Back to school AGAIN!!!

So, I am very excited to announce that I will be going back to school again this fall!!!!  I could do a dance, I really could!  I have a passion, and it's called learning.  I have another passion, and that is called sewing and creating things with my hands.... I have decided to mix the two.
On August 25, I shall begin my travels into the world of Fashion Design.  Am I excited?  Oh yes!!! Am i a wee bit nervous, mm..... ok maybe a little.   Am I happy to have something just for me and me only?  HELL YES!!!!!
I think this will be good in so many ways!  Calvin will be tended by a good friend with a little boy about his age.  He will have a little buddy, and start socializing outside of our home!  Yay for a socially skilled child!  The time to myself working on something I am excited about, and Calvin having friends and not spending all his time with me, will make me a more patient mum I think.... I hope!
Hopefully, this will put me back into the game with my baby clothing line as well.  I have had to shut down my etsy shop, and put a halt to the clothes making for a while due to some seriously un- thought out laws regarding testing.  So now hopefully this will help me be a bit more creative and help me think of some alternative patterns and ways of making things so we can bypass that messy part.
And how fun to learn advanced pattern making, costume making, bridal dresses, corsets, shoes, tailoring and so on?  Who wouldn't love to know how to do all that.
I have always been self taught, and while that has gotten me quite far with some things, I am ready to go further.  Wish me luck!!

Sweet Addiction

  So I have a little addiction... It involves my son.

  First I need to give a little background so you can understand.  When Calvin was born we had a bit of a rough beginning.  It lasted about 4 months.  Instead of getting to snuggle my baby to sleep, and have him snuggle into my chest and neck; I had to place him in bed crying after trying everything i could to pacify him.

  I never got to "enjoy" the newborn stage because my newborn was sick and hurting.  When we finally got a diagnosis for him, and he could enjoy a day without pain, I found I had a whole new person to meet.  He was so happy and social!  I realized i had a VERY snuggely baby.   On that day an addiction was born.  I wanted every snuggle I could get.  Every love, every baby caress of my face was satisfaction to the extreme.  

  This week may have made my #1 of top 10.  My baby has learned how to kiss.  If you could see my face right now you would see how I can't take the smile off my face, or the emotion out of my eyes. 

  Every night I play a kissing game with Calvin when i put him to bed.  I sing to him and rock him while he pets my face and feels how my lips make the words to the song.  I then kiss each little finger individually, the palm of his hand, up his little arm and to his eyes, nose and mouth.  He gently giggles and coo's at me the whole time.  And when I stop he makes little grunts at me until I do it again.  This goes for a little while until he snuggles in deeper to my chest, grabs my shirt collar to start rubbing, puts his face in my neck and falls asleep with contented little sighs.

  This is when I hold him as tight and close as I can, and think to myself how I just cannot ever get enough of him.  And then last night as I was changing his diaper, he started practicing with his lips how to kiss and make the sound.  I asked him to give mama a kiss and he promptly opened his mouth slightly and put it against my cheek.  I think my heart almost burst.

  It is hard for me to be around newborns right now.  I get really emotional and think back to Calvin and I, and feel like I really missed out on something.  My brother just had a baby.  Only 6 ounces bigger than Calvin was.  I went to visit at the hospital and he is so beautiful, and CALM.  I think to myself how much everyone will love to be around him, and will want to hold him.  And I hope they know how lucky they are.

    People only wanted to hold Calvin when he wasn't crying, which wasn't often.  I had members of my own family say they didn't want any more kids because they didn't want to get one like mine. And they would get bugged and ask if he ever shut up.  When he was awake and happy, he was usually vomiting every few minutes and the look of disgust and the comments about the smells tore at my heart.  So you can see why it's a bit painful to look back at the last 6 months.

  But then there are nights like tonight, and last night.... Nights when I think to myself that in a way I am grateful we went through what we did, because now the ABSOLUTE JOY that I feel is such contrast to the grief and exhaustion of before.  Is it weird to say that I almost think it is one of those tender mercies of god?  That he can show me such an extreme one way so that when I have the other, or even just the norm, that I can appreciate it so fully?  

 I never thought I would say it but I am so GRATEFUL for what Calvin and I went through.  I think it's safe to say that we BOTH take every day one at a time, and enjoy every moment therein, grateful for each good pain free moment.  He is my addiction and I'm pretty sure that at least some of the time, I am his.

I love my Job.  I love making people feel beautiful on a daily basis.  Talk about instant gratification! I have recently felt a lot of growth in myself as far as business is concerned.  For those who don't know, myself and 4 other lovely ladies from my former salon have branched out and started our own place, bri-o salon and spa.  This undertaking has been both informative, and eye opening.  As a co-owner, I have much more say in the business side of my life than I ever have before.  It's liberating, and freeing, and exciting, and grounding.....and complicated.

Starting a new business is an Adventure to say the least!  But in spite of all the learning curves, and communication issues, I have loved my personal freedom.  I love carrying the products that I feel will best meet my clients' needs.  I love that my client is a person and not a number.  I love picking out purses and other boutique items that I know people are going to go gaga over.  I love watching someone go gaga and feeling like I have good taste in the things i choose to sell.  I love the friendships that I have made over the years with some truly lovely people.  I really love listening to their stories and getting to share in a wee bit of their hopes and dreams, loves and losses, life.  Here is to all of those "lovelies" that make it possible to be working my dream job, and feeling so fulfilled on a daily basis!

A New Start

So.....Another attempt at this blogging....I started this so long ago that I forgot my blog address.  I am now wondering why I picked such a name as Cimisifugu...?  I have not a clue.

In a way I am excited about this adventure.  Mainly because I now feel I have something to blog about.  I am feeling a bit daunted though after reading some of my dear friends blogs.  They are all so witty, thoughtful, talented, and imaginative that I kind of feel like I don't belong.  

Back to my reason for blogging:

 Meet Calvin Wesley Turner.   The newest love of my life.  He is the best thing I ever did, even if he does at times look like an 80 year old man, and at times like my 57 year old Dad.  I am introducing you to my heart.  Be gentle with it :)

 

Here is the man who started it all.  I like to call him "J"

          

The two of us met, fell in love, and made something beautiful.  Here is the progression of our on-going work of art.

At 10 days.

3-4 weeks.

At 6 Weeks.

2 and a half months.

3 and a half months, and 5 months.

 6 months

Today.

He's pretty amazing huh?  He is as fun as he is cute.  How so much personality can fit in one tiny person I don't know, but I love it.   His best friend is a bear, and his favorite pastime is jumping.  He loves wearing his "shades", and watching his fish swim in the Tank.

He is my life.

Procrastination must be my middle name

Ok, so let's just start by being honest and admitting that i am Horrible at doing this blog thing! I haven't written in over a year i think! So the last i wrote, i was just starting school, and dating the man of my dreams! Well I am now MARRIED to the man of my dreams, and doing awesome! I'm going to try this picture thing and see if it works, so you can all finally see what i've been blabbing about. I don't have the temple pictures back yet but i do have a few of the ring ceremoney and the day of the reception.

We were married on August 1, 2007 in the Timpanogas Temple. Marriage has certianly been an Adventure. Our engagement was crazy and and hard. We had a lot of opposition from some, and a little too much excitement from others. I had so many people ask me if being engaged was the happiest time of my life, and let me just say, ABSOLUTELY NOT! Infact i would say it was the worst time of my life and it didn't get good until the actuall day of the wedding. That day was the most calm i've ever had in my life, and by that point i was so grateful for the peace of the temple i can't even put it into words!

Now i know some people will want to see some more pictures so for that i would send you to our digital portfolio at www.annalisaphotography.net/j&salbum As for the seven months since the wedding, that has been an adjustment too. We went on our honeymoon to Coronado Island in San Diego for 4 nights and 3 day's. We were then back for two days, both of which we spent tiling a bathroom for 12 hours a day, and then we left on his family vacation. Yep not even married a week, and in a 12 seater van driving to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore and sharing hotel rooms with siblings the majority of the time. But that's not all my friends! We then got back on a saturday night, (a week and a half later), and school started for JC on Monday. He had classes till 8 or 9 o'clock three nights a week, and i had to work till at least that late the other nights. So we'd come home at 9, eat dinner, and go to bed. CRAZY!!!

Needless to say, we cherished the time we had together, and being very self-entertained to boot, it took us a while to get out of our cacoon. This semester is going much better. J isn't taking quite so many credits, and i've re-arranged my work scheduale so that we can be home together as much as possible. JC is also working a little this semester, and i'm not working quite as much. The plan was for me to go back to school but i couldn't get the grants i needed so that is on hold for a while. I am now volunteering with a 1st grade class for a few hours, a couple days a week, teaching them reading and computers. So that's it for now!! I really will try to keep up better with the blogging!

Happiness has more than one face

So i thought that since it had been so long since i first posted that I'd write a little bit about what's been going on with me.
I am in love!!!! I haven't learned how to post pictures yet but as soon as i do i will put some of them on here. His name is James Clark Turner and he goes by J.C. We have been dating almost 5 months and it's been so fun! He is an amazing person and i don't know how i got so lucky.
It's been an amazing and crazy experience all in one, and i won't lie when i say that maybe it's been harder than i thought too. I've dated alot of other guy's but none that I've ever felt so strongly about, had so much fun with, or gotten so close to. And maybe that's the hard part...getting close. I am a naturally closed and Private person by nature, very independent, and this having to rely on someone else and let them in is throwing me for a loop. So the trial for me has been deciding if it's worth it or not, and then just letting it happen. He is a saint for putting up with me. Seriously, i have had panic attacks with this one.
I have also recently started college!! Yes, at the age of 23 I'm finally getting there! I have been doing hair for the last 5 years and while I love it, my brain is ready for something different. I love school!!! Yes i am crazy, but i do. I love wallowing in complexity about subjects that hit me deep. I love arguing different sides and maybe ending up with an opinion that i hadn't originally started out with. I love thinking so hard about things that my head hurts, and finally, i love the feeling that I'm growing and being shaped into something new and better!

The 7's

Books I Love
1.Tuesday's with Morrie
2.Goodnight Mr.Tom
3.The 5 Languages of Love
4.In His Arms
5.The Achlemist
6.The Far Pavilions
7.Confessions of a Fat Girl

Things I say Often
1.I may or may not have
2.p.s.
3.Toodles
4.olah
5.Exquisite
6.Does that make sense?
7.

My Favorite Movies
1.Better Off Dead
2.Memoirs of Geisha
3.How to lose a guy in 10 days
4.Benny and June
5.What's eating Gilbert Grape
6.Hope Floats
7.Garden State

Things That Make Me Laugh
1.Funny words
2.Myself
3.Rasberries/zerbers
4.Babies
5.Calvin and Hobbes
6.Elizabeth Peters
7.Being Tickled

7 things i want to do before i die
1.Save a life
2.Travel to all 7 continents
3.Go on a Mission
4.Adopt a child
5.Do humanitarian work In Africa
6.Learn to tap dance
7.Learn how to play an instrument

7 Things that Attract Me to Someone
1.Smiles
2.How they treat others
3.Spirituality
4.Eyes
5.Sense of Humor
6.How they treat me
7.If they want to make me a better person