It was a big day for us last week, I took Ella to her first Pacers game! We had been talking about doing this for awhile and after I returned from a few recent games she started asking when she would get to go. So on New Year’s Eve there was an afternoon game – perfect.

Of course she wore her Pacers cheerleading outfit! She got tons of attention from people, and would tell everyone “I am going to my first Pacers game” – how adorable!

Ella played her new MobiGo video game most of the way down, and acted really surprised when I would tell her how much farther we still had to go.

I think she thought Indy was much closer. Not sure if this is good parenting, but to explain two hours to her, I would break it into Dora episodes – so we started with 4 Dora episodes, then 3, 2, 1 etc. She loved our gas station stop, since I let her pick out any item she wanted – she went with Gummy Lifesavers.

The very first thing we did when we got to Conseco Fieldhouse was buy her some pom-poms, she was very worried they wouldn’t have any and she HAD to have them to cheer!

She had a lot of fun at the game, and was yelling and cheering like her old man. It took some encouragement to get her to realize she could actually yell out loud there. Its funny how shy she gets, but after awhile she was yelling “Go Pacers!” and waving her pom-poms in a frantic dance.

Here we are with our good buddy El Pacero. Ella was very interested in why we were not supposed to call him by his real name during the game as to not reveal his secret identity. She even busted me doing it once.

The game was great, but I think the highlight for her was the food, she ate everything – we had ice cream before we even sat in our seats, then dipping dots, then popcorn and a jumbo pretzel! We hunted everywhere for lemonade, but had to settle for Apple Juice.

At halftime she started asking about her blankie that we had left in the car. Then started saying she missed mommy and Eva.

But she made it until the 4th quarter before we headed out to beat the crowd. She loved running around the concourse hallways and up and down the escalators and elevators.

She also met one of the Pacemates – but I didn’t think quick enough to get a photo, so instead on the way out we took a few vanity shots. (All her idea and posing)

We were only in the car about 2 minutes before she was out, and slept the entire drive home. What a long and fun day! Oh, and the Pacers won too!

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I take sandwiches seriously, so much so I recognize the difference between a sandwich and a sammich!

So last night when I decided to make a quick sandwich for dinner, Erin warned me that I would have to have a sandwich again the next day for lunch, I chuckled to myself and said “I guess I will just have to make a sammich instead.”

Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients include:

• Toasted Honey Wheat Bread
• 1 giant slice of cheddar cheese (Placed on the hot toast right away so it gets just slightly melted)
• 2 slices of Buffalo Sauce infused chicken
• 2 slices of Pastrami (Turkey variety so I can keep my girlish figure)
• 2 slices of bacon (Turkey variety because that is all we had)
• 2 slices of onion
• 1 perfectly fried over-easy egg
• 2 leafs of romaine lettuce
• a few stripes of spicy brown mustard
• a few stripes of Sriracha Thai hot sauce (I put this on everything lately)
• a thin layer of Calabrese Burschetta Topping (a mix of red peppers, ricotta, pecorino romano, and hot chili peppers)

Here is another look at this sammich:

About 30 seconds after I finished constructing this masterpiece it disappeared:

Now that was a yummy sammich!

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Please see Erin’s blog, she posted a bunch of great photos already:
www.mommatimes.com/

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Ella has her own Christmas tree and we have a new camera. I am enjoying both!

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Here is Ella’s Get Well Card for Grandma Shirley:

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So, I flew down to Naples, FL on a work trip last week, and the flight down was about as typical a day of air travel as I usually have on these trips. It goes just like this:

• Wake up at 6am, throw the last few things in my suitcase in the dark.
• Drive 30 minutes, wondering what I forgot and wishing I had turned on the lights to make sure I didn’t miss the suitcase.
• Park in the Economy lot and lug my suitcase and laptop bag a few hundred yards to the airport entrance. (through the snow half the time)
• Skip the clueless person at the front of the line that hasn’t figured out yet that there a bunch of open self-service kiosks.
• Print boarding passes – pay $25 extra to check a bag (this is a new addition in the last year or so).
• Go through security – get a thank you from the conveyor x-ray guy for being an expert. Two bins – one for my laptop alone, the other has my shoes/belt/coat and wallet. Laptop bag directly on conveyor.
• Somehow I get chosen to skip the 3D moose-antler ex-Ray, but then when they check my hands for explosives residue, wouldn’t you know it – I test positive. Hmm, I don’t remember handling any bombs recently. So, I get the full-body pat down that is making all the headlines. It really wasn’t that bad at all – much like being at a tailors really, except more polite.
• So there I am, with my ticket and through security and an hour to wait. Why am I always so worried about being late and yet always early. Luckily, FWA has free WI-FI so that kills time. And there is the obligatory bathroom visit. Why is the person in the stall next to me always someone with extremely loud bodily functions? I mean seriously is there circus animals in here?
• Anyways, my hour wait is eaten up with the annoyance of the airline announcing that they have oversold the flight and need three volunteers to change their plans. Oversold? What other business can get away with that BS? That means that three times someone called or logged in to get a flight and they knowingly sold them a ticket on a full airplane.
• The first plane is always on time, and I get boarded and settle into my seat for a long-day of travel. Hmm, still sitting here long after we were supposed to have taken off. What is it this time – Crew needed more sleep? Mechanical issues? Paperwork issues? (This trip it was paperwork that took 45 minutes to arrive)
• So, we land at my layover airport and I am not shocked at all to find that I have very little time to catch my next flight. Oh, boy!
• So half the plane is in a big hurry to catch their next flight, and the other half isn’t – soooo does the airline get those in hurry to the front of the line to leave the plane? Of course not! I eventually get out of my seat after waiting for every dawdler in a row in front to get out and grab their crazy carry-on bags. Then I have to push past everyone waiting for their “valet” bag – because apparently I am the only one shelling out the $25 to check my bag.
• But, as I sprint from Gate A66 all the way across the airport to Gate C37, I am so glad I am not lugging my suitcase behind me. I am however wishing my laptop bag didn’t way 30lbs.
• I must say, I was much more able to handle sprinting this time around – I was only mildly out of breath compared to other flights. But I was equally ticked to arrive at the gate and find this flight had conveniently been delayed 30 minutes and I was there with plenty of time to spare before boarding. Too bad they didn’t bother to put that on the freaking monitors before I ran a mile to get there!!
• Once I get on the plane I begin a coughing fit. I guess my chest cold was not a fan of the unnecessary running, either. Ugh. Luckily, I had checked out the seat assignments this morning and was able to rig a empty seat between me and the lovely lady wondering if I was going to give her Ebola.
• Finally the coughing subsides. I realize that I was planning to get my first food of the day at this airport, and now I have missed both breakfast and lunch. Also, my hands are crazy dry and itchy – maybe it is all the explosives residue drying them out.
• I nod off to sleep and wake up every few minutes, hoping that I was not snoring – so far I have never woke up to see anyone staring or mumbling about me. But I guess I will never know for sure.
• The flight goes smoothly.We land, I fetch my bag off the luggage conveyor – its easy to find, since I am the only one that checks a bag smaller than a Volkswagen.
• I hop in a cab and ride 30 minutes to my hotel wondering if my flight home will be just as “typical”.

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