How Many Close Calls Can One Weekend Bring?

I am beginning to realize that my 8 month old is following a bit too closely in her father's footsteps. Craig made it through his childhood with 3 concussions, 2 skull fractures, multiple trips the the ER for stitches and who knows how many major cuts and bruises. This weekend marked the beginning of the chaos for me and Suede. Luckily Craig and I are laid back and realize there will be bumps and bruises along the way. A couple were a bit too close for comfort though.
Sat. Dec 23
My parents bought us a new bookshelf from Ikea in the scratch and dent. Craig and my Dad were carrying it in, and as they walk into the room, I realize my Dad is headed straight (backward) toward Suede. I yell, he doesn't register it, and proceeds to step on Suede. He realized this, didn't put down his whole weight and subsequently fell pushing the bookcase forward to try to miss her. It came crashing to the floor barely missing Suede. It was the closest call we've had with her thus far.

Sunday and Monday were somewhat uneventful with just your normal head bumps etc. on the floor while playing. Nothing to be too concerned about.

Christmas brought so much more. She first fell on her cheek on Craig's new Bongos leaving a bruise, but that was just the warm up. Suede is now fully mobile and is into things as any child could be. She dislikes being held because it takes her away from exploring the vast floor space. We were sitting in the living room of my sister's house after opening presents and Suede was on the floor playing around. Suddenly she started choking but we couldn't quite figure out what was in her mouth. She was still breathing, but having trouble. We finally saw that she has one of those metal snowflakes that you see on presents lodged in her throat and we were able to dislodge it. My sister proceeds to scare me with a story of our cousin who had a dried flower in her mouth and had to be medivaced to the hospital because her throat started closing in.

Next adventure occurred when we were packing up to leave. She was on the floor in the kitchen and I checked for any small objects around and found the area safe...so I thought. As curious as she is she decided that the dishwasher that was inadvertently left open was an excellent play space. Suddenly there was a crash and we came running in to see the her on the floor with silverware surrounding her and the bottom drawer flipped up. Either a fork or a knife or some other sharp object had punctured her eyebrow. Just a little closer and she probably would have lost her eye. Luckily it was small enough for a butterfly bandage, but walking in to see your baby bleeding is definitely a jolting experience. We're hoping she's done with these close calls for a while. Luckily it's apparent that she has angels watching over her. We were definitely blessed in more ways than one this Christmas.

Here is a picture of her eye, sort of. I tried to get it, but if you get too close she merely grabs the camera.

Merry Christmas To All, And To All A... Well You Know

Suede loved her first visit with Santa. She decided that instead of crying, she would win his heart over from the very beginning to ensure ample presents in years to come. There are so many things you don't think of (well maybe everyone else does and I don't) about having a child. Santa visits, etc., etc. Luckily I'm finding it to be quite fun. And equally lucky I have my sister Cassie to remind me of all of the essentials like first Christmas ornaments, Santa pics, and the list goes on and on. Hopefully I'll catch on to all this soon. Merry Christmas everyone!

Lame Video, Cool Digs

Well, people have requested some pics of our new place. So here is the super-budget-low-quality preview.

7 Random Things

I was "tagged" by Melanie and that is all the direction I got so here are my 7 random things. I think in actuality it is just a ploy to keep track of who actually reads your blog, so at the end I get to "tag" to keep my own "tabs"

1. I was once a closet pink lover. I was once so much of a closet pink lover I had convinced myself that I hated the color passionately. Now I've come to realize I LOVE pink, so much that I even love Craig in pink.


2. Suede is such a mini-me of Craig that I would wonder if I contributed anything to her being if it weren't for her femaleness and mitochondria, and it only grows worse the older she gets.

3. I have to hide my blogging from the study Nazi (Craig) and thus, you may deduce that he is at the moment out of the house leaving me free to blog, only for him to see my works at a later time making punishment futile.

4. I love Fall. It is my absolute favorite season in Virginia. I drive to school and get lost in the beautifully colored trees every morning. That may be why I'm late....or maybe it's the fact that Craig has to drag me out of bed every morning. Either way, I do love Fall.

5. I like to fall asleep holding Craig's hand and touching feet, thus socks on either of us while in bed gives me the heeby jeebies.

6. I love school. Absolutely love it....the hours of studying and sometimes even the stress of tests. Good thing because I'm hoping I'll get some more years of school in as a MD student.


7. I found a new hobby in spider spotting. Last weekend Craig and I went backpacking/camping in the woods and as he was spending time trying to make sure we were on the right trail in the dark, I found that the eyes of the spiders reflect back at me when I have my head lamp on. At first I thought they were water droplets because there were so many, but on closer observation they were all spiders! It was really cool. Needless to say the idea of sleeping under the stars was no more as Craig has a fear of spiders and the thought of them all over the ground made him a bit uneasy.


So there are my 7 random things... Now I shall tag.... Corbin, Alice, Chas, Lacey, Leslie, Mallory, and Joe. Lets see who really reads my blog....

My new favorite poem

Now this is worth reciting. I'm placing it as it's own blog as it is worth more than merely being a comment to the previous blog.

Descent From Rhyme

I have no comment for such nonsense
Except that I have no comment
Such blather you must condense
Or my face will albescent
For such large amounts of rubbish
Are too much for me to cherish

Zac Clawson

Who is Ogden Nash?

Wikipedia has done it again! I felt a tug to find out who this Ogden Nash was because I used his quote in my last post. Turns out he was (died in 1971) an American poet with some rather funny poems. The following is one that was on wikipedia that I thought was funny.
Ode to the Llama

The one-L lama, he's a priest

The two-L llama, he's a beast

And I would bet a silk pyjama

There isn't any three-L lllama

(Nash later appended a footnote to this poem: "The author's attention has been called to a type of conflagration known as a three-alarmer. Pooh."


It peaked my interest so I looked up another

The panther is like a leopard,

Except that it hasn't been peppered.

Should you behold a panther crouch,

Prepare to say ouch,

Better yet, if called by a panther,

Don't anther.

Ha! He may become one of my favorites.

Happy Halloween

Happy 30th Birthday To Craig

I know many of you may be surprised that Craig is actually 30 today. It's true. I've seen his drivers license. When we first met I didn't believe he was as old as he told me, and proceeded to require his driver's license as proof. Even after seeing it I promptly asked if it was a fake. I guess he is now getting to the point where it's good to look younger than you are.

"You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely."
- Ogden Nash
(I have no idea who Ogden Nash is, but the quote was nice)


Happy Birthday Craig!

Let The Battle Of The Sexes Be Won

If you read Corbin and Alice's blog comments, and you noticed the comments by my wonderful brothers on Suede's video posting, you will realize that my brothers and I are always in a battle of the sexes. I've decided, since Zac has put his foot down on the superiority of men, I need to shake the ground that foot is placed on and open his eyes to reality. On the surface you may be thinking, "maybe men are superior. Women take their names when they marry, children take their names, they can lift heavy things...." That's about all I could come up with, but you get the idea. Women are the masters of smoke and mirrors. There are amazing things that are passed down through the generations of women, that I am now willing to unveil to prove once and for all we are the superior sex. Well, I'm not going to give away all the tricks...just a few. If I unveil all of them we could no longer be absolutely superior.

Women have known the art of persuasion throughout the beginning of time. The trick is, as my momma taught me well, to make the man feel like it was all his idea. You keep up the facade that they are the ones in power, making the important decisions, when in fact, we are the one behind the curtain. Make them FEEL like they have the power and you will in actuality have the power. All the men reading this are thinking, "I know exactly what she's doing when she's doing that," and that's the ultimate, give them snippits of downplay so they are even more blindsided when you carry out the real plans.

Now for the hard evidence....the mighty, mighty, mitochondria. For those of you that don't know what the mitochondria are, they are the power house of the cell. All energy that you use is produced by these amazing organelles. Just think hard back to that biology class and you'll remember that practically all cellular processes are coupled to these all powerful little kidney beans. What does this have to do with the superiority of women you ask. Only EVERYTHING. Men leave a lineage of names, women leave a lineage of the mighty, mighty, all powerful mitochondria. May I quote, "What's in a name?" It's just the smoke and mirrors to make the men feel good about leaving something to their children. When, in actuality the most important things are given by the female. All the mitochondria that an embryo receives is provided by the wonderful mother. The lineages can be traced back through the female lines for endless generations. We are the power behind every action and every thought. So men, next time you have a thought of being superior, remember the energy for that thought came from those wonderful female entities you have within each cell called the mitochondria. Oh, and remember when I said men can lift heavy things....all the energy required to lift those heavy things is made possible by those mighty, mighty, mitochondria.

Happy .5th B-Day to Suede

Happy 1/2 birthday to Suede.

More fun with Suede

Well, we hate to brag, but everyone keeps requesting pix of Suede. So here's the next batch. We only post sweet pix like these by popular demand.

Don't Throw the Baby out With the Laundry!
Remember in E.T. when he is hiding in the clothes. This is kinda like that, but a bit cuter.


Boot Scootin' Boogie


First Solid Food. Yum!

Craig's Done It AGAIN!

I'm not sure if you all knew, but last year Craig entered an International student recording competition at the Audio Engineering Society's conference in San Fransisco. He walked away with 1st place in the Pop/Rock category. As he graduated in April, he was able to submit his recordings one last time to the conference, this time held in New York City. This time he's surpassed his previous winnings and walked away with two awards. 1st in the Pop/Rock category and 2nd in the World/Folk category. This is an amazing award to me because he is up against the next generation of professional recording engineers and he has won 2 years in a row. As I responded to my Mom when she asked what competitions there are after the student competition, "Only the Grammy's!" I see myself on the red carpet one of these days probably not so far away. I know I'm bragging, but someone's got to. You'd never hear anything from him. There were many entries and most of them had access to the most advanced equipment. Then there's Craig with his not so top of the line equipment recording in places like our previous little house in Pleasant Grove Utah and a barn house in the middle of the Utah desert! That's talent for you! Here's to you Craig!!! His winning songs should be up on his website if not now than shortly. www.cornerhousestudio.com

The Greatest Show on Earth

As most of you know, we recently moved from Utah. There are many things we miss, but one in particular is our "House MD" night with the Wittusens. I have tried and tried all of those "great" shows everyone talks about, i.e. grey's anatomy, heroes, etc, and they never quite took. BUT, other than Discovery Health, House MD is the only thing that interests me on that tube (can I still say that since they don't use tubes anymore). We would gather every week at the Wittusen's to partake of the incredible mind of Dr. House, with me using the educational value of the show as an excuse for time away from studies (you know they use real medical cases for the show). Every week without fail Brad would sit down on the couch complaining about "how dumb" the episode was....granted he could never wait until we came over to watch the Tivoed episode, and he would spend the time to watch it yet a second time. Now that we are away from them, I miss our bantering on this great show (although after the first episode of the season I did receive an e-mail from him about the "dumb aspects"). This last episode was AWESOME! I'm loving the fact that they have a black Mormon on the show. Not only is that going to bring the best comedy from Dr. House, it makes me excited to see how he'll be portrayed. This first experience with him already created some debating among Craig and I. I don't remember his name, but my question to all of you is would you have done what did on the show last week if placed in front of you? I won't ruin it for you by explaining it if you haven't watched it yet. Craig said he let us all down, where I feel quite the opposite. If placed in that position I would have done exactly the same. Craig claims he would not. So, I am now placing my first poll on our blog for your feedback. Feel free to also leave comments on this blog. If you have not seen the episode I implore you to watch this episode. I think you may be able to get it off itunes if you missed it. Or maybe somewhere online. It was seriously awesome (completely void of dumbness Brad). I guess I should find out his name for the poll...

Basement stories

So, Craig was in actuality supposed to be posting this, and as I am too tired to keep reminding him, he has had success in his ploy. I will thus, update you all on the progress of our soon to be home. We are finishing Zac and Gina's (my brother and sister-in-law) basement into an apartment where we can live out my endless years of school while stealing a piece their beautiful country life. All the fun none of the $$ required to build the house. Craig spent hours framing with a guy in our ward to create an awesome apartment with one bedroom for Suede and the rest in studio style. We have recessed lighting and all. We then took on the challenge of acid-staining the concrete (inspired by our wonderful friends the Wittusen's basement). It was quite a task, but it is done. Wouldn't know it with all the drywall mud on the floor we have yet to clean up. Craig and my Dad worked endless hours on the electrical work. All with no major electrocutions. We got smart and hired out the drywall, and are just lacking doors, the kitchen (which will take forever since it is an IKEA kit requiring EVERYTHING to be put together). We hope we can finish everything up and be in by mid-October. We'll see. The original plan was early July.... I feel like I'm a General Contractor who can never quite set the right finishing date. When it's all done we'll send the final photos. Now what we're realizing is that we've spent all our money on the building of the apartment and now are left with....an empty apartment we can't afford to fill up. Oh, well. All that will come with time. We've got a bed and a bathroom. What more do we need.

The nightmare!

I sat staring blankly at papers in front of me, eyes glazed not knowing what to do. The bright lights of the huge auditorium shined down to reveal a secret code that had to be deciphered OR ELSE! All that, and I was confined to a tiny writing space of a small fold up desk over my fidgeting legs. I sat for hours...staring, staring, knowing that every second ticking by was becoming a detriment to my life. Then, I realized....I wasn't asleep! If only I could wake up from the horror. Every problem plagued my brain with doubt. Even now, after all I could do has been done, I still have anxiety and I find myself praying for the first time in my life to, "Please, please let me be average, please let me be average!" Damn that Biochemistry graduate course! The countdown now begins for the next torturing hours in that horrid room, all the while with me praying that I will be among those considered "average".

Man I wish I had one of these!!!!

She loves this thing! I would too. This video was taken with my new treo phone. Oh yeah baby! HA!

Some of Tar's Brainiest Moments

As I was 1 hour late for my test this morning with my shirt on backwards and critical things left at home (all unbeknownst to me), I was reminded of my most brainy moments. They leave me smiling foolishly and saying "I'm gonna be a doctor!" (Like yesterday when my friend gave me a fig newton and I said, "These are good, I wonder what kind of fruit they put in these.") Granted it was one heck of a week with 3 tests right in a row, but if only I always had this excuse.

I never thought being an airhead would let me off the hook for a ticket, but whatever works.
I was in college driving my friend's truck, which mind you had a blown fuse so I could not roll down the window. I was chatting away with my friend, who was also in the car, and all of a sudden the blue lights were flashing behind me. The cop comes up, I open the door, he asks for my license, which I do not have, and tells me I have run 3 red lights with him right behind me. I tell him I don't have my license, then a light bulb goes on and I beamingly say, "But I have my phone!" Both he and my friend look at me with concern, and he says "What does that have to do with anything?" and I reply, "Well, it has my name on it so I can prove who I am." He paused a moment, then trying not to laugh says, "Try to be more careful," and sends me on my way.

Oh That's How Hot Air Balloons Work!

Yes, I was in college for this one too. I was on a date with a guy I REALLY liked. We were walking through the parking lot and I see a hot air balloon being blown up with the wonders of FIRE. I stopped stood a little while, and yes said out loud, "Oh, that's how HOT AIR balloons work." As if that wasn't bad enough I went to work on Monday and my boss was telling a story he heard at a Bachelor's party that weekend about this girl his friend went out with that seriously didn't know how HOT AIR balloons work. YIKES! Needless to say that was our first and only date.

And best of all.....

PULL the lever....
I was on my way to college and flew into Phoenix to get a car my parent's bought my brother and I for college from my uncle (a car dealer). He was showing me the car, how to check the oil, pop the hood, etc. He had me sit in the driver's seat so he could show me the features. I felt like I got everything fine, except when I tried the windshield washer fluid. It said pull, and pull with all my might I did. I even thought to ask my uncle about this broken lever, but all he did was stare at me. I figured he was thinking I was being ungrateful mentioning something broken, but I was actually thinking ahead to my drive through the Arizona desert with all of those gigantic smashed bugs impeding my view. So, I just dropped it and figured I'd get someone to look at it sometime. Man did my windshield collect bugs, and I kept thinking how great it would be to have a working windshield wiper lever. Months later as my friend was driving my car with me in the passenger's seat, he began cleaning the windshield with that blessed windshield wiper fluid. Why had it worked for him? I promptly asked him the trick to this finicky lever when he merely replied, "You just pull the lever towards you." And all this time I was pulling it out.... As my Dad would say to me (as he did many times while I was growing up), "Dumbsville, Taralyn, DUMBSVILLE!!"


On a heavier note, school is going well. I'm learning a lot and loving my classes. Our basement apartment is ALMOST finished and Craig has promised to post pics and a blog on his endless hours getting our home finished. Suede is growing and is luckily one smart girl....she must take after Craig.

Break For An Infomercial-Men are from MARS

One night as I sat around my parent's kitchen table with my siblings (minus Corbin and Alice :( and maybe Cassie too), I was deemed the family's walking and of course talking Infomercial as we played the incredibly entertaining game "Imagine-If." I was a bit offended by the unanimous vote to that extent, but then thought...."How great. Those infomercials get you EVERY time. No matter how annoying they are, you still linger on that channel just to see what new and exciting things are up for sale. I've at least got their attention, which of course is always my goal." So I now take the label as a great compliment of their attention and will thus never let them down.

MEN ARE FROM MARS!!!

Now we all know that book on relationships "Men are From Mars, Women Are From Venus"...they may have actually hit on something quite important. New theories suggest that the first living organisms actually arose on MARS. There is evidence that Mars is or was suitable for sustained life with some not so concrete discoveries of the possibility of water beneath the surface and the evidence of Nitrogen in the atmosphere.... do you see where I'm going with this! So, the theory stands that life began on Mars then was transfered to Earth through asteroids or other such means. This is amazing stuff! Think of the chances. Organic materials just happened to come into contact with each other in just the perfect circumstances of energy to yield the first living organism with just the right arrangement of lipids to protect them. Then, miracle of miracles... actually scratch that. That would be admitting a higher power. Lo and behold (I think that's better) they happened to be trapped in a piece of the blessed Red Planet that became detached and flew toward and hit this other planet unsuitable for starting the life called Earth to begin anew. Then billions of years later, no life is found on Mars but the Earth is booming with intelligent creatures that arose from these life starting organisms through evolution. So, the gist of it is, we evolved from single celled organisms on Mars that could not evolve on their own planet to yield life, but came here to produce the environment necessary to produce the human race. Now that is definitely MORE believable that those quacks that believe GOD created the Earth and all life on it. Idiots.
P.S. For a more factual account, please visit the Hubble Space Telescope website and find it yourself.

Suede is smiling (at daddy of course)

Well, a lot of you have requested some recent pix of Suede. So without any further ranting on my part, here they are.

Post Script to "Sweatin' with the oldies"

For those of you who are not privileged to know my parents, you must know that they are in no way overbearing or controlling. These few points were brought up for comic relief. Time living with them is GREAT!

Like father like daughter...?!?!?

As Suede grows (for those of you who don't know she is now about 4 1/2 mo. old) I see incredible family resemblance. Not of me surprisingly, but of her Daddy (as my sister loves to point out (EVERYtime she picks her up) that she sees nothing of me in her). What is this anyway? Isn't it supposed to be like mother like daughter? Here's just a few tidbits of my observations:

Of course who could miss those blue eyes! Her Momma got her wish there, but I didn't think that wishing that would lead to all of the other attributes shared with her Daddy. I just hope that when she closes those eyes someone somewhere can see a resemblance of me.

Will she ever be able to sit still? Those of you that know Craig know of the constant movement associated with his being, usually expressed in the form of drumming his fingers and feet. Suede has inherited this incredible amount of energy. Even the way they fall asleep is similar. Craig will drum and drum and drum even into his REM cycle I'm sure. Suede on the other hand without those refined skills of movement, turns and arches and kicks and whatever else, not fusing, just constantly moving until she finally stops moving and I have to go check to make sure she's still breathing for fear of that lack of movement.

Even temperament. I wish that this attribute was linked to me, but as all of you know, I'm not so evenly blessed. She's all smiles unless there is a problem and has the ability to play by herself without entertainment. You all know that this also is an attribute from Daddy as her Mom needs constant stimulation from others.

Music stops EVERYTHING. Don't try to carry on any sort of conversation with Craig if ANY music (or even sounds that could be construed into music) is present. He'll just keep saying OK and nothing will actually reach the brain as it is being overtaken. Suede is all wiggles, EXCEPT when there's music. She'll sit for crazy amounts of time on her Daddy's lap not moving a finger while they sit and listen to a wide range of music. Also like her Dad I think Jazz is one of her favorites.

Focus. You're eating right now. Many times I'll leave the table after a meal with Craig coming back into consciousness asking, "You're already done? I haven't even started" I learned after a while just to remind him that he's supposed to be eating, not dreaming up whatever rhythm is echoing in his brain. Although like her Mom, she doesn't forget about wanting to eat, she quickly forgets what's going on and needs reminding of the task at hand. Once again, if music is on, forget it. Might as well try later.

If all else fails take that girl outside. There's something hypnotic about the outdoors to her. Understandably, if you recall that Craig spent over a year sleeping outside (even during family vacations while everyone else enjoyed the comfort of hotel rooms) ... just because.


Parents always talk way too much about their children, so I'll stop my wandering words and get back to studying.

They say that you live through your children. Maybe this time around I'll be a sweet, happy, adventurous, incredibly smart peacemaker with musclely legs and bright blue eyes.

I hope she at least gets my brown hair.

Sweatin' with the oldies

After 7 years on my own (5 of which I have spent married), I am once again under my parents' roof. Interestingly I have waited until I myself became a parent, to embark on this venture. The dynamic is interesting with many positive and negative aspects of our co-habitation. To leave this blog with a positive note, I will start with those very few negatives present in our living arrangements, then venture to list but a few of those positive experiences back here in the Clawson nest.

Negatives

1. Bedtime has once again become a dictation of my sweet mother, who, like most mothers thinks that if she is tired I MUST be tired also. Late night fun with my siblings (when they come to visit) is still a NO.

2. From the time she walks in the door at night to the time SHE goes to bed, I am constantly asked, "Is all your homework finished," which in graduate school the answer is always inevitably NO.

3. When I hear the doors close from my parents' car in the driveway, I still instictually immediately turn of the TV in their bedroom, straighten the sheets and run downstairs to open a textbook. Luckily, with the tube as a nightly ritual of my Dad, the threat of "canceling that satellite" is not included.

4. Mom still knows best.... even when I'm the Mom. Constantly being bombarded with, "Forget the schedule, just feed her," Suede has a constant ally against the sanity I'm trying to create in our hectic lives. note: this is also included in the positives. See below.

Positives

1. I never have to worry about missing my alarm, and my breakfast and lunch are always waiting when I'm ready to walk out the door. I catch the envying eye of my schoolmates everyday when I pull that lunch out to microwave it in that student lounge.

2. Groceries, what groceries? With my Mom's Costco membership the cupboards are always overflowing with "food for the kids." What kids she is referring to I still haven't figured out, but the overabundance of food is welcome in my book.


3. Mom always knows best... oh the doctor's bills we have prevented. Having my first baby brings a million questions and over reactions. I have her vast knowledge to counteract my over-protectiveness.

4. She is always willing to take some "MeMa" time with Suede and give Craig and I a chance to get out and still act young.

The lists of positives goes on and on... but Craig tells me blogs aren't supposed to be books, and that I should start on my homework....Good thing I have so many people ensuring I have good study habits.

We'll try to keep this updated as all of you know, we aren't the best at keeping you all connected on what's going on in this Sowby (Clawson actually) household.

FYI started my graduate program in Microbiology at VCU and loving it! Craig's being Mr. Mom and Suede is loving that!