Buzzing

While coloring at the kitchen table this morning....

Amaya: "Mom, my feets are buzzing."
Me: "I think your feet fell asleep."
Amaya: "But I'm awake! Wake up feet!"

6th Wedding Anniversary

Six years ago yesterday morning, I woke up a Gustafson and went to bed a Gatzke. How did those six years fly by so quickly?!? Looking back, it's hard to imagine life without Steve... and I'm so thankful for every day that God has given me with him by my side.

We spent the entire day celebrating our six years of marriage. After sleeping in (anything past 5:30am is considered sleeping in for us), the three of us went to three church/fundraising garage sales. We hit the two church sales during the "Bag Sale" (one dollar for everything you can fit in a bag) and we came home with a lot of loot! All three of us enjoying digging around for treasures and you just never know what you can find! We picked up a quick bite to eat at McDonald's and then dropped Amaya off at my parents for the rest of the day/evening. (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!) We caught a matinee at a local movie theater called, "The Lincoln Lawyer" with Matthew McConaughey and both enjoyed it! The movie is based on a best selling novel and since we liked the movie so much, we went to a used paperback store to see if we could pick up the book and they had it! Steve also found a few Stuart Woods books to add to his collection. Then we went to Kohl's to use a 10 dollar gift card that Steve's mom got in the mail and gave to me (THANK YOU RUTH ANN!) and I picked up a cute ring originally 22 dollars and paid only $3.92. Who doesn't love a good bargain?!? By this time, we were getting hungry and decided to go to Whiskey Creek. I love their barbecued ribs and even better, I had a coupon for 5 dollars off! We shared an appetizer of bacon wrapped shrimp - so yummy! Steve ordered a bacon wrapped fillet mignon with mushrooms in a chardonnay sauce with grilled vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes. I had their signature barbecued baby back ribs, coleslaw, and garlic mashed potatoes. We left very satisfied and very full and decided to burn off a few calories by walking out at the mall. We picked up Amaya from my parents and after her busy day and refusing to take a nap, she CRASHED as soon as she was tucked into bed. Overall, a fantastic date night!

My Newest Obsession

I love reading blogs... but even more so, I love reading blogs that have amazing recipes and step by step pictures. I'm not even sure how I came across this blog - probably from a blog of a blog of a blog - but regardless - my new obsession is "The Picky Palate" Blog. http://picky-palate.com/ Every recipe looks so delicious and quite possibly something that our whole family would enjoy. Amaya is a little pickier than I would like her to be, although to give her a little credit... she has learned to like pineapple, cantaloupe, lima beans, and clams! Anyway, I love this blog because the recipes look incredible, easy, and kid-friendly. And have you looked at the pictures - they are BEAUTIFUL!! I love the step-by-step directions in pictures! (I'm a very visual learner, so cook-books that don't include pictures are not my thing.) Better yet, each recipe is her own creation! That amazes me! Sure, I take liberty and tweak various recipes, but to come up with something on my own - amazing! Check it out! I'm sure you'll find something to eat for dinner tonight!

Missing Steve....

Steve's not the only one counting down the days until grad school is completed - I've got a countdown going as well! It's grad school night tonight... which means that I say good-bye to Steve in the morning and won't see him again until the next morning (unless of course he manages to wake this heavy sleeper up.) It's just a REALLY long day, probably more so for Steve than for me, considering the drive up to the cities. Fortunately, Amaya and I have an invitation to go to my parents tonight for supper after work and we'll probably stick around to watch the American Idol results. And after tonight, Steve only has two more classes left!!! YAHOO!!!

Acceptance into the Doctoral Program

Mid-March, Steve had an interview with the program director at St. Mary's University for entrance into the doctoral program for psychology and.... HE GOT IN!!! There was a small catch that both Steve and I weren't expecting or planning. The program is 5 years long - 4 years of coursework two days a week year-round with multiple internships and the fifth year is a full-time paid internship. When Steve and I had originally discussed the program, we thought that the worse case scenario would have him commuting to the Cities every day for his internship. During Steve's interview, the program director wanted to be sensitive to the needs of our family and explained that the internship was based on a national match system - similar to medical students - and that there was no guarantee that his internship would be located in Minnesota. For the match system, the student chooses three internships and each internship chooses three applicants and hopefully you "match". If not, try again next year and in the meantime, you would need to start paying off the tens of thousands of dollars invested. Grrr.... After a little more research, Steve found three approved internship sites in Minnesota - one in Rochester at the Federal Medical Center (and he is too old to qualify) - one in the cities, and one in Duluth. Of note, there are no internships in Iowa. Plus, there are over 4,000 doctoral students and only 3,200 internship slots. Pretty much every scenario that we looked at would require a move from Rochester and nearly every scenario made me sick to my stomach. Since both of us grew up in Rochester and most of our family is here, we couldn't even fathom what life would be like somewhere else. Especially this last year, we've relied heavily on our family to help us and we're relied upon as well. Just this week, Steve's grandma fell and she was found to have a hairline fracture in her ankle and needed help getting home from the ER. Tonight, we're going over there to do her laundry and deliver some banana bread. I just can't imagine not being able to help in some way. Anyway, after a lot of thought and prayer, Steve has decided to turn St. Mary's down. While we're grieving the loss of a dream of his (he's the first person in his family to have a Master's Degree and he wanted to be the first with a Doctorate) he's relieved that after 6 years of coursework, graduation is in sight! And I couldn't be more proud of all that he's accomplished!

Another Swimming Class Completed

Once again, Amaya has successfully completed another Community Education Water Readiness Class. Her class consisted of 3-5 year olds, and she was by far one of the youngest. She did an amazing job and is getting more and more confident in the water.

She's picking up a lot more skills and I think it helped being in the water with bigger kids to serve as role models.

Amaya is pretty excited about getting another ribbon!

A close up of her ribbon.

Date Night

After church last night, Steve and I dropped Amaya off at her Grandma and Grandpa Horning's house so that Steve and I could spend some quiet time together. Trying to carve out time for just the two of us is a little challenging especially on a tight budget, but has become a high priority for us this year.

We headed over to Starbucks since we had a couple of gift cards. In hindsight, I should have ordered a little differently since my highly caffeinated grande coffee kept me up until the wee morning hours. Then, we headed out to the mall to walk and window-shop. I refrained from going into any kids clothing stores despite the great sale at Gymborree! We finished up the night at Barnes and Noble browsing through the books and magazines. It was a quiet, relaxing, and FREE night and we both had fun reconnecting after a busy week. We're hoping to make this a weekly event and even better, Amaya gets to have the time of her life with her grandparents!

North Park Gospel Choir Concert

Last night, we had the opportunity to attend the North Park University Gospel Choir and Jazz Ensemble at my parent's church. I was in the Gospel Choir while I attended school at NPU, so I was very excited to see how it had changed and grown. I was a little disappointed that my old choir director wasn't there, but I shouldn't have been surprised since it's been nearly 11 years!

Amaya enjoyed the Jazz Ensemble and "rocked out" quite a bit! Most likely, she's got the music gene in her blood! We were impressed by the enthusiasm of all of those involved and the skill level of those young college students. During the concert, I felt like I was back in the soprano section those 11 years ago worshiping and praising God. Being a part of the Gospel Choir was one of my favorite things about North Park and I was so blessed by the concert last night!

Catching Up

Hmmm... over a month and a half... how does one even catch up? In all honesty, I've procrastinated and put off our blog for two reasons: 1) I haven't had time and 2) the time that I do have, I want to spend with Steve and Amaya. Unfortunately though, I still want to keep up with all of our family activities and Amaya's accomplishments so that our memories are recorded somewhere and this tends to be the easiest place. I plan on posting most of our pictures between Amaya's birthday and now, but I'll probably back-date them so that they are all in order, but in the meantime... here's the Cliff Notes version of the past month and a half...

*Steve continues to plug away at his internship and is still finding it very rewarding.
*Steve has applied for graduation from his master's program on May 21st! (I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of Steve!)
*Steve has an interview scheduled this month for entrance into a DOCTORATE program at St. Mary's University.
*Steve's health continues to remain stable and surgery is tentatively scheduled soon after graduation.

*Amaya finished another round of swimming lessons through Community Education and we saw a huge improvement with her skills.
*Amaya started an 8 week Introduction to Dance class also through Community Education. She LOVES to dance and LOVES her ballet shoes! When asked, she can show you how to do "first position."
*Amaya continues to thrive in preschool and from her conferences with her teacher this week, she has increased her confidence level and is participating more in class!
*Amaya is registered for preschool next year, the only differences will be a new teacher and she'll go 2 days a week.
*Amaya is once again cavity free and did an AMAZING job at the dentist this week!
*Amaya can successfully crack eggs without any egg shells in the cookie dough batter.
*Amaya is my "sous chef" in the kitchen - I've lost track of how many batches of cookies we've made and frosted.
*Amaya is learning to rhyme words and is just now beginning to write letters. "A" and "H" are the first letters she's learned.

*I continue to enjoy my job in Allergy. Although, it's been a difficult transition from being the "expert" in Dermatology to the "novice" in Allergy.
*I've picked up 4 extra shifts every month since December and while I am thankful for the additional income, I'll be glad to get back to my regular "part-time" schedule soon.
*I started a "Read through the Bible in a Year" program and have managed to keep up.
*I've volunteered in Amaya's preschool class which was an absolute treat to interact with her friends and classmates.
*I've been asked by several co-workers to begin a blog focusing on "Living on Less" and while it's exciting to think about and would help so many others in this economy, I'm not sure that I have the time, the effort, or the resources to give 100% to this project.
*I still in a constant struggle to find "balance" between being a working mom and wife, but I'm enjoying every "hat" I wear.

Happy Valentine's Day!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I love Valentine's Day - especially when I get flowers delivered at work from a certain special husband of mine! For Valentine's Day, my parents offered to watch Amaya while Steve and I had a date night. We went to a new Italian restaurant in town and it was scrumptious! We enjoyed it so much that it's now one of our favorite restaurants. For an appetizer, we had Risotto Fritters with smoked mozzarella and a creamy tomato artichoke sauce. I also had the most amazing Caesar salad ever! Steve had the Veal Marsala with cream sauce and mushrooms served over garlic fettucine. There were so many options and I had a hard time narrowing it down, but finally decided on the Chicken Milanese - a panko crusted chicken breast served with a lemon and white wine butter sauce served over garlic fettucine. For dessert, we ordered the Pazzo AmoreTorte - a flourless chocolate torte with espresso whipped cream and raspberry puree and a cup of coffee. AMAZING! Afterwards, we went to see the movie, "No Strings Attached" starring Ashton Kutcher. When we picked up Amaya, she didn't really even seem to miss us because she had just as much fun!

At Amaya's preschool, each student was encouraged to share Valentine's cards. Here she is with all her loot!

We gave Amaya this Tinkerbell card...

...a few books...

... and CANDY CORN!

I gave Steve a gift card to Subway (his favorite fast food place) and a box of NERDS.

Hope everyone had a special day sharing it with the one you love!