Max's costume

Well, the countdown has ended for a 6 year old. He's very excited about Halloween and getting to wear his costume that he designed. Kindergarteners get to wear their costumes to school so this is the photo I took of him this morning before he left.

Today is a very busy day. I have Sam's school Halloween party from 9:30-11:30 off school campus at a senior adult's facility which their class has teamed up with. Then, I have to help at Max's party from 1:00-2:00. Then, I have to be back at school at 3:00 for Max's parent/teacher conference! And, of course, tonight is trick-or-treating. Today is also my mom's birthday.... Happy Birthday mom!... but we are going over to celebrate with her tomorrow.

Halloween creeping up

Well, I have finished my boys Halloween costumes. They each designed their own costumes. They drew their ideas out, told me colors, etc... and I set to work. They are both insect alien creatures. Sam had a Halloween party this evening so he got to put his on and I snapped a couple of pictures. Here he is! Those are sorta' shark fin things on his arms and there is a large fin on his back. He wanted his candy bag to have a volcano on it, which it does, but he turned it a bit in the photo so it's not so noticable. I'll get better photos on Halloween. Max's costume is the same color but he got a little more detailed with his. He's VERY particular with his designs of anything and completely inflexible unlike Sam who is reasonable! I'll post both boys costumes with them together on Wednesday.

It has been a busy day with Max having a birthday party to attend this morning and Sam's Halloween party this evening. I stayed for both parties and am now officially pooped. I'm heading for bed!

p.s.

That single little girl at Max's party who can really hold her own with all those boys, is Emma whom I'm really hoping will be my daughter-in-law some day! Isn't she just the cutest thing? And what a sweetheart. I just love her. She and Max are big buddies and she's the only girl "friend" that Sam will even claim and he treats her like royalty. I'm crossing my fingers and toes for a "happy ever after" with one of my boys! :)

Survival mode

I am gasping for air after this past week but especially this weekend. My boys have been home on fall break, which throws me for a loop. My schedule gets all out of whack, I get no time alone, no art time, and I play referee to all the bickering and fighting and tell them to be quiet at least a thousand times a day. It's been exhausting. As the weekend crept closer, it got crazier. Max was having his 6th birthday party this weekend so there were things to get for the party, the goody bags, etc... AND, there was the delivery of the new dishwasher, scrubbing down the house before the party, grocery shopping, cleaning up the back yard since that's where the party was, baking a cake, getting everything out for the party and ready, and also gift shopping for the birthday party Max was invited to just an hour after his own party ended! All that on top of regular life stuff. I can't tell you how tired I've been. My head feels foggy and my body just wants to sit. Sitting is something I've done very little of lately.

Max's party was fun for the kids but I almost ripped out all my hair. It was planned to be a party of building box forts in the back yard. The kids had a great time playing with all the boxes but our swing set hasn't seen so much action in many, many months! Put 7 boys and one girl (the other girls invited couldn't come) all together and let them loose in the yard and they were like wild banchees I tell ya'! I have decided that this is the last of the major birthday parties at home. I just can't take the craziness. Doesn't a few friends at a movie sound nice? Nice and quiet! :) Anyway, Max had his Darth Vader pinata so that made him happy... and he got his coveted lifesabers so he's ready to take on the dark side of the force... or maybe not... he likes the dark side! LOL! Oh, and once again, Max had to direct every part of the cake making from the shape, kind, frosting design, etc... so here are a couple of pictures:




Max's party went from 10-1 and then we had to be at the other party from 2:30-4:30. After spending the whole day outside with way too many kids and tons of noise, I am 100% chicken fried. Today I have felt like a zombie and had a major melt down in tears. Now my eyes are still hurting and I'm totally ready for bed.

Unfortunately, next Saturday doesn't look much better as there is another birthday party in the morning and a Halloween party that evening with the school's fall festival in between! YIKES! Calgon can't take me far enough away.....

Tomorrow is Max's official real birthday so I'll be meeting him with McDonald's for lunch. Then, Chuck has the job of taking him shopping with his birthday money which he's thrilled over! He has big plans... but I think Chuck is actually going to take him to the bank and have him open a savings account to put some of the money in so we can start teaching them more about saving. Max just asked about getting a real savings account at the bank a few days ago so I think he may go for it. He's not the spender by nature like Sam is. Max gives more thought to spending his money. Sam can't stand having it and will spend it on anything. He needs the savings account worse than Max!

OK, I'm heading to bed to read a little. I'm reading a book called "The life of Pi". I just started it but it's good so far.

Reworked, finished, and for sale!

I have reworked my iris painting on Yupo and it is now declared finished. I have just listed it in my Etsy store should anyone be interested in owning this piece! My Etsy address is: http://Artvisionz.etsy.com

Breakfast Art

First of all, thanks to everyone for all the sympathatic comments on my book post as well as encouraging words. I'm getting over it...

Yesterday morning, Max asked for his breakfast and then gave instructions to make it look like a face on his plate. OK, so here we go... 2 poached eggs, sausage, and an english muffin!



I watched "Surf's up" with the boys yesterday. It was a cute movie. Then, Chuck ended up going out for a bit so I watched a movie myself, which is way overdue from Blockbuster and has to go back TODAY! It's called "The Ultimate Gift". I really, really enjoyed this movie and recommend it for those of you looking for a good flick.

We have finally made it through all the Star Wars movies too... I even watched some of the special edition bonus material on the making of Episode 3 and wow, is that fascinating! I was very impressed with George Lucas and he won a soft spot in my heart when I saw that amongst all the amazing technology in making this movie, he writes long hand on notebook paper! Amazing! Did you guys know that it took over 2 years to make that movie and over 900 people worked on it? YIKES!

OK, gotta' go get some coffee made.

I've done something so stupid...

OK, I'm just sick about this. Here's the story.... About 5 years or so ago, I purchased an old book in a thrift store for less than a dollar... probably a quarter, because I loved the paper in the book. I could tell the book was hand sewn and the paper used was heavier, more like watercolor paper, and even had hand torn deckled edges. My plan was to gesso pages and alter the book using it as a journal or something. It is in excellent condition considering especially that it was made in 1926. So, the title, I thought, was totally boring: The Spirit of the Union League Club. This book is about the history of the Union League Club of Chicago. It is still in full swing today and is quite a place, which is what I found out just this morning.... too late. Why, of all days, did I pull this book out and not even look through it before I started putting gesso on the pages, I don't know. In fact, I've never really even read through any of the book before. The title just sounded boring and I took it as that. Well, after I'd gessoed several pages, I started wondering what exactly is this club anyway. So, I take a short break and start looking things up on Google. Then, I started trying to track down info about the book. Only then, do I discover on the last page of the book this:
This book is number 1459 of a limited edition, being the property of Reuben A. Joy (name is hand written) presented to him at the opening of the new Union League Club House, May Twenty-first, Nineteen Hundred Twenty-six. (signed) W.J. Jackson, president. OK, so now I'm starting to squirm wondering what have I just done? Well, come to find out, what I have just done, is put gesso on several pages of a book worth $300.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now someone please just throw up for me.

Major lesson learned.... NEVER begin altering a vintage book until you find out more about it!

I'm so excited!!!

In January, my dishwasher broke. I dragged my feet for a while about calling the repairman. Finally I did and then cancelled it the day before they were to come because Chuck heard on the news that some of the models were recalled and we thought ours was from the year that were included in the recall. Then, we found out we barely missed the recall and well, we just never called anyone back. Chuck wanted to just buy a new one and I felt we needed to get it repaired to save money. Well, today we had a lunch date that happened to be right near the Maytag appliance store. We stopped in and then told them our dishwasher was about 8 years old and the motor had completely burnt out on it and we needed to see what the cost was for a service call. Apparently, because we have really hard water here in the valley, it is very hard on dishwashers and were told that they only last about 8-10 years on the average here. So, instead of a repair job, we picked out a new dishwasher and it will be delivered next Friday! I'm jumping up and down I tell ya'! I'll save so much time and back ache not leaning over a sink so much!

Speaking of my back, I finally went to the Dr. about my back pain as well as hip pain and headaches. He has ordered x-rays, diagnosed my hip pain as Bursitis and has prescribed a new anti-inflammatory to try. We'll see...

More desert photos

Here are some more photos from my prayer garden visit on Wednesday. These are just a few of my favorites.

Prayer Garden

I finally got to spend some time at the prayer garden yesterday after my plan was thwarted Monday with Sam's illness. I went with no watch and ended up being there for over 3 hours! I took lots of pictures, of course, but will have to post later as I'm running behind schedule this morning!

Losing a tooth

Well Sam, now age 8, just finally pulled out his first top tooth last night. It's been loose for a while but he's a big chicken and wouldn't pull it. Well, last night, I accidentally bumped his mouth and it knocked it even looser. He went to the bathroom and worked on it a while. Here's what I found when I checked on him:


He seems to always wait to pull a tooth when the new tooth is already coming in. Thankfully, this top was is just beginning to come it but gosh, doesn't he look funny? Doesn't he have the prettiest eyes though? They are not mine so I can brag! LOL! Max has my eye color.


I finally, finally, finally have made myself a Doctor's appt. for today to have my back checked. I truly don't remember not having back pain but it's just gotten worse so I have an appt. this morning. Then, Fran and I are going to meet up for lunch! Oh happy day!!!!

Where does the time go?

I have to get better about posting more regularly. I don't know where the time goes in between posts!

I, once again, have a sick kiddo. Sam came home from school Friday running fever and had a headache. Yesterday early evening, then he started complaining about a sore throat and when I looked at it, sure enough, it's gonna' show up strep. My pediatrician's office opens today for 4 hours so I"ll be on the phone at 8:00 to get him in. He will have to miss school tomorrow because we won't make it on time for having him on antibiotics and fever free for 24 hours. This really blows my plans out of the water. The boys were going to have a play date with friends tomorrow after school giving me the ENTIRE DAY to myself! From 7:30-5:00! Well, that's not happening so I better pipe down. :( I had planned a couple of hours at a prayer garden alone and then I'd go to church and set up for my women's Bible study class for Tuesday, and then have my own art date at home. Booohooooooo! I'm so bummed this won't happen now! I'll still have to go set up for my class so I'll have to leave Sam with Chuck. I need to call my girlfriend and change the play date too.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day on the couch with another sinus headache. These are getting ridiculous. And the stuff I have to take to get rid of it makes me feel awful! I just couldn't function. Trying to walk I was bumping into walls. I feel better today, thank God!

I've had very little art time lately and it's getting to me. I am, however, back to working on my "top secret" project... in a nutshell, my best friend Fran's 40th birthday gift... so I can't talk about it yet! Her birthday is on the 27th and that's a fast approaching deadline as far as I'm concerned so I have to get busy and fast! When I started the project, I had plenty of time but plans for my Bible Study class sorta' took over my brain and now I'm in a panic! LOL! Plus, I have Max's 6th birthday party in two weeks which still has to be planned and invitation sent out, and also I have to make Halloween costumes for both boys! They aren't hard ones this year, thank goodness! It is, however, just one more (rather two more) projects to add to the list.

We have now made it through 4 Star Wars movies in the series and Blockbuster is calling me again. I actually like these kind of movies so we are all enjoying them. I'm amazed at the special affects, computer graphics for them, and the creativity in the storyline. And OMG, the costumes, makeup and hair are phenomenal! The girl that plays Padme is so gorgeous it just doesn't seem possible that a human being could be created like that.

Well, not much else happening here. Oh, I did put one of my small watercolor paintings up for sale in my Etsy store should anyone want a peek. http://Artvisionz.etsy.com

I'm now in edit post mode... for some reason, if I click on the icon to add a link to my post, I looks like it works but when the post is published, the link never shows up. Don't know what that is about. What use is that stupid little icon anyway then? So, I had to just type in my Etsy addy and hope it shows up this time in the post! If it doesn't, my etsy addy is in the upper right hand corner of my blog page.

Sunrise

This is for those of you that never see the sunrise. Take a look at what you are missing! I love this time of year because as the weather cools off, the sun moves back over into view of my front windows no longer blocked by a neighbors tree and the sunrises are much more colorful in the cooler weather, for some reason. So people, set your alarm to get up early some morning and watch God put on the show! I do this every morning and it's a great way to start the day!