- I had to re-enroll in all company benefits (vision, dental, health, etc.)
- Switch computers.
- Learn a whole set of different websites for reporting vacation, sick time, time in general, etc.
- Figure out how to get my paystub (paperless)
2. Our house was disgusting following (and previous to, for that matter) the wedding.
- We had arts'n'crafts piled-up from wedding prep
- After being so busy with the wedding and losing sight of how bad our house was, we just didn't want to look at it anymore, so it got worse.
- We couldn't relax when we were at home, because it was very overwhelming.
- We stopped cooking for ourselves, because we really didn't want to go into our kitchen.. which leads me to bullet 3...
3. We've been eating like crap, which kills the energy level.
4. We've put a lot of energy into avoiding things we need to do.
- wedding thank you cards
- open wedding gifts (there was a pile of beautiful, still-in-the-packaging presents in the corner of our dining room.
- go to the grocery store and buy actual food
- get my wedding gown cleaned and preserved
- blog
- updating the wedding website with wedding and honeymoon photos
5. We've been house-hunting, because we really want to "settle down" and stop wondering when our landlady is going to raise the rent.
- Talk to mortgage brokers
- find any and all tax, bank, work paystub, etc. documents for X period of time
- call, call, call people
- call, call, call more people
- actually look at houses
- work with one realtor through the offering process the first time
- suffer the disappointment of that deal falling through
- work with a DIFFERENT realtor to look at other houses
- call, call, call more people
- meet at houses that are for sale, meet at real estate agent's office, etc.
- in general, spend a lot of time thinking about houses and money
5. We had a garage sale, since we already have too much stuff, and we knew we'd end up buying a place that's much smaller than our current place.
6. We got sick for a couple of weeks, after hanging out with and talking to all of those people at said garage sale.
7. I stopped taking the train altogether, which you'd think would be nice, but it has been awful.
- I don't read anymore.
- I spend a ton of money on gas
- I work much more irregular hours (usually longer).

OK, so maybe the list doesn't seem like these items should take a lot of time away from blogging, but you have to put it all together: I work long hours at a "new" job, come home to a gross house that overwhelms me, eat like crap, and daydream about houses I don't own. It's kind of sad, and not worth blogging about anyway. It hasn't felt like I have much to talk about.

But here's the real news: Jesse's sister came to visit (who, I guess, I could start referring to as "my sister-in-law," since neither of my brothers is married and it's not ambiguous), which really lit a fire under our butts. Jesse and I spent three VERY long nights cleaning our house to an acceptable level of tidiness. Then we hosted the adorable Kody for three days, during which time we cooked every meal and always cleaned up after ourselves.

We also used lovely new appliances that were supplied to us as wedding gifts, including a handheld cordless vaccuum and a small food processor. (Note here that there is no longer a pile of unopened gifts in the corner of our dining room).

It feels like a major weight has been lifted, and so I've decided to blog about it.

Fin.