My friends Christy and Tim welcomed their first baby last week! They didn’t find out the gender and they didn’t share names with anybody so we were all surprised. I think about 95% of people surveyed thought they were having a boy, including myself. The day she was in labor I had a change of heart and switched my vote to a girl.

Christy was in labor on Ash Wednesday and despite having better things to do, she mocked me. In high school I had no idea what Ash Wednesday was and felt the need to point out the dirt on a classmates forehead. While in the hospital, Christy sent this message:

Mikayla Elizabeth was born later that night and she is so beautiful! I’ve seen a few photos so far and she’s smirking contently in almost all of them.

I can’t wait to meet her and snuggle her! Congratulations, Christy & Tim!

Ah yes, Valentine’s Day. The one day my husband is obligated to be romantic. I just wanted to go out to dinner, nothing fancy. He said we were heading into Boulder but wouldn’t tell me where we would eat. I was excited thinking it was this little Italian place I have been wanting to try. Then Bob pulled into Jalino’s Pizza parking lot and we had a few slices for dinner. He got the Italian part right.

He had something else up his sleeve but we were early for it so we wandered around downtown in search of Pepto Bismol for Bob. He’s so romantic. And gassy.

We ended up at Color Me Mine which was a complete surprise to me. I spent an eternity picking out the piece of pottery that I wanted to paint so I settled on a serving dish.

Since we had been together for 9 years the week of Valentine’s Day, I got a little schmoozy on the bottom of my dish and put the name of our wedding song and we each put a print of our ring fingers. Note to self: work on centering writing.

There was another couple at Color Me Mine and it was obvious this was their first or 2nd date and the dude was trying so hard to impress his lady. “Were you surprised that I took you here? Do you like it?”. One thing to mention about this place is that it takes some concentration and it isn’t exactly a place that lets conversation just flow.

Bob: This would be a weird place for a first date because it is hard to talk and focus on painting.

Me: I know. Good thing we’re married so I don’t have to talk to you anymore.

Bob picked out a coffee mug that underwent a few transformations. He chose stencils that were Aztec patterns and after painting a few on he realized he didn’t like it so he wanted to make it gaudy. He wrote “I <3 Jen” and almost put a stencil of a football next to it.

He had a change of heart and wiped off most of what he had done already.

He ended up painting a Sunset Mug (that’s his name for his work of art).

We spent 3 hours painting our items and it was a lovely time. I picked a good Valentine.

We haven’t done anything exciting lately. Since Bob is his own boss he’s been sleeping in until 11 and working on evenings and weekends. I’m absolutely thrilled about this.

Not.

Since we have nothing fun to share, here is my ode to cleaning! WOOHOO! (Seriously, tell Bob to stop working on weekends so I can write about something more fun). Oh, he’d probably want me to tell you he isn’t ignoring me. He did take me out for BBQ on Friday night, but ya’ll don’t want to hear about dinner.

When I was snowed-in 2 weeks ago I cleaned the kitchen. Majorly cleaned the kitchen. My baking dishes drove me crazy because if I wanted the item on the bottom of the pile, I had to cause an avalanche to get to it. Colorado has already seen a lot of avalanches this season so I didn’t like creating more.

I found vertical pan organizers on clearance at Michael’s so I bought two and went to town on organizing the cabinet. It is MUCH easier to navigate now!

I also wanted to clean out my oven and thanks to Pinterest, learned that baking soda and water work wonders.

Before:

I mixed enough water in baking soda to make it as runny as Elmer’s glue and painted it on the oven. This was quite fun, actually. Look out, Picasso! My work was very abstract. I call it “Grease Be Gone”.

I let it sit for 30 minutes and with a little extra elbow grease, I ended up with this:

It’s the little things that make me happy: ice cream, Paco beating up Wellesley,and an overly clean and organized kitchen.

Bob kept complaining about a hole in his coat pocket so I decided to fix it.

He wouldn’t let me just sew the hole back up and insisted I make a whole new pocket with new fabric. I didn’t sign up for that. I told him I wasn’t making a special trip to the fabric store to get a matching color pocket and he had to deal with whatever fabric I had at home so I picked the prettiest fabric I could find on my shelf.

He is now the proud owner of a pretty pocket in a manly leather jacket. He didn’t even flinch when he saw it.

Bob was out of town over the weekend and I normally like to work on a project that involves power tools while he’s away but I didn’t have any big ideas this time so I cleaned the house and did Martha Stewart-ish things.

First, I made a paper owl paper bag. Who loves you? Owl always love you (ya know, the title of that Whitney Houston song. Too soon for a Whitney pun?)

Then I made conversation heart cookies. Pardon the lumps in the icing.

Lastly, I made red velvet cupcakes and I even made the decorative tooth pick things from scrap booking stuff that I had.

I don’t understand what the big deal is about red velvet cake. You never hear anybody say “Oh I LOVE vanilla! It is sooooo good!” But folks seem to drool over red velvet. Are there any southerners out there that can tell me what the big deal is? Perhaps it is because southerners like to make cakes in the shape of armadillos and raccoons and other roadkill so the red makes them look more realistic when the cake is cut open.

I hope ya’ll have a wonderful day full of sweets tomorrow!