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!