Christmas 2009

So, ALL my pictures to share are at home on the computer. I'm currently in upstate NY enjoying some time with family here. When I return pictures shall follow. Santa made a nice visit to the house this year.

Mother nature on the other hand has played a cruel joke on bringing Indiana the snow while I came to NY. I will never x-country ski again I fear :(

Hope all had a beautiful Christmas with friends and or family and have a happy new year!

Time to trim the tree

 

 

 

Yowzers........

Wow, I need a nap. I'm just about half way through my book. It's going well and the story just keeps flowing out of me. I've decided to go back and do some editing and beef up the story where it needs it. Some places just need more detail.
Lil girl moved up a notch in swimming. She now technically had practice 5 times a week. That's too much for us, so we are sticking to only 3 days a week still. Also it is an hour and half instead of just the hour. She's doing great and we are wicked proud of her.
Lil man must be going through a growth spurt. The last week he has eaten us out of house and home. Daycare as well. He's going to be tall like his dad I think.
Michael is having a busy quarter teaching a new class and has a night lab on Thursdays. It kinda sucks, but he loves what he does =D
I head back to NY with said lil people day after x-mas to see friends, family and a play in NYC. SO EXCITED!!!
Have a good one and I'll be posting pics probably after I get back from NY.

Happy Holidays and luv to my peeps :)

Ah, Turkey Day

Thanks in the Giving everybody. We had a couple of friends come up for our Turkey luncheon yesterday. The brother and sis-in-law of a good friend from College. She attends University in a PhD program while he telecommutes. It was great having the company and we were happy they could come.

The unfortunate news is that now lil girl is sick. She's had a fever the past few days and feels all around crappy. The rest of the house is dealing with a cough or plugged sinuses or something.

Anyway, that is my update. I'm listening once again to some older Vampire Weekend awaiting the new album. Oh, I also watched Last Chance Harvey this morning. I really enjoyed. It's nice to see a simple adult love story. It was very well played by the most beautiful Emma Thompson and always adorable Dustin Hoffman. I give it 3.5 out of 5 daffodils.

OMG Yes!!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/familyguysomethingsomethingsomethingdarkside/

other than that, I've been busy writing and attending swim meets and taking care of sick kids in one form or the other. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Wow, who knew...

Well something crawled into my head and said "Hey you! A novela is a great idea. DO IT. WRITE"

So, I've been busy writing every night for days. Lunch hours are spent writing and editing over and over and over again. Then I decided to en-list a fantastical friend of mine to edit it for me. According to her my grammar SUCKS. Well, she's right and that's why she's helping me.

Hopefully, when all is said and done I will have a short and sweet 200 page novela for your reading pleasure. Hey, If I'm not reading, I might as well be writing right?

Oh, and I will pick up the paint brush again. No worries. But if I don't get this out of my system, it'll drive me insane!


Too Da Loo my friends =D

Cake

I know it isn't professionaly made, but it was made with lots of love. This is the birthday cake that my two wonderful children made for me (with dad's help of course)

I would have taken a picture of what the dog did to it the next day, but I was too upset. At least we had some before she destroyed it....

 

Celebrate Thyself

Because I like attention and don't shame away from being the center of attention (most of the time) I'd like to announce it's my BIRTHDAY! I love the fact that it's on Friday the 13th this year. I'm not superstitious and LOVE this day.
All with a b-day today, sing dance and enjoy. All those that don't, join in the fun.

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same,
I, now thirty-FOUR years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.

Strep Throat

So, how many times can a 3 yr old get strep throat? Well, according to me, more than once is too many. But alas, the poor lil man has it once again. had to get a shot of penicillin in the butt. OUCH. He cried, I felt bad, all around it kind of sucked.

Other than that, I spent almost the entire day waiting on him, entertaining lil girl and editing all of my fan fiction. Which, after much thought, I'm thinking of dropping the fan part and turning into straight out fiction. We'll see. I've been writing up a storm and enjoy it ALOT. I realize it takes away from painting lately, but the creative flow goes where it goes. I've finished 26 pages and I don't even have full out descriptive chapters yet. These are just main ideas thrown down for my two main characters.

I know, you want me to share. But I'm risking having an idea stolen from me thanks to the world wide interwebs from hell. If I make it, you can read it when it comes out in hardcover =D

In the mean time, here's a pic of the kids watching tv (too cute) and me, being, well, ME =D Have a good evening, and I'll see ya on the flip side......

Yes, I AM a freak

So, a few months back I ordered a Benjamin Linus for President T-Shirt. Here I am posing like a supreme dork for all the world to see. Of course I'm sharing............

 

Is it Friday yet?

Ugh, I'm finally feeling productive and trudging through my in-box at work and now we have yet ANOTHER company demonstration for their product today. And we, the circ dept are the butt end of the library, therefore, what I want to pay attention to isn't until the end of the day. I feel like it's a waste of my time. Perhaps I shall sneak out early to finish my work. Use my mad ninja skills.
Today on iTunes I am revisiting my soundtrack to Great Expectations and the 1st Grey's Anatomy cd. My brain is having a hard time making it through songs today though. I get half way through on and hit the next button. Music ADD :P
Anyway, enjoy your day. I'm sure I'll have something to talk about later............

FAST swim meet

Here's lil girl performing her best skill set in the pool thus far. It's her back stroke. She placed 4th in the heat but she got her best time since she began swimming a year ago. She's now under 50 seconds in the 50yrd Back. Good Job Sweetie!

How you hear as opposed to how you listen.

Had some songs that were SO stuck in my head this past summer. I heard the words, I knew what they said, but I never really listened. Perhaps finding that niché I needed or that outlet made that change.

Maybe it's life, maybe it's hormones, maybe it's both. In any case, finding even the smallest hint of contentment is incredibly rewarding.

it's Thursday

Other than pointing out the obvious to the title of this post I felt the need to share my congratulations with the NY Yankees. I've been a fan my whole life and through thick and thin, losses and wins I root for my boys in pin stripes. Woo Hoo on their 27th World Series Win!




AND, since they won, tv goes back to normal tonight. SO once again I can hate Thursdays becasue every damn channel has a show on it I want to watch and my DVR feels the need to explode because of it. Oh well, that's what I call normalcy.

OH MY GOD

Jorge Garcia - Thank you and I'll kill you. He brought to my attention this wonderful band, that I can only now hear one song for, for the next 2 months. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am. I think I left it on repeat and it played over and over and over and over and over ALL day at work. LOVE Vampire Weekend!!!!!!

I'm just saying............

this man is good looking. I don't care if he doesn't think so. So, I'm putting it out there for discussion amongst yourselves. I'm jsut gonna stare a bit longer..........


On a COMPLETELY different topic. I found out last night at lil girl's swim practice that she is a smudge away from moving into the next level. That's practice 5 nights a week!!! Of course, this means she really is improving. You go GIRL!!!

A music recommendation if you please

So, I was talking with a co-worker and he gave me a couple of recommendations after we discussed the ramblings of Tom Waits and Mike Farris. According to my friend Mike, you need a dark corner and whiskey to fully enjoy Tom Waits. I'm in agreement there. He's hard to take if you aren't in the mood. I like Mike Farris, he's lighter than Tom and I dig his soul.

But what I've come here to share most is that recommendation from Jake. I can't stop listening, it's a wonderful blend of the aspects of rock, country, blues and some other crap I can't think of right now. Check him out, his name is Jackie Greene. Here's his site http://www.jackiegreene.com/

The other recommendation was Ryan Bingham's album Mescalito. Here's his site http://www.binghammusic.com/
It too rocks as does Jackie's. His is a deeper shade of blue. Fantastic stuff.

One other quick add on I snagged from Jorge Garcia this morning. It's the band Vampire Weekend and their song HORCHATA from their upcoming album Contra. Download it here http://www.vampireweekend.com/

The start of a beautiful friendship

So, a while back I wrote to Michael Emerson and asked him for his autograph. I sent it when LOST filming went on hiatus so I knew it would be a while. When I recieved them I was ecstatic. Then I figured, hey, I really like Jorge Garcia and have been a fan of Terry O'Quinn's for years now. Within days of each other (this past Saturday and then today) I received Terry's and Jorge's. Jorge was also kind enough to spend some stamp money on my delivery. On accident, I sealed my SASE. What a guy!!!
Now that I'm on a role, might as well ask for the rest of the cast...........

 

 

 

 

My Halloweeners

 

 

 

Waka

So, my friend Sarah came to me one day at work quite upset. Her pups had passed away. She knew I was an Illustrator and asked me to design a tattoo for her of a dog that was very wolf like. I said, no problem. Apparently, I made it look a LOT like her dog. She said I even captured his tufts of fur correctly. I never met Waka, who liked to sing to the harmonica, but I hope all those that met him remember him fondly. And I get to see my artwork permentaly etched onto someone. That's just kinda of nifty.

 

A wee bit O golf

Hubby played a bit O golf with our friend Jong and some others. Yeah, tough life, I know. But sometimes, we need smack the crap out of a little ball to feel better =D

 

 

Torpedoes

 

This is during warm-ups for the in house Time Trial that took place a couple weeks ago. She just keeps improving on her personal times and making us proud. More importantly though, she's making herself proud and confidant!

The last couple of weeks

A little color change and got some bangs. Then I decided to really put it in gear made it MORE red and turned myself into Arlene from True Blood for Halloween. My friend Sarah was my "Sookah!" It was her that got me thinking about the Arlene thing to begin with. She decided on Sookie first. Besides Carrie Preston just cracks me up in that role, she's so cute and has the only authentic southern accent on that show.
 
 
 
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The last picture is what happens when you think bringing a Wii home for the weekend is a good idea. It's not, at least, not when the 9 yr old thinks she can do it unsupervised. She's still alive, but has an understanding to not ask for ANYTHING for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time

Wow, has it been that long?

Work, running, swimming, pre-school, teaching, oh and somewhere in that mix some painting that has been put on hold for a month.

Life has been busy and then some. We've had our down time, but it's usually spent falling asleep on the couch watching our "stories" as my grandma used to call them.

Lil girl is having a splash on the swim team. Every meet she improves her time from the last. We are so proud of her. She is also enjoying the 4th grade a LOT. She has lots of friends, reads all the time and her writing and imagination are soaring.


Lil man, well, 3 1/2 is such a fun age. All the questions, the tantrums and everything else in between. He's doing great though. Had a scare about the appendix the other day, but we can breathe a sigh of relief that is was just a wee viral infection causing some flare up. Phew, dodged on bullet.


Sadly, my grandfather passed away. He was 86 (I think) He taught us all so much growing up and was a good man. He leaves behind his wife, 3 daughters (my mom already passed) and lots of us grandkids and great-grand kids.

Hubby LOVES teaching still, but it poops him out. The students do really enjoy him and he's a great teacher. Think it was in his genes. He's also organized some time-trial bike rides once a week. Many students from his HPV team come out for them.

I've been in training with a friend for my first 10K trail race. That's us at the top before the race. Even though it's over, I'm gonna keep running. This week I'm taking off. I turned my ankle on mile five and also jammed my shoulder catching myself when I slipped crossing a stream somewhere around mile 3 or 4.

Well, when my home computer is more cooperative, I'll get more pics loaded up. Have a great Halloween, and see you on the flip side!

A bit from trip back to NY

 

 

 

 

Vacancy

SO, I haven't been a good girl and updating. I'll be taking some time for myself next week and post all sorts of stories and pics from the past few months. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!!!!!!

Family

bio mom Ellie - she's so cool

 

Beautiful 1/2 sister Royel - awesome human being

 

new Step-Dad Steve - a most unflattering picture, I had no other, sorry dude :(

 

Hank and Emma

Progress of Hank and Emma. I'm 90% done....

 

 

Gone Lately

Hello all, I know it's been forever and a day since posting. We moved and the home computer that I upload all photos too isn't set up yet or anything. I haven't forgotten all my "adoring" fans :P
More to come in the next couple of weeks....................In the meantime, enjoy a couple pics of my new crush