Team Carstens

Halloween is right around the corner...

ok, so it's like 5 days away.  Do you know how hard it is to think up a costume for your kid?  And me, being the type A personality that I am, has to have her kid in a non-store bought costume.  A costume that (a) either no one else will be wearing or (b) at least no other kid in his class of 12 will be wearing. Thanks to Claire, he now has a homemade costume.  I bought a pattern off E-Bay and I also bought glasses to go with it, but the glasses were way to big for my kid's 10th percentile head.  I ended up finding ones at the dollar store - for, you guessed it, $1.00.  So what if they are +3.50 strength reading glasses.  That just means my kid will be walking around cross-eyed all night.  It's alright, I'll be there to hold his little hand and guide him from door to door.  This actually works out in my favor as he won't be able to see the candy I am taking + eating from his stash.  Come on, give me credit, I am not THAT bad. We took the lenses out.  I can't wait until Halloween to post pics of him in his costume.  I still have a few finishing touches to add before it's ready and I also have to make him a prop that goes along with his costume.  Big shout out to my friend, Brianne, for coming up with the idea.

What else can I report?  Oh, we are selling our house and it's officially on the market.  So, if you know anyone who wants to live in the Uptown area of New Orleans, within walking distance of Audubon Park and near Tulane University - tell them to email me.  I just might have the house for them.

And of course, I cannot end this post without adding some recent (last Thursday) photos I took of my little boy.

  

Every Thursday, when Fletcher is home from school, we listen to music and dance around the house. Here he is, raising the roof...

 

fletcher & mia

       

another day of sitting in the pool...

alesia and mia came over for bunch today.  we had waffles and mimosas.  mmm. then we went in the pool with the kiddos.  was a fun morning.  i meant to take some pics of fletcher and mia and completely forgot. bad me.

sex and the city movie.  tonight.  i can't wait!!!  there is also a party at the W Hotel, alesia + might go.  we'll see.

took this yesterday; fletcher really thought he was cutting the grass.  made the noise and everything.

saturday at the zoo

it looked like it was going to rain; it was damp + over-cast. the sun finally came out + it warmed up. we ended up taking fletcher to the zoo for about an hour.

fletcher on the carousel:

photos by: mary carstens, click on photo to enlarge:

fletcher's 1st boots -for sale

Well, we just got back from Park City, Utah. We had a fun ski trip. I feel like I need a vacation from that vacation; I am exhausted.

These are Fletcher's first pair of snow boots and they are for sale. They won't fit him the next time we see snow.

Fletcher wore these 1 time. As in 1 day. For about 1 hour. He hated the snow.

Basically, brand new.

LL Bean, size 5, will sell for $10 plus $3 shipping. Email me: mary@paperandinkstudio.com if interested. Will accept payment via PayPal only.

st. louis cathedral - french quarter

we took fletcher to christmas in jackson square 2 weeks ago. i took this pic from the moon walk. have some pics of fletcher - will post those later.

click on pic to enlarge:

o christmas tree!

we got our tree about a week and a half ago and i just decorated it last night. sad. we've been so busy that i couldn't even trim the tree.

here are pics from when we first put it up, no decorations on it. fletcher really loves the lights.

fletcher + daddy:

just another rainy day in new orleans

last week, it rained and many streets in new orleans flooded, including ours. 2 tulane students were walking past my house and one of the girls was carrying her dog because the dog was afraid of the water. i happened to be standing on my front porch with my camera and here's what i got:

here is a pic of fletcher playing with the toy airplane that aiden gave him for his b-day:

mia l. is 1 year old!

mia is the daughter of our friends, alesia + brian. we met alesia + brian last year; they were in our bradley class. mia is 3 weeks older than fletcher and they enjoy playing together while alesia + i shop, eat, talk, etc. works out swimmingly.

here is mia...

mia + fletcher...

mia...

flashback...hurricane katrina, part I

tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of hurricane katrina. as i am typing this, my heart is racing. just thinking about it...ugh. i remember so many different things. want to know something sad? the first thing that i think of when i think of the hurricane? it's not even the hurricane. it's not even the fact that we were trapped at memorial medical center for 4 days after the hurricane. yeah, the hospital where 35 bodies were found in the chapel. i so vividly remember 1 thing, first...a client of mine; i'll refer to her as client x.

background: her wedding was supposed to be at the very end of october 2005 in new orleans. on friday, august 26th, i shipped out her invitations via fedex and they were sent 2-day priority. this client lived in nyc. i think she was supposed to receive the package either on monday or tuesday (august 29th or 30th). i was supposed to be leaving on a 1 month trip to europe with my friend, celeste. i was supposed to fly out on august 24th and i cancelled my flight the day before because of this client. on sunday evening, andy, the dogs, the cat and i went to memorial medical center. andy worked there and was on the storm team. he was allowed to bring immediate family members (me) and our pets. this was pretty routine to us because it's where we always went for past hurricanes since he was on the storm team. i emailed client x to let her know the tracking # and also to let her know i might not be available via email or phone because of the storm. get an email back...stay safe, yada, yada, yada.

fast forward 5 days: we got "rescued" from the hospital via a flat bottomed boat by a father + son who came down from arkansas. we had to leave behind all of our belongings at the hospital save 1 bag and our pets. we had been standing, stranded on napoleon avenue for hours, hoping to "buy" our way to baton rouge with a bunch of other people and their pets because the national guard is telling us to throw our belongings on the street and to leave our pets on the street because we can't take them with us if we get on the national guard truck. that's not an option. we organize a group and come up with a thousand dollars to pay a guy with a stake truck (one of those flat-bed trucks with wooden sides). we finally get on the back of the truck with about 30 other people and their pets and we made our way down magazine street like it was a gauntlet. trees + debris, everywhere. it took us a long time but we finally made it into metairie and onto airline highway. this is when my blackberry started working. beep, beep, beep...about a thousand beeps. email + voicemail notifications. since no one was in a talkative mood, i decided to read my emails while we took that long journey to baton rouge.

mmmm...guess who i have about 50 emails from? yes...client x. the first email is dated august 29th...katrina day. she wanted to let me know that she hasn't received her invites from fedex.

email from later in the day...an update...still no invites and she's getting worried.

next day, tuesday...more emails from client x...where am i? why am i ignoring her emails?

she knows damn well where i am...stuck in a hospital in new orleans where we just had a major hurricane and flooding. where am i?

wed, august 31...more emails...now she's pissed. she wanted me to call fedex to find out why she hadn't received her package and she wanted me to call her right away. she reminded me that her wedding is on october XX, and that she has got to get her invites in the mail. (i had already stamped + addressed her invites and all she had to do was mail them). she is now getting worried because she wanted to ensure her invites went out 8 weeks before the wedding and now they aren't going to be going out until 7 weeks before the wedding. she's progressively getting upset and her emails are reflecting this. keep in mind: i am reading her emails all at the same time because it's now a few days after she sent all of them. and now i am progressively getting pissed.

we finally made it to baton rouge where my friend hadley and her hubby gregg, pick us up. we got back to their house, took showers and watched cnn. this is the first time we had seen tv in days. we had no idea what is going on. even while at the hospital, we didn't know the levees broke. all we knew is that we were surrounded by 10 feet of water and we didn't know how we were going to get out. we go to bed. the next day, i actually logged onto to fedex and tracked the stupid package.

of course, it never made it to nyc. the hurricane was coming, all packages were re-routed from memphis to houston and the package was still sitting in houston. i called client x. she's panicked about her invites. she wants to know why it took me so long to call her back. i have no patience for her, so i just say, "well you know, i've been busy." well, she starts in on me about the invites...she needs to send them out right away, blah, blah, blah. she wants me to call fedex to see what i can do. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

because i really have a lot of pull with fedex.

here's how i imagined, client x imagined, my non-conversation with fedex went:

me: "hi mr. fedex, it's mary in new orleans. yes, THAT mary. oh i know, what a storm, huh? can you believe all those people? the devastation...i know."

mr. fedex: "long time, no talk...what can we do for you, mary?"

me: "well, client x really needs to send out her wedding invitations and they are stuck in houston."

mr. fedex: "well, let's see if we can find them in this ginormious warehouse where we have about a million other packages piled up because every fedex package from the southeast region has been re-routed. can you hold for a few minutes while i walk into the warehouse and look for client x's package?"

me: "ya know, mr. fedex, i just don't have the heart to tell client x that THERE IS NO WAY HER WEDDING IS TAKING PLACE IN NEW ORLEANS and that she should forget about these invites and start focusing on planning her wedding elsewhere."

mr. fedex: "oh, mary. you're so funny. and so right. be right back."

music selections from client x's wedding is playing while i am on hold...

mr. fedex: "here we go...package addressed to client x in nyc. can you believe it was right on top of the first stack i looked in?"

me: "oh, mr. fedex! you saved the day. now i can go on with the rest of my life because i know nothing else matters now that client x will be receiving her invitations."

mr. fedex: chuckle, chuckle...

me: "mr. fedex, since i am such a big client of yours, can you personally fly these invitations up to nyc and hand deliver them to client x; i know nothing else will do..."

anyway...client x got her invitations about 2.5 weeks later. she moved her wedding to another state and she is living happily ever after in her little perfect world as i write...

tomorrow, i will be posting the story of what happened to us (andy, the pets + i) and also posting the pics that i took while at memorial medical center and the days that followed.

for sale - bouncer seat + baby swing

Fisher Price Nature's Touch Papasan Swing + Carter's Bouncy Seat

mary@paperandinkstudio.com  Email me with any questions, thanks! 

Click on pics to enlarge

baby items for sale!

Silver Spoon diaper bag - purchased at Little Laughter on Magazine.  Paid $60.00 with tax, will sell for $45.00  This bag is literally brand new...still with tags, still with packaging and still in the Little Laughter shopping bag.  Bag has 2 side pockets for bottles, a large inside, changing pad and an essentials zippered pouch.  Nothing has been used.