remember folks

getouttahere

It was getting a little crowded in here, so I banished all my lovely postings to separate blogs.

recipes



crafting

William R Davie Park. What a treat!

Finally! A cool playground for Clyde and its only 20 minutes from us:




Thats only part if it, there's a soccer field with really soft + clean turf, and a castle playground and a teeny tiny playground for babies. I've been dying to find something like this, the one we go to is not cutting the mustard, I tell ya! We went there today for an Easter egg hunt some of the moms put together for our gigantic mom group. There were cupcakes, runny noses, and picnic spreads but Clyde was mostly interested in throwing his body down each and every slide. He is becoming more and more interested in the other kids and was even concerned when a little girl fell and hit her head. Maybe that's because he recently banged his head on tile last week. Sympathy pains.

Its finally warming up, too, but you wouldn't know it today BRRrrr. Nice try Spring, maybe next week.

I've been meaning to write (and not post just pictures) for ages!

Well, my little darling angel had really severe diarrhea a few weeks ago and we had to take him to the emergency room to get an IV started because he was super deyhrdrated. They poked him five times (and even gouged a vein that bled all over the turnicate) and I put my foot down and said "no thanks, modern medicine, we're going." He's fine now! He lost a pound, which is a lot when you're Clyde sized. We've been active in our mom group and enjoying the queen city.

Andrew went to the barber and got a nice trim. He's learning all about the tools they use for granite and other "solid surfaces" and also how to clean them. Did someone say worker bee?

I've been planning planning planning the wedding and am sending out save the dates, soon. So I will need addresses. I got what I thought was a spider bite, only to find out it was a staph infection and now I feel like an icky leper. Its a tiny hole on my pointer finger, but a pretty serious thing if its not treated. So now I'm on antibiotics that make me headachy and nauseous. Its called the bridal staph diet, try it sometime.

We're hanging in there.

Clyde's vocab list as of late:

bug
ear
ball
momma?
dadda
balloon (more like, bawooo)
dig dig digging
hot
shhhhh!
yum yum (num num)
night-night (more like, nye nye)

We forgot to say cheeeese.

whats in a name??

Your rock star name
(first pet & current car)
Muffy Prix

Your gangsta name
(fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Strawberry Pinwheel

Your Fly Guy / Girl name
(first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
S-con

Your detective name
(favorite color, favorite animal)
Mauve Monk E.

Your soap opera name
(middle name, city where you were born)
Elizabeth G. Junction

Your Star Wars name
(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Consa

Superhero name
(2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”)
The green Strawberry Bombshell

Nascar name
(the first names of your grandfathers)
Bud Wayne


TV weather anchor name
(Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Barron Baltimore

Spy name
(your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Sunny Spring Sweet Pea

Cartoon name
(favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Peachy Jeansie

Hippy name
(What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree),
Chai Olive

Your rockstar tour name
(”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Felt Mist Tour

Genuine veneer. Dear.

I love Etsy. For those not in the know, its like the Ebay of all handmade things or vintage finds. This ring looks like a perfect match. Its sturdy (in your face real wood!) and its handmade by a sweet couple who collaborated this brilliant design. What do you guys think? Thanks for turning me onto Etsy, Korie!

wizard of oz themed wedding. AH. love it.

<<>>

What are your ring sizes? I got my child-like hands sized today by several jewelers and it came down to a 5 and a quarter. They made fun of my slim, knuckle-less hands and were awed at the meaty tops.

So, what size are you guys??

Gustavson girls make me smile so big that my eyes disappear into my face.

change we can believe in.

HOORAY! We are getting a different apartment in a week or so that is a little better suited to our needs (ie not gigantic that we can't fill with stuff we don't need). So this means cutting down on the toys for Clyde, getting rid of some furniture, and giving back piles of tupperware to Andrew's parents. That oughta do it. We are going to be in the same apartment complex, but in the back with a view of the woods, and the apartment will be on the ground level. No more nightmares about Clyde falling off the balcony, suckers.

Did I mention it will be four hundred dollars LESS? That's some kind of crazy amount of savings my brimming brain can't even compute!

Sometimes you just need to do a little downsizing, a little slimming of the ways. I will send out the new address post-haste!

more details?

Andrew surprise proposed to me at Sullivan's steakhouse, (we both agree Sullivan is a stellar name for a future child). Let me start off by saying, the night was perfect! The restaurant was nestled between skyscrapers and criss-crossed highways, quite a ways from hunky dunk Indian Trail. Our reservations were at seven and we arrived at a crisp 6:30. So they went ahead and seated us at the Godfather table, our backs were to the wall and we could reign supreme over the other lowly diners. Also, we had the advantage of being first to see an encroaching attack from an enemy mob. Advantageous!

They brought me out their signature cocktail, The Knockout i.e. orange infused vodka with Hawaiian pineapple juice and twist of orange. I gave them my signature head nod of approval. This was the first in excellence brought to our GF table.

We ordered Ahi tuna as our appetizer. Though I could scarcely stab the thing with my fork, it had an easier time slipping down my gullet. Delicious! Sometimes you have to just dig right in to seared, yet raw fish. And not die, which we didn't.

The waiter noticed my garnet red hair and ordered me up a Strawberry Blonde i.e. strawberry vodka with strawberry pucker shaken with sweet and sour mixed with pineapple juice. Perched on the rim was, you guessed it, one giant succulent strawberry. Ripe for the plucking....off my glass. It met up nicely with the tuna in belly.

Then the real feasting began. Steak and shrimp for Andrew and a salmon and mushroom combo for Salem. I've never seen half a lemon wrapped in cheesecloth as a garnish. Clever! I squeezed it over the fish and the cheesecloth kept any pulp from getting loose. I had a hard time continuing the conversation because I just kept shoveling food into my mouth. The only time I would come up for air would be to steal bites of Andrew's steak.

Now that Andrew had me all liquored up, he turned to me and said, "well, its been a long time coming, but like Glenn says 'if you over-cook the fish, it'll spoil'... will you marry me?"

And then BAM out comes the ring, garnet with diamonds, and I squealed like the piggy I am.

"So that's a yes, then."


I faintly remember a banana bread-pudding, but at this point my mind was swimming in diamonds, garnets, and love for my sweet man.

I said yes!

Its over! We made it. The doctors visit went well, we're just waiting to hear how the blood draw went. The new doc is pretty, young, overall a nice gal. I'm disappointed she was less than thrilled I was still breast-feeding. She asked when I was going to wean and I made it very clear that I wanted Clyde to decide when he's had enough boobie. When we were on the topic of his crawling weight, I joked he was welcome to take some of mine. "Oh, well that will get better once you're done breast-feeding," she says. What!? Surely she hasn't forgotten that breastfeeding helps new mothers lose the weight they gained during pregnancy. How about 500 calories a day, doc. That's how many you burn as a nursing mother. Mercy Minerva.

So now we wait. They had to test Clyde's iron level and test his blood to he if he was ever exposed to lead. We couldn't do the next vaccination because, gulp, my calendar math was off and I took him in at 17 months instead of 18 months. WOOOPs. The doc, Susan Lester, said "nbd" (no big deal) we could do the shots early, but they hadn't received his vaccination chart. Um, yes. Yes they did. Liars. It wasn't until I was out the door that they grabbed us both by the collar, kicking and screaming to try and talk us going back in for a shot or two.

"maybe next time, nursey."

And that was the end of that.


Ok, not really. But I did hang in the office while the baffled nurses scratched their heads and wondered why only half his chart had arrived. Meanwhile Clyde is holding his arm with his other hand as if it had been mortally wounded. Which it had! They did the blood draw from a vein in his arm! Is that normal? They took three bottles of blood, too. He just sat there quietly saying "waaaaa" with his little face scrunched up, holding perfectly still, tears rolling. It was precious. I gave him full permission to cry. After all, they were doing the blood draw in an abnormal place if you ask me.

In the end we decided to schedule another visit for the booster shots since they didn't have all the correct info from Colorado and Clyde was nursing his arm in confused terror. I do not look forward to going back.

It was a milk and cookies kind of morning, when I stumbled across these. Wall decals with some serious style. Some of them are reusable, so when you change your mind in a month or a week or a day, you can pull them off and reuse them later. Alligator.

worry worry worry worry

I'm a little worried about Clyde's weight. Andrew weighed him on his parent's scale and we were hoping for big numbers, but it turns out he's tipping the scale at 21 lbs. When he turned one he was 20 lbs, so if my math is correct, that is only a pound more. The opposite needs to be happening here, I need to be fluctuating from pound to pound and not rapidly gaining weight. Hint hint, Clyde. He's been trying new foods, eating frequently, drinking soy milk, drinking juice (although I swore I would never give him juice), I don't know what's going on. He has a doctors appointment this friday I'm nervous about. And don't worry about it being last friday, because we showed up then, a half hour late for an appointment we didn't have. Psh. Is the doc going to slap me upside the head with a stick of butter? Will she throw me out on the street after shoving my pockets with globs of saturated fats?

I'll let you know.

This weekend (feb 13 & 14) my aunt Rebecca is presenting some choreography she did awhile back. The performance will take place in the black box in the Moss Performing Arts Center at Mesa State. It starts a 7:30 (but get there early to make sure you get in!) All proceeds from ticket sales will go to dance scholarships, wicked cool.

Each vignette is based off of Wim Wender's Wings of Desire. A really interesting german film that was later loosely translated into City of Angels. I was in the original, too (the littlest angel)!


Break a leg, Becca!