Specimen of the Day: Elly

Our second Specimen of the Day was unanimously voted as my cousin's daughter, Elly. Besides her just being pretty much the most darling little girl ever, we need to up the cute kid factor on our blog to attract more viewers. Since we don't have any of our own, we are featuring Elly. We just met her for the first time when they moved to Provo a month ago. Between babysitting her the other day and perusing her mother's blog, I now feel like I have known her for years (basically her whole life).

Name: Elly, Bubba, Bubby (she calls herself this), etc.
Age: About 18 months (That is 1.5 years for those of you who struggle to convert months to years)

Favorite person: Lacy, her mom

Favorite food: basically everything as far as I can tell- she's not picky

Favorite treat: chocolate milk, but only if it is in a bottle. She doesn't drink anything else out of a bottle. When they moved into their new apartment she saw the bottle and decided it was for chocolate milk.

Favorite activity: Changing her doll's/stuffed animal's diapers
Cutest thing said in our presence: "This is my strawberry shirt. It is so cute." OR After pretending Daniel was sick, she picked up my phone and said, "I will call the doctor. What is his name?" OR As we walked back to her room to change her diaper (she came voluntarily!) she turned to Daniel and said, "See you later, Daniel." Basically everything she says is cute because she is 1 1/2 and she talks really well.

Why she is awesome: She loves to sing/dance/pretend with her toys. For example, when we were babysitting she kept pretending her toy vacuum was broken. She would push it for a few seconds and then lay it down and inspect it until it was "fixed". But just check out some videos of her from Lacy's blog and you'll agree: singing ABC's here, singing Pattycake here, pretend eating here, and eating raisins here. Here is a video we took while babysitting her the other day. She gets distracted by the camera while singing ABC's and asks to see herself.



Lacy, hopefully you don't think we are too creepy, but we might just have to kidnap your daughter. Or at least borrow her sometimes. But maybe we shouldn't, because Daniel will think all kids are as awesome as Elly is.

GRACIAS

Thank you everyone!! Check out my loot:

• Carolyn Nielson the first sent an amazing, color-coordinated box full of gifts. Just as before, when she read my mind by sending the scented candle I had been searching for, Carolyn sent the perfect shade of nail polish I have been trying to find. On top of that she sent the newest Jack Johnson CD (awesome), tasty chocolate and cookies, cards I can maybe pass off as hand-made, and other things.
  
• The stunning fall flower arrangement was sent by my parents. We almost didn't answer the door when it was delivered because Saturdays are prime solicitor days in our complex.
  
• Courtney brought me my favorite Coldstone ice cream (impressed she remembered which one) and some gorgeous earrings. You know something is beautiful when Daniel says a couple hours later, "Seriously, those earrings are really nice."
  
• Daniel and I made a birthday trip to FYE and ended up getting 3 DVD's, a TV series, and 6 CD's.
  
• Other birthday loot not pictured: a bunch of phone calls from people I love, 2 whole blog posts, blog comments, and the most important: facebook wall comments.
  

And to Shaun, you were right, I only included the journal entry where I mentioned my birthday to make more people aware it was coming. Well, it worked. So there.

I am freaking old!! Oh, and Daniel wants me to tell you all we saw Obama in FYE.

On this day in 1993...

More word-for-word excerpts from my journal around this time in 1993:

1. September 19th, 1993- I'm so excited TOMORROW is MY BIRTHDAY. Meredith and Anthony didn't get me anything though. I don't think they care about my birthday. I think they are jealous that I get to go to CALIFORNIA and they don't. Well, for they're birthdays I won't get them anything either. So there MEREDITH and ANTHONY!!! Ha ha! See how they feel. NOOOOTTTTTTTT!!!!! Everybody I know cares about my birthday. But umm umm umm, oh yea, now I remember. I'll probably be too busy tommorow to write to you. See-ya big guy (as Anthony says).

2. October 20, 1993- Today is Sunday. I'm back from California. It was really fun. We went to Disney Land. You won't believe this but Grammie and Bobpa went too. It was the funnest thing of all. Casey and I went on Thunder Mountain three times! Two times alone and once with Grammie, Bobpa, and Ant Fran. We went on Space Mountain two times. Now that was the awesome ride. It was the best ride in Disney Land!!! I'm not kidding it is.

Just so you know, these excerpts are provided to up the comedy level of the blog. Feel free to laugh. I won't be offended. Well I will be if Meredith and Anthony laugh, because they don't care about my birthday. Never have, never will.

Specimen of the Day: Lexie

**In order to avoid having this blog become birthday shout out central, I am starting a new segment: Specimen of the Day. If you happen to be featured on Specimen of the Day on or around your birthday that is purely coincidental. **

Today's Specimen: Lexie, Lex, Lexicon, Lexican the Mexican, Lulu, etc.

Relation: amiga (Lexie will know what that means. We took a beginning Spanish night class from UVU together.)

Relationship history: We first met in November of 2001. We were both intimidated to meet the other.

Her favorite activity: gossiping with high schoolers

Her favorite person: either Nick or Felicity

Favorite memory involving said specimen: Making fun of our husbands on an awesome cruise vacation, dancing in the club sans husbands on said cruise vacation, staying up until the middle of the night talking about our future children's college GPA's, falling down while trying to take a shortcut on a hike that was no such thing, oh wait....and living in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, basement apartment with 2 married couples.


Best thing she has ever said: "idiots"

One of her best ideas: Putting lounge chairs in the kiddie pool

One of her favorite quotes: "Oh, he's anti-Christmas"

Why we love her and you should too: most. awesome. person. ever.

She's fake laughing here. She wanted everyone to look at pictures and remember how fun Meredith's bridal shower must have been.

Congratulations, Alexandra. You are Carly and Daniel's first Specimen of the Day!

A somewhat vapid post

What is white and navy and powder blue all over?

Any guesses?

No?


Our new bedding! It makes me actually want to make the bed. Sometimes. I am sure Daniel feels the same way.

Make New Friends, But Keep the Old

I must acknowledge the birthday of my oldest friends, Jennifer Ann and Julia Mar. It has been over 20 years since we first became friends. So you see, by oldest, I am referring to my longest lasting friendships.

Here are a few snapshots from over the years: (Please excuse the flashes in the middle of the photos. Due to my lack of an available scanner, I actually took pictures of pictures from my scrapbook. Very resourceful.)

My 5th birthday party. Since Julia and Jennifer are exactly one week older than me you can basically consider this their 5th birthday as well. Apparently wearing dresses with sneakers and high socks was all the rage in Belmont in 1989.

Our joint 17th birthday party. We went to see Mamma Mia! This is a whole page from my scrapbook; you can click to enlarge.

A collage of some pictures from our childhood I put together for their 16th birthday. Again, click on it to enlarge.


I love these two.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARK TWINS! I have so many memories of your birthdays from playing Huckle Buckle Beanstalk, to my awesome presents to you (cow mobile? painted block cut outs of your names (when Jen was in her Jenn phase)? pillsbury dough boy shirt?), to watching Lady in White at your sleepover party on Friday the 13th.
You are two amazing women. Thank you for staying a part of my life for all these years. Please enjoy your birthday tomorrow!

Firsts and a Last

We have had a few firsts recently:

1. First piece of art We picked up this beauty at the starving artist sale in Provo. It is actually quite large (34 X 26) and it was a great price (we are talking under $75). Let me know if you want to come with me the next time they have this sale!

2. First week at my first grown-up jobMy officeSee, it even has my name on itNot to mention an amazing view. Another first, I forgot to eat lunch yesterday. This is my office today covered in the paperwork, invoices, receipts, etc., that built up in the 3 months before I started. Yes, there is a bagel on one stack of papers. I was not going to forget lunch again.

3. First zucchini cake
As Daniel mentioned, we got fresh vegetables from my grandma's garden last weekend. One of these was a zucchini. I tried out Grandma's recipe for zucchini cake and it was delicious! Too bad I don't have a picture of that; what I DO have a picture of is another tasty dessert I made recently. That, my friends, is an ice cream sandwich cake. No cooking required. You layer ice cream sandwiches with cool whip and your candy bar of choice between each layer. I use Heath Bar; I think it retains it's crunch and taste the best when frozen. The trickiest part of this delicious treat is getting the temperature of the cool whip right. It must be spreadable, but retain its shape and keep the structure strong.

4. First plantar fascia injuryDaniel injured it playing basketball. Too bad it was one day after my dad, the podiatrist, went back home. Don't worry, he is recovering nicely. At least we have health insurance now! Let's hear it for being able to go to the doctor if we need to! (I haven't been to a dentist in 3 years!)

And a last:

A good-bye to Jared. He has been a roommate, groomsman, and a good friend. Jared has been there from the start of it all; he was present the first time we met, over 5 1/2 years ago. Jared is moving on to bigger and better things in the hometown of another good friend of ours, Rice-a-roni. We had a farewell dinner with him last week at Red Robin. Good-bye Jared! Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair! I hope you meet gentle people there.

Labor Day!!!...Followed by a Boring Post

Oh Labor day. A day to rest from our labors. I would like to thank the Central Labor Union of New York for convincing Congress in 1894 to give everyone the first Monday in September off. So in other words, a tip of the cap to the Central Labor Union.

This last weekend was a fun time. Carly's dad Doug came out for Jaqueline's (Carly's cousin) wedding up in Salt Lake. We stayed Thursday night up in the bustling city of Malad, Idaho to hang out with Carly's Grandma John. Malad is always fun considering we eat amazing food and help out around the house. Doug and I may open a tree trimming business as we honed our skills on a crab apple tree. Carly and Alicia (Carly's sister) picked enough fresh vegetables from the garden to last us a month.

On Saturday Doug and I hooped it up in the morning and Carly and Alicia went to some art sale where Carly got an awesome painting for 60 bucks (we must have really needed it). It is pretty big too. After that we went to the football game which was fun except for the ridiculously hot first half, but overall it was fun with the mighty cougars coming out on top. After the game we went and ate at this little burger place in downtown Provo called Sammy's I think, but I would recommend it for the good food and quirky crowd. Sunday was pretty laid back, we had dinner with Steven and Meredith who just got back from Hawaii and then went up to family gathering in Salt Lake.

Anyway as the weekend comes to a close we are getting ready for another school year, only this time neither of us are in school. Instead we are working at them. Carly seems excited to start work tomorrow. I guess that she is excited since she has already laid out her first day clothes and packed her sweet new Toy Story lunch box (those of you that really know Carly will get that reference). Ok so she hasn't really done that, but I wouldn't put it past her to do it later. Well I figure I have bored anyone who has read this far, so if you are still reading give yourself a pat on the back and if you quit a while back then you were smart.

One last thing, we want to give a shout out to Doug for hanging out with us all weekend. It is always a fun time when Doug is around.