R & R (& R).....Rants & Raves (& Ramblings)

I'm moving!

2007-10-14T13:36:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't intend to move. It's just one of those things that came up. I had my pretty little castle blogskin for a few days before it started malfunctioning. Since I had to find a new one anyway, it was a good time to switch over. Now you'll find me here.....

http://tawnyamarie.wordpress.com

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Feeling Lucky. I Mean Blessed. No, I Mean Lucky.

2007-10-12T22:01:00.001-05:00

I must be feeling ambitious....2 posts in one day! Maybe that can help make up for the weeks I didn't post at all. I'm sure I left all 2 of you breathless with anticipation!

I was just thinking about luck today on my way into work. Here's the definition according to Dictionary.com. Actually this is just the first 4 of 12 definitions:

1. the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities: With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia.
2. good fortune; advantage or success, considered as the result of chance: He had no luck finding work.
3. a combination of circumstances, events, etc., operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person: She's had nothing but bad luck all year.
4. some object on which good fortune is supposed to depend: This rabbit's foot is my luck.

A few years ago I decided to make an attempt to take the word "luck" and all of its relatives out of my vocabulary. I don't really believe in luck and coincidence, but rather in God's intervention in our lives. This comes in the form of blessings, guidance down certain paths in life, and protection, among other things. If everything were up to luck, why would we bother to make our requests known to God? It seems like a cruel picture: God tells us to ask for what we want and in the meantime, He's up in heaven spinning a big wheel of fate. I just don't buy that.

Luck is one of those words we use so flippantly and often that I catch myself using it all the time (at least in my thoughts; I'm getting better at not saying it out loud). In most cases I can substitute the word "blessed". So instead of saying that I'm really lucky to have a good job, good health and a nice home, I count those as blessings that God has provided for me. I'm not lucky to have artistic talent. It's a gift God specifically made for me. I'm not lucky that I've never been in a life threatening accident, I've been protected.

Yet I still catch myself wanting to say "good luck" when I part ways with a friend I know has a job interview or a health scare. Seems like the best thing to say would be "God be with you" but I haven't trained myself to let that roll off the tongue as easily as, "good luck".

This is perhaps getting a little more philosophical than I dare to get at times, but I had 40 minutes of thinking time in the car this morning. Can my theory of "no such thing as luck" really be true? If it's not luck that I've never been in a life threatening accident, does that imply that God wasn't protecting those people who have been? Could it be that there are some things that are just a matter of chance? Is every tornado, terminal illness, and birth defect planned and meted out by God? Or did He set the laws of nature into motion and intervenes from time to time?

So what brought about all this thinking about luck? I was just thinking this morning about how lucky I am that I've never got a speeding ticket. I drive about 9 miles over the speed limit, 70 miles a day for the past 4 years. What are the odds I'd never get stopped for speeding? Well I caught myself using the word "lucky" in my thoughts and did my automatic switch with the word "blessed". Hmmm......something is wrong with that picture. "I consciously break the law every day, but God has really blessed me with never getting stopped". What?! In this case, I would have to say that I'm just plain lucky.

Quiz of the Day

2007-10-12T21:45:00.000-05:00

What have I gotten myself into? Posting yesterday with a title like "Picture of the Day" implies that I am actually 1. going to get on and post every day and 2. post a picture every day. I do like the idea of #2, but not promising it every day. I'm not ashamed to say that my blog is like a picture book on a shelf with great novels. May not be great literature, but hey, it's what I'd go for first. Speaking of which, who decided it was taboo to have illustrations in novels. Why do we think only children would enjoy that? I'm not saying illustrate every page, but a nicely placed picture here and there would keep me turning those pages. Anyway, I digress.....

Since I haven't taken any pics today, I will have to go digging on my computer. Be right back.....

OK. While this is not an aesthetically striking photograph, it does cause a big question mark in the cloud above my head. This is a Canadian road sign. I believe I shot this out a bus window in Vancouver. Anyone have a clue as to what it means? It does look like a camera to me, but I didn't see anything particularly picture-worthy in the vicinity. And even so, do we need road signs to tell us this? Perhaps it's to caution drivers that tourists may be taking pics out the window so watch out for bad drivers or mysterious flashes. Please enlighten me if you're Canadian or good at making things up.

And, no, there will not be a quiz every day as today's title implies!

Picture of the Day

2007-10-11T20:07:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh...Now doesn't he look studious!?

A Rant

2007-10-11T18:28:00.001-05:00

I try not to rant too often, but here's something that bugs me....my phone has been cutting out a lot on people and dropping calls. It's to the point that I have to tell people I'll call them back because I can't hear a thing. I even called customer service to complain, I mean report the problem, and the call was dropped, proving my point, but solving nothing. So I ran into the friendly little neighborhood Cingular store. The guy there wasn't much help at first. He gave me a phone number to call and seemed to be shoo-ing me out of the store so he could get back to whatever video game he was playing in the back. I was pro-active and asked if we could call from the store since I don't have another phone and probably couldn't get through on mine. He was more helpful at that point, but why did I have to ask? I remember the days when I wouldn't have been assertive enough to do that.

Anyway, I talked to the warranty people who said they'd send a new phone in 3-5 days for no charge. If I wanted it in 2 days, I'd have to pay $7 - 8 (as if this is my fault). So I asked her what they do to compensate for the 3-5 days that I'm paying for service but have no phone. To that she responded I'd have to talk to the store clerk about a loaner phone. Upon hanging up, the store clerk informed me that they no longer have the loaner program due to the 80% of people who never returned their loaners. I guess I could just tough it out with a phone I can't make calls on. But it's the principle of the thing. I paid for all 31 days of service, and I want my 31 days of service, not 26.

I wouldn't be such a stickler about it, but the phone companies are quite the sticklers when there's an error on your end. Like the time - Gulp, I'm almost embarrassed to tell this story - when I opened up my bill and it read $1000! I actually sat in the floor and cried about that one. How was that possible? I paid for 1000 minutes. That's a lot right? Well if you add it up, that only comes to 16 hours. At the time I had a long distance boyfriend and we talked pretty much every night. It really wasn't that much over the 16 hours. It's just that once I hit the 16 hours, every minute was billed at a very high rate. Plus there were some roaming charges that I shouldn't have been charged that they took off. I called to negotiate with them. I'm a good customer and it was just a big mistake on my part. The minutes were all off peak minutes so they were making a killing off my serious miscalculation of time. (Have I ever told you I have no concept of time sometimes). I talked to several different associates on several different occasions. They were only willing to work with me when they found out that my contract was ending soon and I might be taking my business elsewhere. They then cut the bill down to about $500. Much better, but I'm not one of those girls who racked up 300 dollar phone bills in college so it still sounds like a lot. Ironic thing is that guy wasn't worth it. This is the guy who would calculate (out loud) how much it would cost to come see me and usually decided it was too much. How's that for irony?!

The Birthday Weekend!

2007-10-09T19:20:00.001-05:00

Well it was the big 3-5 this year. And it was a festive, fun-filled weekend. It may be a faux pas to throw a party on your own birthday, but hey it keeps me from getting depressed about how old I'm getting. (It really works; try it). So I planned an 80's themed murder mystery party and had 20 of my friends participate. I gave them a character and they came in costume and acted their role. I was really impressed with how well everyone got into it. I expected there to be a few party poopers or at least a few that just were so out of their element they didn't know what to do. Everyone acted their part and some of them were quite the hams. Best part of the party was that I invited people from all aspects of my life....some from work, some from church, a few from my college days, and a few from Grad school. It was the first time my friends met each other, so it was fun to see all my worlds collide.

My friend Keri and I have recently reconnected. We were both at York College our freshmen year. I hadn't seen her in years, but I got to see her 3 times this year. We met for dinner when she was up here for a business trip and met in Branson last month. She drove up from Springfield for the weekend and that was a nice treat.

So here are the pictures from the party....

Here's the whole group crammed into my living room. Not pictured is the class gossip (Tekia) who was taking the picture.

My college roommate from my Freshmen year and her husband.....Jennifer and Joe as the Math nerd and the Math cheerleader. My college friend Keri and my church friend Joe as the class president turned politician and his wife.

Friends from Grad school - Jake and Deb as the Jock and the Cheerleader.

More friends from grad school. Ray was the token male in our art therapy program. He and wife Katrina were the band geeks. Me and my church friend, Emily. I was the hall monitor and she was the reporter. Unfortunately you can't see my hot pink legwarmers.

My sister and Ben as the Prom King and Queen. Her character ordered him aroud all night. Julie, from work. She was Molly Ringworm, the drama queen.

Mary Jane, music therapist from work (and sometimes travel companion). She played the valedictorian and know-it-all.
Ronette and Beth from work. Ronette was the pom pom captain turned choreographer and Beth was the punk. She won best costume.

Jenelle, who used to work with us and her hubbie, Jared. She was the class flirt and he was the audio visual geek turned Hollywood director. Here's Chris from church playing the class ladies' man (looks like a used car salesman to me).

It was lots of fun. I highly recommend it. I will definitely do another one sometime. Now that I have my friends all warmed up, maybe we'll move on to something more challenging like pirates or fairies.

Back by Popular Demand!

2007-10-08T19:36:00.000-05:00

I'm back by popular demand.....OK, so to be honest, it was only 2 people, but trust me, they are popular! I've been busy lately, and as weird as it sounds, the absence of my nice sunflower picture on my old blog template was not exactly inspiring me to write much. I'm tellin' ya I'm a visual person. Gotta have pictures. Anyway, I don't know if I like how pale this template is, but I love the castle image and how it deepens in intensity.

So I've been very busy lately. I spent the Labor Day weekend in Branson with the family and the following three weekends building a deck. My brother-in-law and sister were gracious enough to come over every Saturday and help with that. My dad also came over the first Saturday and helped a lot (and cut his finger pretty good in the process). Here are some pics from the Branson trip....

Tracy, Milan and Ben eating at Lambert's, home of the throwed rolls.

My friend Keri, who was a Freshman at York College with me met us for the afternoon.

Hangin' out in the condo....Ben's trying to turn her into an athlete already.

Getting ready to swim.

At the Dixie Stampede! A good time was had by all (Except for the fact that we got stuck on the Confederate side. I wouldn't mind being a Southerner if it weren't for the whole keeping people in bondage against their will thing.)

Riding the Ducks! Highly Overrated.....As my brother David said before we left, "I would go if it didn't cost so much.... and if it were fun".

Quacking Away!

All Quacked Out!

So that's enough time on the computer for now. When I return I'll let you know how my Birthday and Murdery Mystery Party went. It was quite the weekend!

Have you seen this?

2007-08-21T21:27:00.000-05:00

I don't know if I can get this to work, but it's incredibly entertaining.....

WonderfulWorld-HandPuppet.wmv2319K Download

Milan's First Post

2007-08-20T19:46:00.000-05:00

For some odd reason, my Auntie T stranded me for over a week (and that's a lot in the life of a 2 month old!). We went from full adoration on an almost daily basis, to no one sitting and staring at me (except the folks and they don't count). I want non-familial adoration, by golly! (I guess Aunt T is family, but you know what I mean!). Here's how I feel about that......

I'm thinking about forgiving her. She says she was out of state!

And she says it was my mom and dad that moved away from her while she was in Colorado! Hmmmph! I'll save some of these glares for them!

Well I was thinking about forgiving her, but then she decided to post this!

Just wait until I have the power to veto her photo selections!

Report from the Doggy Day Spa

2007-08-06T01:02:00.000-05:00

While I was off gallivanting in CO, Sasha had her own doggy vacation at Kim and Kris' Doggy Day Spa (my sis-in-law and her sister). She got pampered with a bath, a walk almost every day, time with doting children, and a shave (a first for her). I was expecting to see her looking like a lion. Looks more like a French Poodle in my estimation. Or maybe a hot dog with fur on both ends. Here are her before and after pics:

After:

Part of me looks at her and feels sorry, but the other part of me is grateful for all the work they did to keep her cool. She's an indoor dog at my house but was outside in the 90 degree weather there. So I'm glad she didn't have to suffer in the heat. I was a little worried she'd be like the dogs that act all embarrassed when they get shaved, but she seems fine with it.

Call me a shallow dog owner, but I'm a little embarrassed to take her out for a walk.

Friday....Last Day in Colorado

2007-08-06T00:31:00.000-05:00

Friday came all too soon. Vacation time was nearly over. I packed up and we took the kids to Colorado Springs that afternoon. We visited the Current Outlet and Focus on the Family. That was a neat place. They had a 3 story tornado slide called "A-bend-ago". Downstairs in the kids' area, they had the town of Odyssey laid out (from the radio show "Adventures in Odyssey"). There was plenty for the kids to do.

Outside of "Whit's End" Ice Cream Shoppe.

The wardrobe from Narnia:

Before we knew it, it was time to take me to the airport. I had a 7:00 flight. We left Colorado Springs in plenty of time. However, the traffic was horrible, and what should have been about an hour drive turned into 2 and a half hours. At 6:30, I was still not at the airport. I prayed for a delay, and definitely got my wish. The flight was delayed until 8:20. Good thing because by the time I got through security and to my terminal, it was 7:20. We had more delays, so I didn't get into KCI until after midnight. Tracy picked me up and took me over to their new house (a lot happened while I was gone). I spent the night there and got up in the morning, picked up Sasha and went home.

I definitely have to thank Niki and her family for putting their normal routine on hold to host me for a great week. Thanks for the hospitality! And thanks to Benny for watching the kids so Niki and I could go do touristy stuff.

Here are some last pics from the car on the way to the airport....

Thursday In Colorado

2007-08-05T23:22:00.000-05:00

Thursday I made arrangements to meet up with my aunt, uncle and cousins in Idaho Springs. We had some great pizza at Beau Jo's. My Uncle Ken suggested a pretty drive we could take from there. At his suggestions we stopped at Echo Lake at the base of Mt. Evans.

We then began our ascent of Mt. Evans, stopping at this pretty little roadside waterfall where I took pictures of the Nowell kids.

We continued our ascent. The kids were actually scared Niki would run the van off the road. She was an excellent driver, but these roads did look a bit treacherous. So glad she was driving.

Near the top of the mountain, we encountered some wild mountain goats. They actually didn't seem that wild, as they were grazing without a care just beside the road.

Niki claims she isn't a good photographer, but I spotted this critter and handed her the camera and she took this great shot out her car window. Extra credit if you know what this critter is (don't tell them Niki).

That evening, I had the opportunity to go see the pre-Broadway production of Disney's "The Little Mermaid" on stage. I didn't even know it was out yet until I got to Denver and saw signs everywhere. I couldn't believe they had balcony seats for $20. I tried and tried all week to get seats, hoping that Niki, Rebecca, and I could go together. Finally, I was able to get the very last ticket for Thursday night. I had to pay $70, but it was well worth it to get better seats anyway. Niki was kind enough to drop me off and pick me up. Hopefully in the future, I will write a review of the show for you musical fans. For now, suffice it to say that it ranks right up there with "Wicked" in my book. In fact, the costumes and special effects were probably much better, though I liked "Wicked's" storyline and music better. When you think about the complexities of turning the stage into an underwater world, it is just amazing what they were able to do.

Wednesday in Colorado

2007-08-05T22:32:00.000-05:00

Wednesday was a leisurely day at the Nowell household. While I got to sleep in most mornings, the Nowell children are early birds and got Niki up around 7:30 every morning. We enjoyed some of the fine teas we purchased at Celestial Seasonings, had lunch, and then headed to their Chiropractic appointment. We had planned to go to their neighborhood pool, but since it was closed, we had the chance to take Petey to play in the fountains at the Promenade. I've always wanted to play in the fountains. It's nice having a 3 year old around as an "ex cuse".

That evening, we went over to Rebecca's house. Rebecca is another friend of ours who was in the York College Choir with us. She sang 1st Soprano, Niki sang 2nd Soprano, and I sang 2nd Alto. She has quite the impressive Karaoke set up in the basement. So I got to enjoy one of my favorite pasttimes...singing.

My Tuesday in Colorado

2007-08-03T01:15:00.000-05:00

After a fun-filled day in Colorado Springs on Monday, Tuesday was a little more mellow (but just as fun). Benny's been awesome about watching the kids and letting me and Niki go do girlfriend stuff. Tuesday after lunch, we headed up to Boulder. I really didn't know much about Boulder except that it's very artsy and "Mork and Mindy" took place there. Who knew that it was home to Celestial Seasonings, makers of fine "herbal infusions" and a few teas too? At Benny's suggestion we headed up there to tour the factory. I love those kinds of tours, and it did not disappoint. There's nothing like standing in a "mint room" where all the mint leaves are stored to keep them from permeating the tea and other herbs. We didn't stand in there for long, as it was like standing in a pool of Vicks Vapo-Rub. Then we moved on to the packaging area. It was amazing to see what those machines can do with little help from humans. Then it was on to my favorite part....the sampling room, where you could try as many of their 70 varieties as your little heart desired. Niki and I are tea lovers, so this part was fun. I highly recommend the white plum tea, the black cherry pomegranate and my favorite: the Marrakes Express Vanilla Spice Black Tea (A good tea needs at least 5 or 6 words to describe it).

I did learn something about tea. I like milk in my tea (as well as a sweetener). As I poured the last of the soy milk they had out (believe me I prefer cow), I noticed that it was curdled. I took it to the counter to say something and she told me that teas with hibiscus will make milk curdle because of the acidity (or something like that). So I happily downed that cup of delicious brew. To my disappointment, when I went to doctor up my next sample cup, I looked into the soy milk pitcher and found lots of curdles...Ewwww!

After the sampling, we checked out the artwork in the tea gallery. They had lots of artsy teapots as well as the original art for the boxes. That would be a fun job. Here's some of the art:

Dress made out of teabags....plus accessories.

Who wouldn't want the White Pear Tea after seeing this Siamese kitty drinking it?

God's Little Gifts

2007-07-31T12:49:00.000-05:00

Isn't it fun to get the nice little surprises God has in store for us. Here are just a couple of examples. Niki collects heart-shaped rocks. Sometimes when she is out in nature, she asks God specifically to show her some. Last week she found seven when she asked. Seven is a significant number for them, because "Sevens" is the name of their ministry. Yesterday, when we went to Garden of the Gods, she didn't tell me this in advance, but she asked God for a heart-shaped rock. As it turned out, it was late and we were tired, so we mostly toured the park from the car, only stopping to get out and snap pictures. So really, there was not much chance of finding heart-shaped rocks. As it was getting really dark, we stopped at the gift shop to browse and use the restroom. In my bathroom stall, sitting on the toilet paper holder I found a perfect heart shaped rock. I picked it up and gave it to Niki, knowing that she collects them. It was then that she laughed and told me she had asked for one today. Hmmmmm.

Sunday, I told the Nowell's about my idea for an art series and we talked and brainstormed quite a bit about it. I don't want to give it away yet, but it's about hands. I am planning to use Benny as a hand model for reference photos (I told him to get those hands manicured and insured). That night as I checked my email, I got this as my daily devotional from Max Lucado. Coincidence? Personally, I don't believe in coincidence (or luck for that matter).

July 29

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Revelation 21:4

Someday God will wipe away your tears.

The same hands that stretched the heavens will touch your cheeks. The same hands

that formed the mountains will caress your face. The same hands that curled in agony as the Roman spike cut through will someday cup your face and brush away your tears.

Forever.

Report from Colorado

2007-07-31T00:56:00.000-05:00

I'm in Colorado now, and have been since Friday morning. I came out to spend some quality time with my best friend from college. I love having a job with so much vacation time. It's good to come out and soak up some mountain air, see the beauty and grandeur of God's handiwork and sleep in a lot. Here's what I've been up to so far....

Friday: Niki and daughter Zoe picked me up at the airport. We relaxed around the house Friday, as Niki was babysitting all day. I had a very early flight, so I got to rest during the day in Niki's newly reorganized office. My bed, which Benny refers to as a "Redneck Murphy bed" was a mattress set oh so cleverly tucked away behind a curtain in what used to be the closet. Pretty nice set up actually. And Niki loves books, so there's lots of browsing to be done before bed each night. That night we participated in a Nowell ritual: ate popcorn while we watched "Who Wants to be a Superhero". All 3 of the kids were in their superhero costumes. Should have taken a picture. The Nowell kids are very imaginative and artistic. Here's the sign on the front door of their house....With 3 resident superheroes and a sign like this, who wouldn't feel safe here.

Saturday: After sleeping in, I got to engage in one of Niki's favorite pastimes with her. We went to several ARC thrift stores and I got to see what all the fuss was about. I got several pair of shoes, books, and a big bag to haul it all back in. That night we celebrated Niki's birthday with some of her girlfriends. It was great to meet people I've heard so much about. We ate at Carabba's and then headed downtown to the 12th Street Mall for the Cheesecake Factory. It was so crowded we took our desserts to go and ate out in the open air. It was a beautiful night.

Niki and some of her girlfriends.

Paula and Heather

This is Rebecca, who is actually one of my friends too. We all went to York College together and sang in Choir.

Downtown Denver...12th Street Mall.

Sunday: This was actually Niki's birthday. We went to church and then had a Birthday lunch of Benny's famous pancakes and sausage. Yum. We napped and then had her family Birthday party.

Then Niki and I headed to downtown Denver to snap some photos. She wanted some she could give as a gift to her hubby. Here are my 2 favorites. And one of me in front of the Denver skyline. Afterwards, we met Niki's friend Heather for dinner at PF Chang's.

Monday: Benny watched the kids so Niki and i could have a day out to go to Colorado Springs.
We went to the zoo, which included a drive up to the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun. We weren't interested in the whole shrine to the sun aspect, but it was a great view, and I recommend taking the short drive up there. After the zoo, we saw the Helen Hunt waterfall (not named after the actress in case you're wondering). Then we headed to dinner and then Garden of the Gods. That was a beautiful place and we got there as the sun was setting. It made for some beautiful vistas.

Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun

Helen Hunt falls

Niki in front of the "Kissing Camels"

PS: I don't know what's up with Blogger, I can't get rid of the underlining in my post. No I am not a fanatic underliner.

Zonked

2007-07-26T20:34:00.000-05:00

I've run myself ragged this week. Went with my friend Jenelle and her family to the Royals game Tuesday night, so that put me home pretty late. It had been a long time since I'd been to a game. I forgot how the stadium seats are like sitting in the back seat of a compact car (between 2 big brothers no less). Our seats were in a good location though and no beers were spilled on my purse or shoes, so I can't complain. When Jenelle sends me a pic, I'll post it here. We got free T shirts that night. It's the Pine Tar Anniversary (George Brett incident - don't ask ME to explain), so everyone that sees the shirt asks why I got paint on it already. When I get the pic up you'll see what I'm talking about.

Last night, we had a little good bye gathering at Applebee's for my friend Jenelle from work. I finally can post pics of the mug I made her over a month ago. Here are some of the co-workers posing with the appropriate monkey on the mug. Jenelle, the speech therapist with the "Speak no Evil":

And Mary Jane, the music therapist, also posing with the "speak no evil' side of the mug...I guess in her case it's "Sing no Evil".

Didn't get my picture with the mug, but picture me with this side of the mug:

And here's Beth, our adapted PE teacher posing with the mug. Guess she's just plain bananas.

When I got home, it was girls night with my summer roommate, Michelle. We went to Starlight to see the Wizard of Oz. It was a great show, but again we got home very late. On the way home, I noticed a small frog had hitched a ride on the hood of my car. It made it all the way from Starlight to Fairway. Must be some pretty strong suction cups on the bottom of his little feet.

All that social activity caused this tonight:

Quote of the Day

2007-07-24T12:57:00.001-05:00

"We live in an art gallery of divine creativity and yet are content to gaze only at the carpet." Max Lucado

Summer Update

2007-07-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

Well you may have noticed my recent absence from the blogging world. Guess I've just been busier as of late. One of the things I've enjoyed lately is painting on pottery. I've probably been about 4 times this summer. Here is my latest creation, shown before and after firing. As you can see it's kind of tricky to tell what it's going to turn out like....always a surprise! I was pretty happy with this one. I pondered what to make for the longest time. I usually make gifts, but decided I'd start a series of dessert plates with famous art on them. Here's a representation of one of Monet's paintings:

Here's a cutesy one I made for a friend who has wienie dogs....

What else have I been busy with this summer? Let's see.....went to a ladies' retreat last weekend. I try to hang out with my friend Emily at her pool whenever I can. (I went over there tonight and there was something funky in the hot tub. It tarnished my silver ring and turned my black shorts brown.) Ben and Tracy bought a house in Liberty, so I've been going over to their house to get as much baby time in as I can before they move (they're only a mile away now).

Fourth of July I spent with the family....Here's Philip getting a load of his new cousin....

How NOT to Woo a Woman

2007-07-22T13:27:00.000-05:00

It's time for another list! Unfortunately this one is based on actual experience (or in a few cases, the experiences of friends). So guys, if you don't want to impress a woman or be classified as a gentleman, follow these simple steps:

1. You don't want your woman to have high expectations. Early on in the relationship, set her straight by saying, "I know I really should be opening doors for you, but then I'd have to do it for the rest of my life".

2. Keep her guessing. Call her a lot at first, and then slowly start tapering off. Once you get her hooked, let her do all the work.

3. When the check comes, just let it set for awhile (maybe she'll get it).

4. If number three fails, then hem and haw and act a little weird about it. She's sure to offer to pay her part. When she does, pretend you don't hear her correctly and let her get the whole thing.

5. In long distance dating, when making plans to see each other, make sure to calculate how many miles you're driving, factor in mpg of your car, and figure out a total amount the trip will cost (out loud) so she can appreciate all you're doing for her.

6. Forget to mention that your divorce isn't final yet.

7. Borrow your roommate's sports car, pretend it's yours and impress your date.

8. Play "I Can Love You Like That" on repeat so she gets the message of what a gem you are.

9. If she works in a restaurant, go sit in her section drinking tea for several hours. You'll be doing her a favor by holding up that table all evening. That's fewer people she has to wait on. And she'll feel so warm and fuzzy knowing that you're there watching her every move.

10. Tell her, "You are beautiful....I mean, you're no Cindy Crawford or anything, but you're beautiful."

11. If the date's not going well, drop her off at the door of the restaurant and take off.

12. If you meet at the restaurant, don't walk her to her car unless it's convenient. You want her to feel a little scared so she can appreciate how safe she feels when you actually are around. And if anything bad happens to her, you can come running to save the day.

13. Talk about your ex all night. She needs to know every little thing she did wrong so she won't fall into the same patterns.

14. If you like your girlfriend but think she's on the cusp of being too fat for you, tell her, "You're OK now, but I just worry that you don't care how you look. I don't want to be having sex some day with some 200 pound woman". (In case you were wondering, no we were not having sex, he was just thinking way ahead).

15. If you say anything that could be perceived as shallow in any way, use this as your excuse, "I know that may sound shallow, but that is just how God made us men."

Online dating tips for men:

1. When you meet, say, "Wow, I guess you're just really photogenic!" (OK, this hasn't actually happened, but I thought it was funny).

2. Women like a man in charge. If you see a profile you like, don't waste time with small talk. Write her immediately and say this (actual excerpt here)...

"If I flew back to your place on Saturday, would you pick me up at the nearest airport. Plan. Three to four days on your couch. Homemade dinner three nights, candlelight. Couple glasses of wine, and a little light. If we get along, great, if you think differently, then I fly back on Thursday. If it works out I can get a job close by, or you could move to California,"

...If she says "stop writing me, I'm not interested", know that she's probably just playing hard to get.

3. Tell her about how holy you are. Once that's out of the way, you can get on to more fun things. Start writing about what you'd like to do to her sexually. You've got to test the waters and see how far she'll go. If she sounds like no fun, then just find someone else to write.

4. Half the battle is getting to the date. Tell her "It's all about you. I'm going to treat you like a queen." Then when you meet, you can revert to talking about your favorite topic.....you.

5. Ask for her phone number right up front. Who wants to waste time on emailing? If she complains that you don't have enough information in your profile, maybe you can get her number by saying, "I can answer all your questions on the phone."

6. Make sure you make your job sound great. If you work at Walmart in the paint department, for example, tell her you're a color specialist (don't say where). If you work as the Walmart greeter, tell her you're in the hospitality business. If you count anything in your job (french fry orders, video returns, etc) tell her you do some accounting.

****************

All that to say I had a great weekend date with a wonderful Christian man from Wichita this weekend. He knew how to be a gentleman and made all those other cads look really bad. Alas, the chemistry wasn't there for him so I guess the search for Mr. Right continues.

Pictures Say it All

2007-07-01T22:59:00.000-05:00

A Star is Born

2007-06-20T22:22:00.000-05:00

Milan Lauren (Pronounced Luh-rynn) made her debut today at 1:15 pm. She weighed 6 pounds, 1 ounce (not bad for 2 weeks early). Tracy and baby are both doing well. She went in last night to be induced. The pics say it all:

Obligatory Social Customs

2007-06-12T21:40:00.000-05:00

Just got back from "The Kiln", one of those paint your own pottery and have them fire it kind of places. It was girls' night for my roommate, Michelle and I. We had limited time. I walked in feeling overwhelmed with all the possibilities of cool things to make. After I pinpointed it to a person I wanted to make something for, it became much easier. Because of the time, I forced myself to do something cutesy and whimsical (not my usual style). I could have probably driven myself (and friend) nuts if I went with my usual detailed, realistic style. Can't wait to see the results. If you've ever done any of this pottery painting, you know that the colors don't look right until they're fired. A white can look pale green; a cobalt can look powder blue; a red can look like dirt. But when you get that finished piece, complete with glossy coat and vivid colors, it's a true surprise. Maybe I'll post the results when I get them in a few days.

Speaking of roommates, you're probably thinking, "I didn't know Tawnya had a roommate". I don't normally, but my friend Michelle from my days at York College is here for the summer. It's an interesting (and long) story about how that all happened, and I think I'll save that for another day.

Sunday, we had the baby shower for my sister. Less than a month away! If you're like me, you've gone to tons of showers and the sight of pastel baby colors is enough to induce the doldrums. I was determined that this was not going to be a traditional baby shower. Abbey and I went shopping for decorations and decided on a theme that wasn't even in the baby section. We saw all the Hollywood stuff and decided to go with "A Star is Born". The colors were black and gold. We rolled out a red carpet and sprinkled gold stars around for decoration. Ben's mom made a star cake, mom made some star-shaped chocolate mints and I made some champagne colored punch and chocolate dipped strawberries. They looked so good, but I didn't even try one since I hate strawberries. We played a game of match the celebrity with their baby picture. We had the guests decorate diapers with slogans and had Tracy judge them for originality.

When all was said and done, I was pooped, and decided non-traditional or not, showers are strange rituals (not that I'm against anyone throwing one for me when my time comes....I've definitely put in my time at other peoples' showers). I do understand the practical aspect of gift registries, but at the same time, it does seem strange to make a list of what you want people to buy you and then act surprised when you open the items on your list. (Incidentally I almost never buy from the list. That's too predictable. It's much more fun to give people the kind of stuff they didn't know they really wanted.)

The other thing I wonder about.....do people really enjoy going to showers or is it one of those things (like Mary Kay parties and Pampered Chef demonstrations) you do because you're a faithful friend? Does anyone actually look forward to a rousing game of baby bingo or the endless display of onesies and baby paraphanalia? Yes the punch may be a different color and flavor at each shower; the colors may be of a different shade of pastel; the baby stories being told may be slightly different but overall a shower is a shower is a shower. ..... Now I'm not knocking all you shower-goers out there (after all I'm one of them). I guess it's just one of those loyal ways we women encourage and support one another. Here's to all the women out there who go to these things no matter how busy they are, no matter how well they know the guest of honor, and no matter how much they dread this strange social custom.

As I've gotten older, I've come to the point that I don't do as many things out of obligation. I do go to showers for friends, but not for barely acquaintances. I do not buy things from door to door salesmen (as often as I used to). And I do not go to those home parties anymore unless I truly have an interest in the product. Once you've gone to one Party Lite party and learned all about the beauty of candles...how to hug them to help them keep their shape and how to trim the wicks so they last the longest, I do believe you've learned enough about candles to sufficiently pass the rest of your days on this earth.

3 Things

2007-06-11T00:36:00.000-05:00

My friend Anita sent me this and it's pretty intriguing. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs

Also, I finished my post on the roadtrip. You have to scroll down a couple of days to see it.

Thirdly, when I've been on other computers, I've noticed that my nice sunflower picture with the title of my blog does not show up except at home. Leave me a comment about whether or not you can see it, and I'll see what I can do.

Wildlife encounters

2007-06-07T22:52:00.000-05:00

First day back to school. And no I'm not referring to the kids when I say "wildlife". We didn't have students yet today. I saw two young foxes in our sensory garden. While I was having a problem with bunnies eating the flowers and wishing for a solution, I wish the foxes would have showed up before most of the flowers were obliterated. Here are some shots I got of them. Yes, there a bit mangey, but surprisingly tame. And no foaming at the mouth.

Speaking of wildlife, I was over at mom's yesterday and gave the kids their Fiona ears/crown that I bought at Universal Studios. I love this picture. Wow! They are all 3 smiling AND looking at the camera!

The Long Trek

2007-06-06T22:06:00.000-05:00

The big roadtrip.......Here's the rundown. Brace yourself; there are lots of pictures. I think I took over 300. I definitely pared it down for the purposes of this blog.

Day 1, Friday: Picked up Mary Jane and left Lawrence around 9 a.m. Because of the tornado in Greensburg, MJ's usual route had a detour, so we took in more of OK than we wanted to. OK turned out to be an unlucky state for us, as we had several near death experiences. First this truck threw up a huge rock and left this target shaped crack in my windshield. MJ was quick to get his picture (not that it matters, but we like to document highlights of the trip in photos).

Next we had a couple of Oklahomans decide to drive in our lane (head on). So the only redeeming part of Oklahoma this trip was this beautiful shot of horses on the open prairie. Makes me wanna sing "Wide Open Spaces".

We made it most of the way across New Mexico the first day. Stopped in Grants, NM.

Saturday, Day 2: Got up and drove the rest of the way to MJ's parents, arriving in Upland, CA around 4:00 pm. Here are some of the scenic highlights along the way: Near Albequerque, NM; Gas in Needles, CA; Nearing Upland; MJ's parents' home (through a very dirty windshield).

Sunday, Day 3: We spent Sunday relaxing with Mary Jane's family. They were very nice and hospitable. Upland was also very nice. It's tucked in a valley with a great view of mountains. We took in some shopping, including an excellent 99 cent store (I'm a sucker for a bargain). I spent a little bit of time sitting by the pool with book in one hand, cold drink in the other. It's nice to just relax and not have anything pressing to do.

Monday, Day 4: Memorial Day. MJ's Dad gave me his version of the nickel L.A. tour. Before leaving, he explained the rules: We stay in the car and I take pictures out the window. Since I'm from a landlocked state, he'd allow me 45 seconds to get out and stick my feet in the ocean. In actuality he gave a great tour. Just as MJ said, he was full of useless knowledge (turns out it wasn't so useless after all. Came in handy for the tour). We drove through Hollywood (not such a great part of town). At one point he pulled over and instructed me to jump out and take a picture of a star. Since he picked the spot randomly, I wasn't sure if I'd recognize any of the stars.....I was excited to see a name I knew, "Stefanie Powers" (I used to watch Hart to Hart in the good old days). As I was focusing in with the camera, MJ knocked on the window and motioned to the next star down. So, yeah, I have to agree with her, the star just beside it was a little more photo worthy.

We then stopped at the beach.....and, yes we did get more than 45 seconds. We spent closer to 45 minutes enjoying the surf and collecting shells. The Pacific was chilly. Another misconception I had about southern California. I had been to the Pacific Ocean in Oregon, but I thought this far south it would be much warmer than it was.

After the tour, MJ's dad made some awesome ribs for a Memorial Day dinner. It was another fun and relaxing day.

Tuesday, Day 5: This is the day that MJ and I went to her mom's school to give a short inservice on MMARS. Her mom is an OT, so we followed her around and observed her work with the kids. She also works at a school for kids with DD, except her students are quite a bit younger. There was a little bit of confusion as to when we were presenting and some of the teachers didn't even seem to know about it. So even though we had prepared a 2 hour presentation, we ended up having a 45 minute slot and were competing with the chili feed in the staff lounge.

Wednesday, Day 6: MJ and I took off for the La Brea Tar Pits. It's kind of odd to find this place in the middle of downtown LA. It's quite the interesting spot. The asphalt (actually NOT tar as the name suggests) has trapped thousands of animals (much like fly paper) over eons. Fossils of all kinds of critters have been found (saber-tooth tigers, mammoths, mastadons, sloths, etc.) and the excavations continue today. That's about as scientific an explanation I can give. For more information, visit their website: http://www.tarpits.org/

We had lunch at Marie Callendar's (and all this time I just thought it was a frozen dinner). I had my only celebrity sighting while in LA. I actually didn't recognize the man until MJ said something. It was Bill Cobbs, the African American guard in "Night at the Museum" (which ironically we had just watched with her parents).

Thursday, Day 7: MJ and I headed to Universal Studios. This was one of the highlights for me. That place was fun. First we took the tour of the backlots. We saw sets from several familiar movies and TV shows (Jaws, Desperate Housewives, the Grinch, War of the Worlds, etc, etc).

After the tour, we roamed the park. They had several shows. Waterworld was one of my favorites. I wasn't a big fan of the movie, but it was fun to watch all the special effects in live action with real actors.

This was Backdraft, also very impressive with its special effects taking place right before your eyes.
And of course I love animals, so the animal stars show was fun.
There were several awesome rides (The Mummy, Back to the Future, and Jurassic Park to name a few). And they showed a short Shrek film in 4-D, meaning our seats moved, we got squirted when Donkey sneezed and felt gusts of wind in the appropriate places. I think all movies should be 4-D (except horror movies).

Here are some random shots throughout the park.
Friday, Day 8: Our time in CA had drawn to a close already. We headed out for Flagstaff, AZ, checked into our hotel there and then drove up to the Grand Canyon. That was awe-inspiring. The pictures really do not do it justice. I could spend a week there, just taking in the views with different lighting throughout the day. At one point, I decided I wanted to go down this trail the donkeys use to see what it was like. I didn't go far. I can't imagine rambling down the trail atop a donkey, especially when I looked down. Mary Jane and I got split up at this point. I didn't see her for another hour or two. I was hoping she didn't have an asthma attack. I found her at the car. She heard an ambulance go by, and since she'd left me on the donkey trail, she was hoping that I'd have the wherewithall to tell the ambulance drivers to stop by the car and let her know I'd fallen off the cliff. So it was a relief to catch up to one another at the car.

Saturday, Day 9 (into Sunday, Day 10): One LOOOONNNNG Day. We headed out from Flagstaff that morning. We drove through the Petrified Forest National Park/Painted Desert. That was an interesting place. Here's a close up of a petrified tree that has turned to stone.
petraglyphs from a Native American civilization. So the original plan was to stop either in Liberal, KS or Tucumcari, NM for the night. We were both ready to get home, so we drove through the night and got home at 7:30 am CST. I kept the clock on California time as a psychological tactic to stay awake. Of course getting stopped in the middle of nowhere, KS by a highway patrolman for having a headlight out got my blood pressure up enough to keep me wide awake too. Here are some shots of a rainbow and beautiful sky in New Mexico.

So 3600 miles later, I'm thinking it was a very long drive, but you don't get to see things like that from an airplane. I was glad to get home and into bed and my pets were so glad to regain some normalcy around our house.

Art Club Results

2007-06-06T09:41:00.000-05:00

Well in our limited time last night, we got creative. Abbey used her prerogative as an artist (and a girl) to change her mind. She drew a cat and other happy things in an abstract/collage type fashion. She entitled her piece, " One Cat on Love". There's the cat's face and she included other happy things like flowers, sunshine, lollipop, butterfly, rainbows, and a heart. No puppies or other animals in case the cat doesn't like them. Doesn't it just make you happy to look at it.

I guess my picture has a more somber tone comparatively speaking. I pulled out my morgue (a file where artists keep ideas) and found a picture I'd taken of a butterfly with a broken wing. So very originally, I titled this piece "With a Broken Wing". The Martina McBride song ran through my head the entire time I was working. My pic is very small (5"x5"), as I knew Abbey would finish before me. Amazingly, the reverse was true.

So art club was a great idea Abbey. It was great fun doing artsy stuff with you!

Abbey's report about Art Club: "It was fun, even though I changed my mind. I thought it was really fun spending time with Aunt Tawnya."

Art Club

2007-06-05T21:28:00.001-05:00

I'm watching my niece Abbey tonight. She's 9. We took Sasha to the park where they have an off leash area and she ran free for awhile. On the way home, Abbey decided that we need to have an Art Club. So she and I are sitting here now and I'll be typing the minutes as we have our meeting. By the way, the name of our club is "Transforming Artists".

First, we are going to set some ground rules:
1. No fighting.
2. No painting on each other.
3. No laughing at other people's artwork unless it is supposed to be funny.
4. Say something nice or don't say anything at all.
5. HAVE FUN!!!!

Purpose of our club: Havning fun and getting better at art. Abbey will be drawing a picture of her baby sister. And I have no earthly idea. I'm just going to get out the paints and see what inspiration hits. Here we go......We'll check back with our results later.

Cruisin'

2007-06-05T00:49:00.000-05:00

I have to pace myself here. I've been gone over half of the month of May and I am not nearly ambitious enough to write about all my adventures at one sitting. So tonight, you'll just get the highlights of the cruise I took a couple of weeks ago.

First off, I must tell you how this cruise fell in my lap thanks to the generosity of a Christian sister. CJ goes to my church, and on a trip to Nashville for a worship conference last fall, we got to talking about her job as a travel agent. She's also a single lady and I was curious who she traveled with. When I asked, she said that she often earns free cruises and asked if I would like to go. I'm sure at that point my jaw hit the floor. When we got back from Nashville she emailed me and got it all set up. I was excited that we were going to Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, as it held more appeal for me than even the Caribbean. In the midst of planning this trip, 2 of my girlfriends from the singles' group decided to come along too, so there were 4 of us happy cruisers. Here's a picture of us all....Kristen, CJ, Tekia, and myself.

This was my first experience with cruising and let me tell you, it was a treat. And cruising with a travel agent friend who has platinum benefits is even better. While hoards of people waited in line to board, we just glided on up to the front of the platinum members line and were on board in no time. The ship itself was huge. I don't think you have a concept of how big those ships really are until the airport shuttle drives you up to it and it feels like you are approaching a gigantic stadium of some sort. Here's a pic of our boat, "Sapphire Princess" taken in Vancouver.

Now writing this in narrative form could get very long and tedious, so I've decided instead to resort to a list (gasp!). But you know me.....there will be pictures.

Top 10 Reasons to Take a Cruise

10. The luxurious accommodations. OK.....maybe that's a bit of a stretch. The cabins weren't exactly grandiose in size, but they were nice and suited our purposes quite well. And I don't care how many stars they have, no hotel I know of offers both the splendid view and the gentle rocking motion that lulls you to sleep.

9. The entertainment. It really is true that the ship is like a floating city. There are things to do all throughout the day. Even if you had no ports of call, you could still have a great vacation on the ship. We saw a movie each day we were at sea. And we watched grown men play with their food. I know, sounds weird, but check out the awesome works of art they produced. (Secretly I can't wait to have a get together so I have an excuse to play with my food).

In the evenings after dinner, there was always a show. The first night, the longest reigning champ of "Star Search" sang. We knew we were in trouble when he came out in coral lame pants and coordinating sequin shirt. He had a good voice, but we all thought he was too much of a lounge lizard. The old people on the ship loved him, incidentally. When he sang "Butterfly Kisses" and started doing cheesy hand motions, I struggled to keep my composure as the tears formed. I must clarify, those were tears of hilarity not of sentimentality. Finally we got up and left. Yes, we missed out on some of the show, but he provided us with some lasting entertainment of our own as we mimicked his act on more than one occasion.

The second night, we watched a juggler/comedian who was pretty entertaining. He wrapped up his show with some juggling in the dark. He had invented some sort of laser gloves and had glow in the dark balls to juggle so the effect was quite stunning.

The third night featured a variety show by the ships' singers and dancers. While it was a chance to actually see people our own age on board the ship, the talent was mediocre. The crew is international, which afforded us the very unique opportunity to hear Billie Joel sung with a Slavic accent (a first for me). Sven (as I nicknamed him) sang "In Ze Mittle uhf Ze Night" in a most unforgettable way. If nothing else, it gave me the confidence that if my Art Therapy job ever falls through, I can always go to sea as a cruise ship singer! (And now I know what Simon means when he tells the American Idol rejects that they sound like cruise ship singers!)

8. The wildlife. I'm a true fan of wildlife. Here's a seal begging for fish at the harbor in Victoria. And Darth Vader eeking out a living. Guess they ran out of Star Wars movies and he's resorted to fiddling.

7. The Food. While there was so much food it could actually be classified as entertainment, I've given it its own category. The food was delectable and plentiful. You really could eat 24 hours a day....and it's all payed for. When else can you open your menu, order 2 appetizers, as many entrees as you want, salad, dessert, and fruit and not even worry about the cost? It's all included! Not real conducive to dieting, but if that's your concern, better go to a spa instead. When else do you have the opportunity to try things like roasted rabbit with pasta? Or a delicious white and dark chocolate mousse?

6. The service. From our cute little Romanian steward, Sebastian Lucian who entered our room and said, "I'm here to grant your every wish" to the waiters who did everything but wipe your mouth for you, I have to admit it was really nice to be waited on hand and foot. It's rare that I go to restaurants where there is a maitre de and waiters who put the napkin on your lap for you. Four single women, delicious food and men with interesting accents waiting on us hand and foot....can't get much better than that. (Technically it could.....if the men waiting on us weren't getting paid to do so).

5. Beautiful vistas.....I love the ocean and I don't think I could get tired of looking at it.

4. Charming Victoria. I loved Victoria and have already decided I need to go back. One day was not nearly enough to explore this quaint city by the sea. I could live there. We took the hop on and off bus tour around town, stopping at Craigdorroch Castle and the Fisherman's Wharf for some fish and chips. The city was bursting with flowers. The houses were cute and homey with wonderful views of the ocean.

3. Cosmopolitan Vancouver. I didn't really know what to expect of this city, but it seemed like a great place to explore. Our time was even more limited here, so we had time to visit old gas town and eat at a restaurant recommended by the locals. The girls did some shopping and I went up in the observatory, which offered great views of the city from about 50 stories up. Here's a pic of our ship in the harbor and an example of the beautiful backdrop the city provides.

2. Meeting people from all over the world. Yes I've already mentioned Sven and his buddies. These four ladies are from CA. They sat near us at dinner one night and commented that they are 4 close friends from college and they have taken a trip together every year for 40 years. They encouraged us to do the same. Interestingly enough, we ran into them at dinner the next night too. And incredibly, after we disembarked and began exploring Vancouver, we ran into them again at the restaurant someone had recommended. There they were and we ended up getting seated right behind them.

1. Good friends. It was great to spend time with some girlfriends. No worries about work or bills, just good conversation and lots of laughs. Here we are dressed up for formal night and having fun on deck.

So the cruise was a blast. I highly recommend it. It was truly relaxing and never boring.

CATCHING UP

2007-06-04T12:38:00.000-05:00

OK, OK.....I should be in the other room unpacking from my 10 day trek across country. I should be cleaning up 10 days worth of dog hair (for that sweater I'm going to knit). I should actually go get my bags out of the car since I got home yesterday at 7:30 am. But no, here I am at this stinkin' computer. It holds such appeal when there are things to be done. Like yesterday when I thought I'd just jump on for a few minutes and find a new blogskin. Several hours later, I had found a site that enables you to design your own without having to know html codes and all that fancy stuff. So as you can see, that's what I did in the wee hours of last night. There's a link to the site over on the yellow sidebar....look for PsycHo....... I do have lots of catching up to do on this blog. I was gone more than half of May on 2 separate vacations, so I have much to tell. But priority wise, taking a shower has got to come first. SO I bid you adieu for now.

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMM........

2007-05-13T21:29:00.000-05:00

Well there have been a few things lately that have boggled my mind. They have ranged from frivolous and silly to seriously frustrating. Here are a few....

1. The Applebee's saga continues. Well, if you've followed my blog, you know that there is a certain manager that over the past few months has been flirtatious with me. I offered my number and never heard from him, yet he continued to flirt. Friday I went in with my regular group. Even though there was a waitress standing right there by the menus, he rushed over to seat us. As he grabbed the menus, I noticed a big gold wedding band (never been there before). That would explain a lot. However, through the course of the meal, as he walked by, I noticed that he no longer was wearing said ring. Hmmmm. At any rate, I tried not to make eye contact.

2. As I was searching for a doggie picture for one of the kids at work, I ran across this book....HMMMMmmmmm......Now as you'll recall, my house is rife with resources for the would-be canine knitter. See below picture to refresh your memory... I wonder if I could start a new E-bay business....Fido Fluff by the pound. Or I could buy the book and produce many pieces of apparel. I'll start taking orders from all of you who have enemies with dog allergies. Would you prefer the Samoyed legwarmers for the more subtle affront to the sinuses or the Sammy scarf for a direct attack? Remember, better a sweater from a dog you know and love than from a sheep you'll never meet, or (gasp) some synthetic material that was never even part of an animal's hide.

3. I recently went to the doctor for all my hormone problems. My number one complaint was that despite serious diet and 6 days-a-week exercise for 3 months, I failed to loose one lousy pound. The other complaints were things like extreme fatigue, moodiness, etc. After putting me through some invasive tests, the doctor's nurse calls back with something like, "Well, I know you've had a hard time losing weight. But sometimes when your body is not used to being a certain size, it doesn't function as well. If you could even lose 10 pounds, you'd feel a lot better." I wanted to scream. (There I go being moody again.) If I would just get on the ball and lose those 10 pounds all my problems would be solved! And to think I paid them for that piece of sound advice! According to that theory, all my skinny friends would never be tired or moody. Any of you petites wanna vouch for that?

4. A funny from work. This is from the 16 or 17 year old girl who is the source of most of my funny stories. She has a job in the community at a fast food place. A vocational trainer goes with her and she does cleaning type tasks. Thursday, 2 highway patrolmen walked in. Our girl, who shall remain anonymous, walked right up to them, got right up close and said, "Excuse me officers, what seems to be the problem?". Can't tell me that girl doesn't watch a bit of TV. My oh my, maybe you have to know the girl, but I chuckle every time I picture that scene.

5. Same girl a couple of weeks ago.......We had Cinco de Mayo MMARS on Friday the 4th. One of the games entailed the kids donning a sombrero and dodging a huge ball that the other kids rolled at them. This was our version of bullfighting. I had demonstrated, improvising with a red athletic penny as my cape. At the end of MMARS, that girl (I'll have to make up a fictitious name....any suggestions?) usually hollers something like, "Bye, Beth. Thanks for a good MMARS" or "Bye Mary Jane. Thanks for the farm MMARS." Well on this particular day she hollered, "Bye Tawnya. Thanks for being a good Mexican!"

6. I'm going on a cruise tomorrow!!!! What am I doing online? Gotta pack!

Creative endeavors

2007-04-29T21:26:00.000-05:00

It's been a productive few days for me, at least creatively. A teacher at school commissioned me to paint a white buffalo on a leather breach cloth for her son. I stayed after school Wednesday and painted it. I had never painted on leather before and it was not easy. This was the suede type of leather and it was difficult to get the paint down into the nap of the leather. It was one of those paintings that seemed like a disaster at first, but suddenly started working out pretty well. It turned out better than I expected. (I wonder if God ever thinks that about us, His living, breathing little pieces of art that sometimes seem like messes that will never amount to anything. Isn't it amazing how he can turn a disaster into a true masterpiece?) Anyway, the teacher had given me a picture to work from, so though I painted this, it is not an original composition.

Friday after work, I went with my friend Jenelle to a gem and bead show they had here in town. I've never seen so many beads in my life. It was like a huge candy store for adults. I bought several pretty beads. Saturday I went over to Jenelle's and made some jewelry. Here's my favorite piece. It's made with yellow turquoise (which I'd never even heard of).

Dog's Day out

2007-04-29T21:04:00.000-05:00

Tonight we had a picnic with our singles' group at a park that happens to have a doggie off leash area. It was the first time I took her and she loved it. It was like doggie heaven.....lots of other dogs to sniff, room to run and people to pay attention to Sasha (her #1 priority).

I did notice that my dog is not that playful. If she were a child, she would flunk PE. All the other dogs were running and chasing each other. She went around being social, sniffing the others in that canine way. They'd start running and getting rowdy and she'd meander back my way. Then she spotted a whole gaggle of dogs being walked with their owners. She decided they were more her speed and tagged along with them. It was reminiscent of a clique in Junior High with the one straggler running along behind thinking, "please like me. I wanna be cool too.".......I don't think she had ever seen a chihuahua. She was so intrigued with that dog. She kept following it around, probably trying to see if it was a cat, as it was smaller than our cat. Her favorite dog was a cousin breed.....the husky/malamute mix. It was a beautiful dog and was almost the same shape and size. Sasha definitely wore herself out. She totally enjoyed herself. I'll have to go again.

I commented that someone with no pets could go to that park and sit and have lots of doggie time. One of my friends said, "Yeah, but I don't want to be that weird person that just hangs out at the doggie park". I can just see it, all the doggie moms and dads will keep their pups close by and whisper amongst themselves about the doggie predator that's always sitting on the bench but never seems to have a dog. Somehow Emily, you don't seem like the predator type. Here's a pic of the dog walking my friends.

THE CURE FOR INSOMNIA

2007-04-22T22:17:00.000-05:00

Well I haven't written in awhile. Seems like life has been busy. Of course I had to do my taxes last Tuesday. I will have you know that I was actually done Sunday night but had to double check a number with our human resource person. So I totally finished Tuesday night and it wasn't even near midnight. Four hours early for your information. I had the best intentions of finishing them months early, but you know, life happens, and it's always more exciting than doing taxes. BTW, I'm very excited to be getting 3x as much as I usually get.

This weekend, I inadvertently had a 3 day weekend. I would say I woke up sick Friday morning, but that would imply that I actually slept. I rarely get insomnia. I can fall asleep within minutes and sleep like a baby any time of day or night. In fact sleepiness has been a real problem for me lately. So it was weird to hit the hay Thursday night, feel exhausted, and have my eyelids rebel. They were wide awake, as was my mind. Couldn't shut it off. It was one of those predicaments.....Do I stay here in bed in hopes that I'll finally drift off, or do I get up and do something productive? Here's what I tried...

15 minutes of laying awake worrying about stuff. I don't advise this.
20 minutes of reading my book until I felt so sleepy I couldn't stand it. Turned off light and was suddenly wide awake. Guess I should have finished the book while I was on a roll.
15 minutes of doing a crossword puzzle. I do love these, but I tend to do them at night when I'm sleepy and I usually can't finish one (b/c I'm sleepy, not b/c I'm stupid....though I will say I'm not at my brightest when I'm tired. It's amazing how many skipped answers I'll go back and get right off the bat when I have my full faculties). That didn't work.
Another hour or so of laying awake, knowing that Murphy's law says that insomniacs usually fall asleep right before the alarm goes off. (Shoot. I didn't try setting my alarm for 10 minutes later....next time.) Gave myself an ultimatum. If still awake at 2:30, it's time to pull out the big guns and move to the couch.
Moved to the couch. Watching TV when I'm sleepy always does the trick. Let's just say I finished the entire first season of Lost, using up all my Netflix discs I had intended to watch over the weekend.
Decided around 3 that I probably would not be going to work Friday. Thought maybe with the pressure off I could get some sleep......that didn't work. As Murphy predicted, I fell asleep somewhere between 5:30 and 6. The alarm went off shortly after 6. There was no question at that point that I was unfit to drive 40 minutes in the car, let alone deal with screaming kids.

Wouldn't you know it, I slept like a baby off and on for most of the day. Turns out I think I had a bad reaction to some herbal tea.

Maybe next time I should try some reverse psychology on myself. I tried everything that usually puts me to sleep. So perhaps I should have tried everything counter-intuitive to falling asleep. I could have started with a 2 liter of Mountain Dew. I could have turned the air conditioning on full blast, started exercising, sung along with the radio and called a friend and chatted (any volunteers?....gotta be a good conversationalist so it will keep me awake). Just my luck it would work like a charm, I'd drift off into sweet slumber with nary a care, dreaming of kittens and bunnies when my bladder would wake me up screaming from all the Mt. Dew. That would be a rude awakening.

But I digress....The rest of the weekend was pretty good. I did the exciting and glamorous things that I'm sure all you married folks did when you were single and free.....You know, stuff like reorganizing your files, cleaning house, sitting around moping. Nah, I didn't really mope, but there were a few unproductive moments. Went to dinner and a movie at the cheap theater and even stayed out until 10:00! Whewee! Such a rebel.

Today after church I went over to my parents. We had my brother's 40th birthday celebration. Hard to believe he's going to be 40 within the week. That means I'm not too far behind. That just doesn't seem possible. Forty is supposed to be old. Let me tell you, it's looking younger every day. My uncle from Colorado was in town, so it was good to catch up with him. On the way home, I swung by and got my friend Michelle who was in town from Georgia. We sat and visited for a bit. (Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you her story. It's interesting and ironic all at the same time.) Spent a little time with her and then had people showing up for life group. By the time I went to dinner with a friend and wrapped up a few things here at the house, here I am wondering (as I do every Sunday night) where my weekend went.

A BUSY WEEKEND

2007-04-10T20:29:00.000-05:00

This weekend was pretty busy. Saturday, Tracy and I had a pampering day. We went to get pedicures. She is getting to the point she can't reach her toes and I was cashing in her birthday gift to me from last fall (couldn't bring myself to waste my pedicure on winter feet that wouldn't be seen for 4 months). Then we went to her hairstylist to get hair cuts. I consider it splurging to spend more than $15 on a haircut. The stylist was very nice, but I don't really like my hair. I got bangs, which I haven't had in years. They aren't quite long enough to do much with. In fact when I woke up this morning, they were sticking straight out. Yikes. Guess I've been blessed with non-bed head for years and now it's catching up to me.

Saturday night I had game night at my house, which is always fun. We played Tribond and Scum. There's pics on our TNT blog.

Sunday my family came to my church. We had an Easter concert and I had a solo. I think it went well, but since I couldn't hear myself I had to ask my sister if my voice cracked or anything. Thankfully it didn't. After church, we all went over to Tracy and Ben's for a yummy Easter dinner. Here are some photo highlights:

Tracy, Ben and Abbey

Molly didn't like wearing her hat but agreed for one picture as long as she could wear Auntie T's slippers.

Philip on the other hand loved wearing the hat.

Molly, Abbey, Philip

Posing for "Alabammy Grammy"

PURPLE TULIPS

2007-04-06T21:46:00.000-05:00

Well here it is, just a few days after my self-set deadline. Technically it's not a painting, it's done in colored pencil. I had cut these tulips from my yard and taken them to work. The last 2 evenings, instead of killing time near church, I stayed at work a couple of hours late and worked on this. Feels good to have something done. Now I have to work on my secret project for the next week and a half so I may be delayed in getting the next painting up. Not to mention I haven't done my taxes yet (I'm a P remember).

Tonight I got home from work and indulged in what I thought would be a quick nap. Four hours later I woke up! Wow. There went my evening. I know, I know, all you married people are so jealous of my exciting and glamorous lifestyle.

A PAINTING AS PROMISED.....

2007-04-01T20:20:00.000-05:00

Well, I may be a little late for the end of March, which was my goal, but I just didn't have much time to paint last week. But as promised, here's just a rough little something in oil.......Hope you like it!

You may be thinking my style is like that of an artist you're familiar with. Maybe a certain John William Waterhouse? I must confess that is a Waterhouse, but it is April Fool's Day, so I had to do something prank-ish. I probably should have picked something a little more believable, but that's OK. For those of you unfamiliar with Waterhouse, here are a few of my favorites. I love the mood his paintings create.

That's all for today. I'm exhausted, and after spending all day at church, choir practice and then life group, I came home and discovered I'm wearing 2 different earrings. Wonder if people just didn't notice or just chalked it up to me being one of those "eccentric artsy" people?

APRIL FOOLS!

2007-03-31T23:06:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day. Ever pulled a good gag? I can't say I've pulled any really memorable pranks. Although a couple years ago, when the kids came in for MMARS on Friday, we gave them old socks and told them we'd be polishing all the scuffs off the gym floor. They started working and I think they were actually disappointed a few minutes later when we told them it was a gag.

One of the best April Fools "pranks" was actually an unplanned thing. Some of my girlfriends from church and I had planned to go to "First Fridays", an evening when many studios in the art district are open to the public. Three of the group backed out. The Extreme Makeover, Home Edition was in KC and they were big fans of Ty. So they planned to get up at 3 or 4 am and go over to the site. Instead of going out with us, they stayed home and made T-shirts and hardhats.

We had a good time at the art walk (though it was too crowded for my taste). Afterwards, I suggested we go to Figlio's, one of my favorite Italian places on the Country Club Plaza. It was about 9 or 10 pm by then, so the place was almost empty. There was one other large party in the corner and a couple of other tables full, but that was it. Suddenly, as they were getting up to leave, I realized the large party was the cast of the Makeover show. I whispered to my girlfriends. They're a tad more excitable than I am, so they gasped and suddenly had to make a trip to the restroom to get a closer look. I sat alone at the table while the food came. When they returned, they said they had to call the other girls. With it being April Fool's Day, they didn't believe us at first. To think they stayed home when they could have had an up close and personal encounter with the cast, including Ty! I wonder if a scene would have been caused if they had been there. It was neat we got to see some famous people, but my philosophy is that they're just people. I don't want to follow them around with a camera and autograph book as if they are more important than everyone else in the restaurant..... So that was my accidental, not really a gag, April Fool's Day story.

Seems like all I've posted about this week is how tired I've been. I did enjoy sleeping in today very much. Got some errands done around the house, including the first mow of the season. Seems like I was just shoveling snow.

Getting in my ZZZZZZs

2007-03-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

My goodness, I've been so tired this week people have been asking if I'm OK. That's always great when you look how you feel. It was one of those days that I almost went and took a nap on the teacher's lounge sofa after school so I could make it home. Instead, I opted for a Pibb Zero. It's a 40 minute drive home, but on nights (like tonight) when I have something going on at the church building (20 minutes from home and on the way from work) I try to kill time in the area to avoid the excess driving and the whole "get home, relax a bit, and turn around and come right back". Unfortunately, with the 2 hours I have to kill, it's really convenient to shop at the Michael's or Target, or one of the other 40 million stores in the area. Today, I opted to take my to-go dinner to the park, sit in one of those really comfortable lawn chairs I happened to have in my trunk and enjoy the weather. The plan was to eat, read for my usual 10 minutes and then get in a serious nap. It was just a bit too chilly though, so I ended up sleeping in my car with the windows partly down. After about an hour of that and a serious neck kink, I started up the car and as I did, 2 teenage heads popped up in the car just a few feet away. I think they thought they were alone.

Someone needs to start a business where you can rent out a quiet room for about an hour if you're in need of a nap. (And I'm not talking about those sleazy hotels you can rent by the hour.) There's just not a good place. I think sleeping in the library or at a coffee shop would be frowned upon. Monday I did sneak into the church building early and slept on the couch in the foyer. Ooohhhh, just had a brainstorm. I could go to a matinee and sleep through it. I'd have to pick something a bit boring, that doesn't appeal to kids, and with no bright flashy action scenes to wake me.

Whew. Someday I'll get my sleep schedule back to normal. Spring break threw me for a loop.

By the way, I haven't forgotten about the painting I need to post here in the next few days. I have been busy with a secret project that I won't be able to post, but I will try to get something up. Unfortunately, it may have to be a piece that someone commissioned me to do. A co-worker is paying me to paint her son's leather breach cloth. It's for some organization related to Boy Scouts. I'll be painting a White Buffalo, as that's his Native American name. I have never had a more unique painting request. Well, actually, I take that back. Once someone paid me to paint a large angel on a window shade so that her 90 year-old mother would have a comforting sight each evening as she pulled the shade.

Hormones: Those Insidious, Pesky Little Swingers!

2007-03-27T20:32:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy week so far. Monday I barely functioned at work, as you can imagine from my last post about procrastinating my bed time. To compound the issue, shortly after I went to bed, my hormones decided it would be a great time for a good cry. No reason at all really. There was no fighting it either, so I got up and went ahead with it. (My theory is that must be the body's way of getting rid of the 5 pounds of bloating.) I read a little more and finally got to sleep after 2:00. I was so groggy the next day anyway, but then I had the "after you cried your eyes out" feeling in my eyes which just made it worse. Then I swear I had a few hot flashes that morning. I had to step outside for a moment, while my 50-something co-worker kept snickering and saying I was much too young for that. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and was just wet with sweat, despite the window being open. What is the deal? When I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism a few years ago, I learned just how much of your physiology hormones control, or at least affect. They're such powerful little suckers they could proclaim a mutiny against the rest of the body and probably win. But I guess I can't complain too much. I guess they could swing the other way and I could start getting chest hair and singing bass. I think I'd much rather be a weepy, bloated puddle of sweat.

Sleepy Thoughts

2007-03-25T23:16:00.000-05:00

Here I am, Sunday night after 11, grasping at the last few moments of my Spring Break as they slip away from me. After nearly a week of following my biological clock (no, I'm not talking about the baby one!) and staying up until 2 or 3 every night, I'm resisting bedtime tonight. Actually, I always resist. Seems like there's always more things I wanna do before bed. Tonight it's just as difficult, though I do have the fact that I am dead tired playing in my favor. A few pages of the book I'm reading and I'll be out like a light. It's not that the book is boring, that's just what happens when I read. About 10 minutes in and I'm a goner. Makes reading a book a very slow process. So I apologize to any of you that I've ever borrowed a book from. How in the world did I ever make it through grad school?!?

Artistic Inspirations

2007-03-24T00:45:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you few faithful readers have checked out my links, but at the very least, go to "artistic Inspirations" and click on the last one, Akiane. This is the site of a child prodigy. Her work is amazing, and she could probably outpaint most of my non-artist friends, even when she was 4. She could probably outpaint most of my artist friends now at the age of 12.

The other amazing thing about her is that despite having atheistic parents, she attributes her gift to God and is very purposeful in wanting to express His love through her work. Go to her site and you will truly see that there is something supernatural at work there!

Also, under artistic inspirations I have links to other artists who paint quite regularly. I especially like M. Collier. Some of the sites even have videos where you can watch in fast forward as a painting comes to life. I know it's inspiring to me. I hope you will find it to be entertaining at the very least.

Spring Break Update

2007-03-23T23:16:00.000-05:00

Well the week has flown by. It's been a week of fun and relaxation and yes, a little productivity. I can't say today has been extremely productive, but I do have a nice new look to my blog. It's quite different, huh? I spent an insane amount of time looking for just the right one and then doctoring it up a little. I'm quite proud of myself, as I knew absolutely nothing about html codes, but managed to teach myself so that I could make some changes to the template.

Let me catch you up on my visit with Niki. As you know, she flew in Monday evening from Colorado. We had a great time. As I mentioned, we went to Bo Ling's that night and then browsed the Barnes and Noble. By the time we got home and did some more catching up, it was time for bed.

Tuesday was a very relaxing day. Niki wasn't feeling up to par, and I welcomed the chance to sit around and veg. I guess that's how you know you're really good friends....you don't have to be doing anything tremendously exciting to have relish the time together. We both slept in, then sat in the living room and talked for most of the morning. It was so nice not to have the phone and 500 miles between us. I made some lunch and then we settled into our Grey's Anatomy marathon.

Let me go off on a tangent here for a moment......It's weird how we both got hooked on this show independently of each other. I like to get TV series from Netflix to watch while I'm exercising or scrapbooking. Recently I started Grey's Anatomy after getting several recommendations from friends. One Sunday, I watched 4 or 5 in a row while I scrapbooked. The funny thing was, later when Niki and I talked, we discovered she had done the very same thing. She was sick on the couch and watched a bunch back to back on the very same day. How weird is that? Anyway, we were both ready to start season 2, so she brought it along.

Now I'm not kidding when I say a marathon. The show is so engaging, it really did not seem like we watched over 8.5 hours straight of it. Yep! We were up until about 3 watching the first 13 episodes. Neither of us have the luxury of doing that normally. I stay pretty busy, and she has 3 small children (need I say more).

Wednesday, we slept in and then headed to Union Station for the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. That really was amazing. It was very interesting to see the artifacts found in the ruins of a community near the caves that housed the scrolls. The scrolls themselves were much tinier than I expected. I'm not sure how much of that was due to shrinkage, but it had to be quite a bit, because they were only about 3 inches tall.

For lunch, we headed over to Crown Center and ate at "Steetcar Named Desire". Then we spent the rest of the afternoon stamping/scrapbooking. Cinzetti's is "our restaurant". Ironically, they only have one in KC and Denver and we always make it a point to go in whichever city we are in at the time. We love Italian and it did not disappoint. After church, we headed home where I plugged in the Karaoke machine. Niki is fairly new to karaoke, but she has a beautiful voice and was a natural. We topped off the evening -actually wee early morning hours - with a couple more episodes of Grey's Anatomy. As it is, I don't watch the current episodes, because I'm afraid I'll miss too much of the story. At this rate, I'll soon be tuning in to the current shows.

Niki's flight back was Thursday afternoon. So after sleeping in, and getting packed up, we headed back to Bo Ling's. When she found out it was only a KC thing (and Florida, which doesn't help) she suggested we go back. I of course did not complain.

The time flew by so quickly. I'm so glad she got to come out. By the way, she'll be blogging about the visit too, and she will probably be more detailed in her account (J that she is and writer that she is), so visit her blog for more. Speaking of J's, Niki is very organized, to the point I think she could work as a professional organizer. Just for all you J's out there, I'll have you know that she said my house (including my stamp area) was very organized! So there you have it, proof that we P's are not complete slobs! If you have no idea what I'm talking about with all the J and P stuff, go back and read the February blog entitled "The Battle Between Js and Ps".

As for the rest of my break.....today I was lazybones. Tomorrow I'm going to work on some scrapbooking and get ready for a stamp class I have coming up on Tuesday night. I'm lamenting the fact that Spring Break is almost over! How could that be? Just a weekend left, and those fly by.

Spring has Sprung!

2007-03-20T15:12:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd share a few of the daffodils in my yard.

My friend Niki is here, so I won't be doing any long posts for the next several days, but I leave you with a couple of endorsements:

1. Bo Ling's Chinese food. It's a KC thing, but if you live here, I highly recommend it. Niki and I ate there last night and it was very good. The crab rangoon tasted like it actually had crab in it (as opposed to just cream cheese and a few spices). Even the fortune cookies (and fortunes) were good there.

2. Kilz paint. That may seem really random, but after all the painting this weekend, I thought I'd share how wonderful this product is. I've used it in the past and have always loved it. You can get it at Walmart in almost any color. It's thicker than most paints and will usually cover in one coat. I did not think it would be possible to cover a burgundy room with an off white color in one coat. Kilz did not let me down. Sure enough it covered, and that was even on a textured wall (no primer needed)! Once when I was doing a faux finishing job for someone, they had a professional painter there from one of the high end places (Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore). He saw me doing my base coat, a deep red. He couldn't believe the coverage and asked what I was using. Imagine my pleasure at telling him that my cheap Walmart paint did a much better job than his fancy schmancy high dollar stuff.

Done Quit All My Packrat Days (That's a reference to a spiritual, hence the bad grammar)

2007-03-19T14:22:00.000-05:00

Spring Break is off to a good start. We worked Wednesday and Thursday from 8 - 8 and had Friday off. Wednesday we had kids until 4, and let me tell you, that zaps your energy. The thought of 4 more hours was a bit daunting, but actually by the time we went to dinner and did some light work, it wasn't too bad. Thursday was great. I got so much done in the art room. I don't think it's ever been so clean.

Friday and Saturday my sis-in-law hired me to do some painting in the house they vacated and are putting on the market. After 2 12-hour days and 2 full days of painting, by Saturday I was exhausted. I just vegged that night.

I was a bit lazy yesterday. Had life group at my house and barely woke up from my nap in time to straighten up a bit. After going out for my free day meal at Dos Reales (excellent Chimis), I decided it was time to start tackling the clutter. I worked from about 10 pm - 2am cleaning and organizing the basement. I threw away 3 big bags of stuff and filled up 2 boxes for goodwill so far. That felt good to rid myself of excess clutter. My best friend, Niki, is coming this evening for a four day stay. Since she's allergic to cats, she'll be sleeping downstairs. Of course I cleaned the guest room area, but I also went into the dreaded "dungeon" area and cleaned out cobwebs and all kinds of other nasty stuff. Then I proceeded to stay up until 4, just because I could. I would be a night owl if it weren't for those pesky jobs you have to get up early for.

So I'm nearing my goal of getting all organized so I can start painting. Next step is to get all my painting gear in one spot.

If any of you are at my house, I would be proud to show you my basement now. However, there's no way I'd want you to see the garage, as there's not even room for a tiny car in there at the moment. Every house needs a junk room, and right now mine happens to be the garage. I never park in there unless it ices anyway.

Another bonus this week......Our school contracts were supposed to be signed in the spring and raises take affect in July. We didn't get ours for this school year until about a month ago. So Thursday, along with our paycheck reflecting our raise, we got a big fat check for all the back pay they owe us.

OK, I'm off to my parents to play with the kids for a bit. Then off to the airport to get Niki. We're both excited to get a few days of catching up and rejuvenation.

Procrastination Nation

2007-03-10T22:53:00.000-06:00

I heard it was National Procrastination Week. So in true celebratory fashion, I've waited until the very last chance this week to blog and to wish you happy procrastination week. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

Tips for dealing with a procrastinator:
1. Don't think that nagging a procrastinator to do something early is going to motivate them. We like the pressure of an impending deadline. It helps us think quicker. So if you think about it, we are actually being more efficient with our time.

2. Don't fret when you get your Christmas presents a few days late. It just means the procrastinator in your life shopped the clearance sales and was able to buy more for you.

3. Just because you send out your holiday letter the day after Thanksgiving, does not mean everyone has to. You have to admit, it's a nice surprise to get a holiday letter around Groundhog's Day.

4. Setting all the clocks in the house up 15 minutes may work for awhile, but we procrastinators know how to do math when it comes to squeezing out every second we can before a deadline.

5. Don't ask your procrastinator friend to do anything with you on April 15th. They'll be slightly busy that day.

6. Getting your birthday present or card a few days late is not an insult. It just means we wanted to make the joy and celebration last a little longer.

7. Getting a wedding present 3 months late, is actually a favor to you. We don't want you to be bombarded with too many thank you notes to write. (Plus if you get stranded at the altar, that's one less gift to return).

8. When attending a party given by a procrastinator, don't show up 30 minutes early. You're bound to catch them in a bathrobe, with wet hair, vacuuming the floor or cooking dinner.

It's been another busy week. Body for Life is going OK. I made a pretty good dish the other night and despite the fact that it looks fattening, it was really healthy. I guess you'd call it a pasta carbonara dish. My only issue with it was that there were too many peas at the bottom of the bowl as I finished up.

I had an amusing experience at the gym this week. I was doing my lower body workout and was headed to the leg press machine. My legs are pretty strong. Currently, I'm starting at 180 pounds and gradually increasing to my last set which is 315 pounds. So a guy got off the machine, leaving 6 45-pound plates. Since I start lower, I was going to take one plate off each side. Another guy, who I guess was being chivalrous, sees me taking one off and goes to the other side and says, "Here. would you like me to take all these off for you?". Nice of him, but it was kind of fun to tell him that I only needed one of them off. Then I proceeded to work up to my usual 315 pounds, while several of the guys there realized they seriously underestimated me. Imagine, he thought I needed to take all the plates off! Now if my arms could just catch up....they're pretty wimpy.

Cardio is not my strong point, but I do my time. It does make it easier that I have a Gazelle in the basement and I get TV series from Netflix to watch as I exercise. Right now I'm watching Lost and Grey's Anatomy (Season 1 on both of those, so don't talk to me about what's going on now....I'm always way behind on TV shows).

The week or two before spring break is always a rough one with our kids. We had one kid who sprained a staff member's wrist by kicking in a door she was about to open and then gave another staff member a papercut in her eye the very next day. I can not even imagine the pain. Neither of them wanted to give this kid the pleasure of knowing he made them cry, so they were pretty tough until they could get out of the room.

Only 3 days of kids next week! We stay Wednesday evening until 8 and have Thursday from 8 - 8 to work in our rooms/on paperwork/whatever needs catching up. I always like those days as I usually have lots of cleaning and organizing I need to do.

Firetrucks and Family Fun

2007-03-04T20:50:00.000-06:00

Friday night I headed over to my parents. I took my niece Abbey with me (she's 9). Since her mommy's pregnant and she is so excited about having a little sister, lately she has been in baby doll mode. I picked her up and here's how the conversation went....

"Do you wanna sit in front?"
"No, Megan needs to sit up there." (Megan, or Mae-Mae is her doll).
"Oh, good, then I don't need to clean off the seat."
"Yeah you do. We have to buckle her in."

I proceeded to clean off the seat, leaving a basket for Mae Mae to sit in. After about 5 minutes of struggling to get her arranged and buckled, we were off. We stopped at Sears Grand for a quick stop, and of course we had to take Mae Mae in, which entailed unstrapping her and then carefully putting her back in her basket seat. Then I made the terrible error of setting my shopping bag on Mae Mae's feet. Abbey let me hear about that!

The ironic thing is, after all that, we got to my parents, Abbey opens the car door, grabs Mae Mae by the arm, rushes into the house and throws her on the floor. SIGH!

Saturday the other niece and nephew came over, as well as the rest of the family. We celebrated my mom's birthday with a big brisket dinner. Another piece of irony, as she doesn't eat brisket. The boys had total control over the TV all day (which translates into all sports all the time). I had brought a movie I thought everyone would enjoy and asked when the TV would be available, to which they responded, "midnight". Typical. So I got some scrapbooking done and played with the kids.

Dad has a thing about firetrucks lately. He has an old antique pedal car that he recently got restored and it's now worth quite a bit of money. The kids always want to ride it, so he bought a newer, less valuable pedal firetruck. Then Friday night he came home with a smaller firetruck, which was just Philip's size. So they had fun on their firetrucks.

Inspirations

2007-02-28T22:01:00.000-06:00

Every year, part of my New Year's resolutions is my resolve to produce more fine art. Ha! That's always a losing battle. Last year I resolved to paint one painting a month. Here's the painting from January, 2006 (as you can see it's nowhere near completion)....
That's a pretty low success rate. Guess I don't take those resolutions too seriously. I don't know why I'm so unproductive when it comes to my art. Actually, maybe I do have an inkling. Non-artists don't realize the amount of focus and energy it takes to create art. I think sometimes they think it's as effortless and relaxing as coloring in a coloring book. Though it's enjoyable, after working 40 hours a week in a demanding job, I don't always have the energy or desire to gather up my painting supplies and hope inspiration hits. Not to mention the fact, that once you get in the creative groove, it's really hard to quit. I can easily see myself at 2:00 am realizing that I better call it quits so I can function at work (all concept of time seems to disappear). I mean I guess I could paint with a stopwatch, but that would be so "J-ish" and scheduling my creative productivity would be counterproductive. On the other hand, I'm doing hardly any art as it is. So, in an attempt to spur myself on, I've decided to write down some goals (I know, I know, it's totally a J thing to do).

1. Over spring break, I'm going to do some Spring cleaning. What does this have to do with painting? Well for one thing, I have difficulty allowing myself to follow my creative pursuits when I know there are areas of my house that are in total disarray. Secondly, I'll get my art space all organized and ready to go.

2. I'll take stock of my painting supplies, replenish when needed, and set my area up in away that is conducive to painting at a moment's notice (i.e. when I feel like it).

3. I don't know if you've noticed, but in the sidebar of this blog, I've included some links I've entitled, "Inspirations". Several of these are painters that do a painting a day. I am not going to set such a lofty goal for myself (I do work and have a social life after all). One thing I've learned from their sites is that it's better to paint small, rough paintings on a frequent basis than to have one painting sitting around untouched and unfinished for over a year. The practice is invaluable and really these small "rough" studies can be quite good. My goal under the topic of inspirations, is to look at others' art daily (especially those with similar style to my own), as this really does get my creative juices flowing.

4. Being the "P" person that I am, deadlines are really good incentives. I'm going to start with posting a picture of a painting every 2 weeks (beginning after Spring Break). I'm going to tell myself that no matter how small the painting or how much I hate it, it's the process, not the product. I believe that to be true in art therapy, why can't I apply that to myself as an artiste? We'll see how that goes. Ultimately, I'd like to work up to 1 per week, but right now I'm working on attainable goals.

So you all have my permission to start nagging me towards the end of March about my first painting. I really want to do this, so nag away....I'm a people pleaser.

Of Mice and Women

2007-02-25T23:42:00.000-06:00

I was having such a relaxing Sunday evening. I just finished a long chat with my best friend, and was ready to take my shower, do a crossword and hit the hay. I went to turn on the shower, and out runs a mouse! I'm not an easily excitable person, but I did scream. Technically I'm not afraid of mice, but I don't really want to share my shower with one either. I don't relish the thought of being in a vulnerable position and having one run across my feet. I actually think mice are pretty cute (except for those wormy looking tails), but there's a huge difference in picking one up out of a cage to hold and having one run over whatever body part it wishes only to disappear so he can surprise you later. I think what bugs me most about mice is that they are so quick and have no regard for your personal space.

So there we were.....mouse vs. woman. Me wishing at the moment that I had a husband for moments like this. It wishing the sides of my tub were not so sloped and slick with water. After a few moments of gazing into each other's eyes, I finally ran to get the cat. I was quick about it, as I didn't want it escaping. I was in such a hurry, I hadn't turned off the shower yet, so my cat wanted to be nowhere near the bathroom. He took off. I stood there watching its twitching whiskers wondering what to do next. I didn't know, so I ran to get my camera. If nothing else, I was going to get a picture of this rodent. When in doubt, snap a picture. We sat staring for awhile longer. I decided to try the cat again. Dag nab it....that cat needs to earn his keep around here! This time, I plopped him on the ledge and he finally noticed the mouse.....as it scurried back down the drain!

Now what to do? It was time to call for reinforcements. You just never know what your friends are going to need you for. I'm sure this was Niki's first time aiding and abetting a mouse hunt (by phone anyway). We were on the phone quite awhile, debating what to do. On the one hand, I didn't want to be cruel and drown it, because I felt sorry for the poor thing (plus I didn't want a dead mouse in the drain stinking up the house). On the other hand, I was trying to imagine sponge baths and washing my hair under the sink for the next week or so. Something had to be done. Finally Niki consulted the resident varmint patrol for the Nowell family. He wisely suggested that the mouse would get flushed out of the drain if I ran water down there. So I tried that. I then plugged the drain, took my shower in standing water, and plugged it again. That mouse has either been flushed out or he's really good at holding his breath and is just waiting for his next opportunity for freedom.

It's a good thing the girls and I didn't go see "Flushed Away" the other day. I would probably just feel more guilty about the mouse-acide I had to commit tonight. As Niki said, since the mouse was wet, it would have frozen to death if I'd caught and released it. I think death by drowning is much more humane. And if the cat method had worked, he would have toyed with that poor mouse for awhile before snacking on him little by little, so I actually did that mouse a favor.

Well if nothing else, when you consider that cardio exercise is sometimes defined as getting into your target heart rate for a certain amount of time, I certainly got some tonight. Do you think it would look funny if I logged 15 minutes of mouse hunting as my cardio?

I think I'm finally calmed down enough to go to bed. Like I told Niki, at least it wasn't a rat, a tarantula, or heaven forbid, a snake. Which reminds me of my rattlesnake story. I'll have to share that one later. Sweet dreams. I'm sure mine will be filled with varmints with a penchant for playing hide and seek in my plumbing.

The Battle Between "P"s and "J"s

2007-02-24T22:05:00.000-06:00

So Thursday's movie was "Music and Lyrics". It was surprisingly good....a bit cliche in parts, but overall pretty entertaining (especially for those of us who grew up in the 80s). It was a prime example of the clash of the Js and the Ps......Don't worry, I'll explain myself.

If you've ever taken the Myers-Briggs type indicator test, you know that you are assigned four letters that sum up your preferences. Think of each of these as a continuum. We all fall somewhere on the continuum and aren't solely one type, but generally lean one way or the other. The first preference is introvert/extrovert (do you get energy from being around others or from being alone). The second is sensing/intuitive (the way in which you take in information). The third is feeling/thinking (how you evaluate information and make decisions). And the fourth - the J and the P - is Judging/Perceiving (your lifestyle).

Here's a quick synopsis of the differences between Js and Ps:

Js: / Ps:
Value structure / Like to go with the flow
Plan ahead / Adapt as they go
Like Order / Like flexibility
Goal-oriented /Process-oriented
More structured / More easy-going
Like things settled and decided / Like things open and spontaneous

Being in a psychology field, of course I have an interest in human behavior. I've always found the Myers-Briggs fascinating, and at one point read a book on speedreading people. I discovered that the people I work most closely with at work are all "J"s, while I am a "P". One in particular (who shall remain nameless), is more J than the others. She is very scheduled, gets things done way ahead of time (and nags me when I don't), keeps an extremely tidy office, and is bugged by things being out of place. She can't even eat a sandwich when the meat and cheese are hanging off the edge. Sometimes, when we're in her office, I'll toss something on the floor just to see how long it takes her to compulsively pick it up. Sometimes she's on to me, but it's still interesting to see how unfocused she becomes when something is on the floor. So we give each other a hard time about our foibles. We Ps are often classified as being irresponsible and unorganized (which isn't necessarily true).

Anyway, Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore were a classic example of the P/J clash. She was very flighty and spontaneous, while he was very neat and tidy. As she came into the apartment to water his plants, she unfailingly tried to drop her purse and coat on his baby grand. He was so perturbed by this, he barely let them touch the piano before he had them moved. When they decide to pair up to try their hand at song writing, she moves the furniture. This obviously drives him nuts and he complains that she's in his space. Really, just go see the movie. You'll see what I'm talking about. It is interesting how two people who seem so opposite can hit it off so well (I'm not giving anything away, but it is a romantic comedy you know).

So, BTW, if you haven't taken the Myers-Briggs, here's a place where you can take a free test.... Let me know how it turns out for you. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
And here is a site with both a brief and more detailed profile of your type: http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html BTW, in case you're wondering, I'm an INFP.

Spring is a-Comin'

2007-02-24T21:48:00.000-06:00

You may think by "Spring is a-comin" I mean things like crocuses starting to pop up and the weather getting nicer. Around here, my first sign is Sasha starting to blow her coat. Like many long haired dogs, she has an undercoat which starts to come out in the spring. You'll see a little tuft of hair sticking out and when you pull on it, it's like a magic act; it just keeps coming, like an endless supply of fluffy Kleenex. It's kind of fun in a weird sort of way, though she doesn't agree. Take a look at how much hair I got in one grooming session last year......
.....now that pile's almost as big as she is. The fact that she is extremely jealous works in my favor. When she tires of her grooming session and leaves, all I have to do is pick up a ball of fur and hold it and talk to it like it's a puppy, and she's back in a flash. I know, that's probably a cruel psychological trick, but hey, it works and she's a dog, not a child.

Some friends of mine at church had a request that was really strange. Their dog keeps chasing rabbits and they heard that dog hair keeps the bunnies away. So a month ago or so they asked if I'd save Sasha's hair for them. I told them yes, but it might be awhile, because at the time, she wasn't shedding at all. Weird how this week I kept her outside for 3 days and suddenly she's a canine Kleenex box. I'll have quite a wad to give them. I wonder if they'll die it green to blend in with the grass. Otherwise, their neighbors might wonder how they still have snow around the borders of their yard.

Well it's been a very busy week for me. I had something going every night and today too. Wednesday was church. Thursday I went to the movies and dinner with a friend from work. Friday I drove over to Holton, KS in the afternoon for a professional conference and didn't get back 'til at least 8. Today I planned a girls' day out with some friends. We went to see Bridge to Terabithia, followed by a trip to the plaza for some PF Chang's and Cold Stone Creamery (I started free day tonight, for those of you keeping track of my cheating on the old BFL).

An Ahhhhhh Moment

2007-02-20T22:23:00.000-06:00

Well, well, well, it's been busy around here.....a good kind of busy. A family friend was in town, so I spent time with her over at my parents' place. We went to the Steamboat Arabia museum here in KC. It was really interesting. The Arabia was a steamboat headed north from St. Louis up the wide Missouri in the 1850's. As it neared KC, it struck a log and sank. It was not recovered until 1988, some 130 years later. Before the Army Corp of Engineers defined the boundaries of the river, it meandered all over the place, so the ship was actually buried under a man's cornfield. They got permission to dig and found the ship 35 feet below the surface (and under an underground river at that). Amazingly they were able to complete the retrieving over the winter, as the man had stipulated that they needed to be done in time for him to plant his crops in the spring.

The museum was like an old fashioned Walmart or Home Depot. There were shelves and shelves of dishes, buttons, boots, food, tools, hardware, and on and on. In fact they said they have 15 more years worth of stuff to clean and put out on display. It's the largest display of pre-Civil war artifacts in the world, and it's right here in KC! Pretty interesting if you like history.

I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday with Janay and my folks and Monday was my day off. I feel like I squandered it. Not only did I sleep in, but I also couldn't resist taking a nap. Meanwhile, my house is a mess, the fridge is almost bare, and my mail pile needs attention. Sometimes it does seem like a waste....cleaning that is. I mean I do it every weekend, and it's just messy again. Why not just do it once a month and save 3 weeks worth of work? Or just clean when you're expecting someone? This should be one of the benefits of being single, but I can't enjoy it. It bugs me when the house is a mess. I guess I was so overwhelmed with things I needed to do, wanted to do, and didn't have time to do on Monday, that a nap just seemed like a good solution. Now to my credit, I did work out and get a few crosswords done on Monday, so I exercised both mind and body.

OK, all that talk about cleaning calls for another list......Top 10 things about being single......maybe I'll work on that tomorrow.

Last night I got a call from an old college friend I haven't seen in 15 years. She was in town for a conference and wanted to arrange for us to get together. So tonight, we met at P.F. Chang's on the plaza. It was really good to see her and it turns out we're in similar lines of work. She was with a group of about 12 co-workers, and since I arrived late, they were kind enough to tell me not to order, as there would be enough food. I have to say it was really good, even if it might be a stretch on the old BFL plan. But hey, since when can a single person turn down free food? I will say that they went to Cheesecake Factory afterwards and I was able to abstain. Wow....that was hard, but not too bad. I just appealed to my cheapskate side and told myself $7 for a lousy piece of cheesecake......Who am I kidding? That $7 buys you a piece of heaven. I like my piece of heaven in the Craig's Crazy Carrot Cake or Pumpkin Pecan variety. And then there's the white chocolate selections. MMMMMM.........OK, I'm off to eat a soy nugget protein bar ;-(

As busy as things are, sometimes God just plants something in front of you that makes you slow down and just say, "Ahhhh". For me that was the beautiful sunrise this morning as I drove to work. You know God could have been a God of practicality and function, but I'm so glad He's an artist too. It was so kind of Him to paint the world in brilliant colors and remind us every day in a new way of His love for us.

I took this picture on my camera phone. It does not do it justice at all, but I've decided my blog needs more pictures (I'm definitely a picture book kind of girl, and the same applies to blogs). So here you go....one low quality picture shot out the window with a camera phone while driving at 79 mph. I decided not to post the one of the friendly officer in the passing lane, pointing at me while I took a picture. I don't know why he wasn't smiling. He even turned on his lights, I'm guessing for dramatic effect.

V-Day (or Singles' Awareness Day) Debriefing

2007-02-15T22:18:00.000-06:00

Well I survived Singles Awareness Day (SAD) yesterday. Actually it wasn't bad at all. Got some very funny e-cards, exchanged some silly gifts with my other single friends at work, avoided the front desk (flower central), attended a sign language class, and had some good phone conversation.

Now perhaps this is coming a bit late, but just for fun, I thought I would send a bit of V-Day etiquette. Let me just preface this by saying, that after reading this you may get the impression I am an embittered single. On the contrary, this is just for fun (but kinda based on actual experiences through the years).

Tips for the Married (or Perpetually Dating) on Dealing with your Single Friends

1. Never go on and on complaining about how your husband or boyfriend never gets the kind of flowers you really like. Appreciate what you have. If you keep going on and on about it, we're just going to be tempted to call the florist and order you a bouquet of dandelions.

2. Unless you're close friends, your single co-workers don't really want to see the 3 dozen roses you got, because they've already seen the parade of 50 other bouquets people just had to show them.

3. This is the wrong day to talk about how lucky we are to be single and reminisce about your days of flying solo. We can see right through that and know you're just feeling sorry for us.

4. Asking your single friends to babysit because they have nothing better to do just adds insult to injury. If we have to stay home alone, we wanna wallow in self pity without any witnesses. (OK, I didn't do that this year, just saying that for dramatic effect).

5. There is nothing insulting about sharing your chocolate on V-Day (I prefer the peanut M&Ms please).

6. Don't avoid your single friends on V-Day because you don't know what to say to them. It's the equivalent of not looking at a disabled person because you don't want them to think you think they're a freak. Just act normal (or as normal as you are capable of).

7. Don't think that suggesting a blind date with your cousin's neighbor's ex-babysitter's big brother is a good idea. It's like saying, "spending time with someone who could possibly be a complete cad has got to be better than being alone on V-Day". How wrong you are. I'd much rather stay home and clean my grout with a toothbrush than be on a bad blind date on V-Day.

8. Don't ask, "Where's your pink and red?" when we fail to come to work donning the official V-Day colors. Remember, we have our own holiday to celebrate and I think the official colors should be black and green (in case you're wondering, those would be the opposites of white and red).

9. The S.A.D. festivities can be fun for single people. If you see a group of singles talking and laughing, don't interrupt them with your sappy romance stories or you're likely to be tarred and rolled in crushed conversation hearts.

10. You have your fun and we'll have ours. We'll try not to burst your bubble if you try not to flaunt that bubble in our faces.

A Small Price to Pay

2007-02-13T06:48:00.000-06:00

OK.....So I should get extra merit points. I woke up early, saw that we had about 5 inches of snow overnight and came in to check the school closings. Paola wasn't on there. Every other school around here is out, but not Paola. I absolutely hate when that happens. I live far enough north of there, that it could be really bad here and not so bad there. So I watched the school closings for a good 10 minutes, just waiting....but nothing. I reluctantly went downstairs to do my cardio and upon my return, I rejoiced to see that Paola did finally list. I'm going back to bed! And I've got my cardio over with.....Oh, wait....gotta shovel the drive. Guess that makes it double cardio day for me. Small price to pay for a free day off!

My, my. 6:00 does come early! (Especially when I'm blogging at almost midnight).

2007-02-12T23:49:00.000-06:00

Well, just for the purposes of accountability, I'm going to jot down here that I'm getting up at 6:00 am to do some cardio. It's really hard for me to get in the swing of things when it concerns getting up earlier, but I'll report back. The trick is, cardio is 3 times more effective in the morning on an empty stomach. So at 5:45 when the alarm(s) ring, I need to tell myself that it's either 20 minutes now or one hour that afternoon. That oughtta put a fire under me......On second thought it's snowing, and if anything can get me out of bed, it's the thought of checking the news for snow cancellations! Could work in my favor!! Now just to be clear for all you accountability gurus out there.....if there's a snow day, I will do my cardio when I get up, not at 6:00 am. That's totally acceptable. Don't want to get caught up on a technicality. OK, off to bed!

World's Worst Jobs

2007-02-10T15:52:00.000-06:00

For the last few weeks, as I near my house every night on the return from work, I pass this man and think to myself, "That job has to stink". He's a tall African American gentleman that has been dressing in an Uncle Sam costume to advertise for some tax preparation company. Not only is the costume humiliating, but it has been freezing cold here for the last few weeks and he doesn't even get the luxury of a coat (aside from the paper thin cheap costume coat that's part of the Uncle Sam get up). Now to his credit, this guy appears to have a great attitude. He stands out there day after day waving very enthusiastically at every car. One day as I passed, I realized that things could get worse. They had him in a Statue of Liberty dress and crown! Wow. Now that's a guy who's secure in himself. I have to say that a 6'2" male, black Statue of Liberty is an attention grabber, but I feel for the guy. They better be paying him well!

Here are some of the jobs I've run across that have to be in the running for world's worst job:

1. Bus driver for children who attend a Behavior Disorder school. I kinda know about this one first hand. Although I wasn't the bus driver, working with these kids was challenge enough when you were in a school full of supportive people that could come running at a moment's notice to help out. But to think about trying to drive down the road with only 1 bus aide and a (short) bus full of kids who are as unpredictable as all get out, is just scary to me. There were actually video cameras on some of the buses and as school staff, we sometimes watched them to determine what kinds of consequences the kids needed, and let me just say, those bus drivers need a medal!

2. 10-Key Data Entry. By far, the job that was the absolute worst fit for me was a temp job I had a few years back. Now keep in mind that I am an artist, and thrive in settings where I can be creative. I worked for several weeks at a trucking company. For the first 4 hours of the day, all I did was straighten invoices so that they could be run through a scanner. I had to unfold the dog ears and make sure they were facing the correct way (believe me, that got old after about 38 minutes). For the last 4 hours of the day, I had to enter the numbers from invoices that wouldn't scan. As I would drive home, I'd be picturing how to 10-key every number I saw, from license plates to serial numbers. AARRGGHH! Good thing it was temporary. I believe that job truly had the capability to torture me into going crazy.

3. Denny's waitress. I did this for 7 months before I went to grad school. Waitressing is hard work. People can be rude and demanding, the hours are crazy, and you are constantly on the go. You can however make a fairly good living as a waitress (provided you don't waitress at Denny's). What was I thinking? Why didn't I apply at Red Lobster or something a bit higher class? After all, I would have customers come in for the $1.99 grand slam and ask if that included the tip. When I had a group come in and all order grand slams, I pretty much knew I wouldn't be getting much. My last night as a waitress (hopefully ever) was New Year's Eve of 1995-6. We were one of the few restaurants open when the bars closed, and I realized just how rude, demanding (and harassing) a room full of drunk people could be. On top of that, seeing how food is prepared in the restaurant industry was an eye-opening experience. Once I witnessed the cook holding a cigarette in one hand just outside the door (so he wasn't technically smoking in the kitchen) and the other hand preparing the food. I'll spare you the other details, but let's just say, I have trouble eating at a Denny's anymore.

Well, there are lots more in the running, but those definitely top my list.

Auntie T times 3....Make that 4

2007-02-08T20:10:00.000-06:00

Well, my sister is expecting! It's a girl! Abbey is soooo excited. Today Tracy went for the ultrasound. We met up for dinner and Abbey was so excited to show me her new sister. I teasingly asked her why her sister was grey. She responded, "I guess that's just how they look on the soundtrack"!

We discussed names at dinner. I won't give anything away, but I will tell you that Abbey is voting for Esther, her favorite Bible character. By the way, Abbey was named after a dog! Yep, Tracy and her husband at the time had a lab named Abbey. They loved the name so much, they used it again for their first-born. So glad I wasn't named after any of my parents' pets. I just don't think people would take me seriously if I had a name like Thumper or KittyBob.

Have you heard about people that tell their friends what their planning to name the baby, and the friend steals the name and uses it? Even worse, I've heard of people using it on their pets. That's why I won't reveal the names I have picked out. Don't want you wasting it on your pet fish or something......Actually I only have one for a boy. It's unique and I wanna keep it that way.

Tracy was hoping for twins ( two in one shot)! We discussed that twins don't run in our family. My sis-in-law pointed out that multiples are more common the older the mother gets. Suddenly my future is coming clear: me at 40 with quadruplets.....And I thought it was too late for 8 kids! Here are my favorite nieces and nephew (so far)!

The "Hobbit" diet

2007-02-06T20:19:00.000-06:00

Well this new "lifestyle change" I've been on is causing me some stress. I found it in a book about thyroid diet (I have hypothyroidism, and losing weight has been more difficult since my diagnosis). I read the e-book and it seemed like it made a lot of sense. So for the first month, I embarked on the "conditioning" phase. Basically, this translated to eating a lot more calories, lower fat, higher protein. The goal is to boost the metabolism so that when you enter the fat burning phase, your body doesn't think it's starving and slow the metabolism. Makes sense right? In theory it sounds great. Practically speaking, it meant eating a lot more than I wanted to. My friends at school couldn't believe how much food I would pull out at lunch. And honestly I never thought I'd complain about having to eat too much, but it really was a lot....3200 calories. It wouldn't have been hard if it could have been any food I wanted, but I still had to watch the fat and sugar. I nicknamed it the hobbit diet because you basically eat 6 meals a day. So around 10 am, I was partaking in my 2nd breakfast, just like the hobbits do. It was so counterintuitive, but I decided to stick with it and see.

So yesterday, I finally made it to the fat burning phase. I was anxious to get there, as that's when the weight starts coming off (as opposed to packing on a few pounds in conditioning). So yesterday, the program told me what I needed to eat and it was virtually impossible. It told me to eat 240 g of protein (hard enough anyway), but only 40 g of fat and 25 g of sugar. Wow, even eating low fat meat racks up the fat grams. And even 2 cups of milk gives you almost 25 g of sugar. So after all that work in conditioning, I think I'm going to have to switch plans. I just don't think drinking protein shakes for the rest of my life is very practical. I've got to have something do-able......and I'm tired of feeling like a hobbit!

So on an unrelated topic, I checked out a book on sign language to peruse on the long van ride to Nashville. Imagine my surprise when I pulled out a check for 490 some dollars. Even more shocking, it was endorsed on the back! Wow! Someone must have been freaking out last fall when they couldn't find that check. Guess I'll mail it to the person that wrote it. So what's the weirdest thing you've ever found in a library book?

Nashville Weekend

2007-02-04T18:30:00.000-06:00

Whew! What a whirlwind weekend! I just got back from Nashville and I guess technically I'm now a Nashville recording artist (ha!). Our worship minister, Allen, and his wife Ann took a group of us to record on Keith Lancaster's new a capella praise and harmony CD. There were 15 of us, and honestly, I was not looking forward to cramming into a 15 passenger van with the 12 that were carpooling. The good news was that because of insurance issues, we got 2 12-passenger vans. So we had 5 people in our van and each got a row to ourselves.

Recording was not as tedious as I thought it might be. There were about 200 people there. We all brought earbuds, which we plugged in to listen to the beat and pitch of the songs. Keith was very energetic and although he's very talented musically, he wasn't rude or demanding when we goofed and had to re-record something. Here's our group in the chapel turned recording studio and Ann and I (with Allen in background) at a late night food run on Friday night.

We recorded Friday night and Saturday morning and then spent the rest of the day sightseeing. First we went to the Parthenon, which was an awesome full-scale replica of the actual Parthenon, including a 41 foot statue of Athena, an artist's rendition of what the original may have looked like....pretty stunning!

Next, we headed to the GOO, as Allen called it....The Grand Ole Opry Hotel. Who knew a hotel could be so grand? It's the largest non-gaming resort under one roof in the world. I had heard it was pretty awesome. I guess it was one of those kinds of things where you had to see it to believe it. This place was huge. It had several large areas that really created a relaxing ambience. One area looked like a vignette from a Southern landscape, with gardens, balconies, and boutiques housed in Southern style architecture. There was a canal and we took a canal ride through this particular atrium. There were waterfalls you could walk behind, trails to explore and beautiful vegetation. Here are some shots (that don't do it justice).....

Here's a cool perforamance artist appropriately named, "deVine". She was pretty intriguing.

After GOO, we did a little shopping at the Opry Mills shops. A few locals recommended we eat at Demos' restaurant downtown so we set out in search. We found a parking garage and cleared the height requirement clearance bar. However, once we got in the garage, we found that our van really wasn't going to fit. We had some tense moments as we literally scraped under a few of the clearings.....That was definitely worse than the nails on the chalkboard sound.

We left this morning at 5:30 am. And wouldn't you know, we opened our doors and saw this....

First time it had snowed in Nashville in 3 years. We made it home though, thanks to Ann and Allen's driving.

Procrastination

2007-02-01T23:11:00.000-06:00

Well, I leave tomorrow morning at 5:30 am for Nashville. Here it is 11:12 pm and I haven't even started packing. Yes, I'm the great procrastinator. In college I even wrote an essay that was basically a narrative of all the things I did while procrastinating writing that paper. Normally, I don't wait this late, but I had a very full day, got home at almost 10 and then talked to friends on the phone. It's relaxing to hop online for a few minutes before starting the frenzied packing....... I'll write about my trip later (spoken like a true procrastinator).

Let it snow!

2007-01-31T20:50:00.000-06:00

Today the snow fell all afternoon. It was very pretty, and although it was only 2-3 inches, it caused major problems. Before I left work, I learned that there was both a 10-car and a 37-car pile up, closing the highway I take to get home. My drive home is usually 45 minutes, so I was anticipating a very long commute. I was pleasantly surprised that the mess was cleared up and the drive only took me just under an hour. I used to be a nail biter, but now the only times I catch myself biting them is in tricky traffic situations and while doing some creative problem solving. Needless to say, I now have 8 fairly long nails and 2 stubs.

As I drove home, I thought about the simple pleasures related to winter. So as promised, here's a list.....

1. My heated back massager. (My car has leather seats, and this simple $15 device makes me feel cozy and relaxed on days like today).
2. Chai Latte
3. Snow Ice Cream (haven't had that in awhile).
4. SNOW DAYS (should be # 1 on the list).
5. Coming home to find my driveway shoveled (my neighbor in Wichita used to do that kind of thing for me).
6. A fire in the fireplace.
7. Getting to wear boots all the time.
8. Trees covered in ice (as long as you don't have to go anywhere and still have power).
9. Sledding.
10. An untouched pristine snowscape (you know, no mailman tracks, tire tracks, kids footprints, or shoveling marks).
11. Snow so sparkly it looks like it's been glittered.
12. The plaza lights here in KC.

13. The end of winter (it's definitely not my favorite season).

Interview with God

2007-01-29T22:10:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm tired and am actually going to go to bed early tonight (don't know how long it's been since I went to bed before 10:30). I did want to share this beautiful slideshow a friend sent me. The pictures alone are a breathtaking glimpse of God's splendor and majesty, but the words make it all the more special. Hope you enjoy!

www.theinterviewwithgod.com

Highlights of 2006

2007-01-27T19:04:00.000-06:00

Well this blog, in part anyway, is supposed to be a way for friends to keep track of what's going on in my life. So here's an update on 2006 if I haven't talked to you lately.

At the very end of 2005, I was in a car wreck and spent the first 3 weeks of January without a car. I carpooled to work with a c0-worker who lives nearby and just got by on the weekends.

In February, I celebrated V-Day with my friends from Wichita. It's been sort of a tradition since I moved up here 3 years ago. Here I am with Patricia, Beverly, and Crystal. We stayed up late giggling and eating chocolate. I also got a chance to see my good friends Sharon and Deb whom I worked with a Project Bridge in Wichita.

Of course being close to family has been nice. My parents moved to Liberty (KC suburb) in fall of 2005 and my brother and his family moved there this year. So we've been able to have frequent family gatherings. Here is my sister-in-law Kim with her kids: Molly and Philip (who are now 3 and 15 months). Well, poor unlucky children have been the guinea pigs for my love of photography. Philip wasn't too crazy about posing in this pot, but he's sooooo cute, don't you think? And here's one of my favorite shots of Molly looking like a poster child for mischievous children. Can't you just see the tilted halo on her head? She really is a great kid and has a strong desire to please......The rest of my family lives close too. My brother Jim is in Marshall, MO, and Tracy and her daughter Abbey bought a house less than a mile from me.

Summer started with our regular Memorial Day weekend tradition. The family took our annual trip to Branson. This year we visited the Titanic museum and Predator World. Also this summer, I had a roommate. My good friend Michelle from Georgia moved in for about 7 weeks. She had visited me the summer before and while here, she met her boyfriend. They've been dating long distance for almost 2 years now. Since she is a teacher, it was the perfect chance for her to spend some quality time with Greg. In June, we went to the first York College Choir reunion. My best friend Niki was there too, and it was the first time the 3 of us had been together since college. Here's a shot of Niki, Michelle and I. Also in June, I had the opportunity to go to the TAC convention (yes I still stamp and scrapbook). Here I am with my stampin' friends Sandy and Cyndi.

In July I visited Chicago for the first time. I went with my friend Mary Jane, who is the music therapist at my school. One of the highlights was seeing "Wicked", which now is my favorite musical. It was excellent. We also took in the Art Musuem, Field Museum, Aquarium, Navy Pier, the boat cruise, and checked out one of Frank Lloyd Wright's homes. It was a great city and a great experience.

Well I came so close to sharing a birthday with my nephew. He was born the day before and turned 1 year in 2006. Here he is with his Birthday cake. We took a trip to the zoo. It was 90 degrees in October! Here are Abbey and Molly. That was my first visit to the KC zoo that I could remember, and it was a bit of a disappointment, I must say.

I'm pretty active with our singles group. Here we are at a fellowship at my house. In October, we had a retreat. Our new Worship Minister, Allen French was the speaker and it was a great weekend. This is a goofy picture. We went on one of those photo scavenger hunts and we had to act out a parable. Can you guess which one?

In November, I had the opportunity to go to the American Art Therapy Association conference for the first time. It was in New Orleans, so that was a first for me too. I took an extra couple of days to look around. The architecture was beautiful.

Christmas was fun. Here are the kiddos being cheesy. On December 29, my sister got married. Abbey was so excited, especially since she got to wear a junion bride dress and crown, like her mom. It was a beautiful wedding in the glass chapel in Eureka Springs. Here is Tracy with her new husband, Ben and Abbey.

Well, my friends, that's 2006 in a nutshell. Would love to hear what's new in your lives.

Rats and Apples Revisited

2007-01-26T19:13:00.000-06:00

On Fridays at school, the routine is a bit different. I don't do my regular therapy per se (as if my therapy is "regular"). Instead, the music therapist, PE teacher, PE para and myself team up to do a group called MMARS (music, movement, art and rhythmic sensation). We have 3 1-hour long MMARS sessions in which we work with 3 or 4 classrooms at a time in the gym. We pick a theme and then come up with games and creative activities to go along with the theme. The general goal is to provide the kids with some socialization outside of their own classrooms and to work on team building, following directions, etc. Today's MMARS theme happened to be the Chinese New Year. Among other things, we read the kids the folk story of how the zodiac animals came to be in the order they are. Basically the emperor at the time had animals race across a fast flowing river to determine their order. I think I hate being a rat even more now after finding out that it did not depend on its own creativity, cleverness, or strength, but rode on the coattails of the ox (well, literally it rode on his back across the river). As it neared the shore, it pushed the cat off into the water and jumped to shore before the ox could make it. So, yes, the rat is the first of the animals, but got there through laziness and trickery. The poor puddy tat didn't even make the list:-( ....We ended our MMARS session by having the kids decorate some large paper dragons with streamers and then marched around the room in a kind of bizarre parade (I love our special needs kids, but imagine them trying to walk halfway in synch while having their heads stuck up under a huge piece of paper).

Speaking of apples, we ate lunch at one of our favorite places in town (I should say my favorite; I've burned everyone else out on it). You need some background info for this story, so rewind a few months. Last August, I was eating there with some co-workers. They had a wonderful new salad that I really liked and I asked the manager if I could buy some of the dressing. The tall, dashing assistant manager brought it out to me and through the course of the dinner, the girls noticed that he seemed to be circling the restaurant and glancing my way more than usual. Later he brought me a folded piece of paper that had the list of ingredients for the dressing. Well, we had to go back the next week. It's not often someone flirts with me in public. My friends tried to give me flirting tips, but none of them were really dating, so it was kinda weird to ask them for advice. Sure enough, the next week, he was still checking me out and I was making my lame attempts to increase eye contact and smile. So this went on for a few weeks (I know, you may think I'm a big chicken; I prefer to say that I'm a remedial flirter). Finally I psyched myself up to make my move. I left my name and number and email in an envelope with his name on it (and a nice little note). I was feeling very proud of myself. You may think this is not very direct, but hey....baby steps. It was a big step for me. Well, I never heard from him, so I wrote it off as he wasn't interested.

So a couple months went by before we went again. I was a little baffled to see he was still acting the same. My friends thought he probably didn't get the note and my overly optimistic side tended to wonder that too. Well today's events proved that wrong. We were eating when he came by to check on us. My friends commented at how he looked directly at me. They didn't catch that he actually winked at me. Then later, he came by, got my plate and said, "You finished with that, Tawnya?". I was shocked that he knew my name, proving he had to have received the note. So now I'm just baffled. Why is he still flirting when he had his chance? I'm kind of wondering if using my name was his way of checking to make sure that I'm Tawnya. I don't know. I obviously don't get men sometimes. If you have any insight let me know.

Well, I think I'll end this post with a version of "special needs kids say the darndest things"......

Overheard by my co-workers:
Kid 1: "You're a retard!"
Kid 2: "Hey, don't call me that! I am not!"
Kid 3: "Yes you are! We all are! That's why we're at this school, dummy!"

We were playing a game where the kids had to run around like different Zodiac animals and land on a rubber spot when they heard "Happy New Year". We were on the sheep/ram and one particular autistic girl was standing on a spot too soon. Staff said something to her and she replied, "I was being baa-aaaaa-aaaad (spoken like a sheep)". OK, that lost something in translation. You had to be there or know this girl to truly get a chuckle out of it. If nothing else, I'll look back at it later and laugh.

How 'Bout Them Apples?

2007-01-25T22:43:00.000-06:00

My friend Janay sent me this fwd and I liked the metaphor......

"Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they sometimes take the apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy. The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right person to come along, the one who is brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree. Now Men... Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with. "

Beyond the humor value of this metaphor, I think there's a little bit of truth. I've certainly experienced it at times. I've watched guys choose women with lots of baggage while I stood by (virtually baggage free I might add) just shaking my head in wonder. Though it's easy to become jealous, deep down I know that I wouldn't want to be picked by someone who is happy with just lazily picking up some apple off the ground. I'd rather be the treasured apple that someone strives to reach.

BTW, I'm not a man hater and I don't agree with the stomping them into shape part, but it did cause me to chuckle.

Sometimes you just know

2007-01-24T23:40:00.000-06:00

Well I have to admit the online dating thing can be tedious. I'm so tired of writing the equivalent of small talk in emails. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy getting emails and corresponding, but there are few people I'm having meaningful conversations with. It's weird what you can tell just from a person's writing. To a degree, you can judge intelligence. (Though spelling skills are not supposed to be a good measure of intelligence, I would think most intelligent people would at the very least try to spell the name of the person they're trying to woo correctly). After a few emails, you get a sense for whether the person is optimistic, self centered, cocky, funny, socially backwards, clingy, and/or afraid of commitment. Not saying I'm a grammatical snob, it's just the little innuendos you pick up on that give you a flavor of what that person is like. For example, a person that gives up writing in paragraph form and makes three different lists in one short email, may be a little rigid or analytical for my taste. I have nothing against lists (in fact, I probably will post some in the future). I just don't want a conversation to turn into one....... You're probably reading this and thinking, "boy she's picky". Really I'm not that picky. Sometimes you just know.

National Pie Day

2007-01-23T22:47:00.000-06:00

So I heard it was National Pie Day. Sounds like something I'd wanna celebrate. Unfortunately my new "lifestyle change" isn't conducive to having a slice. Here's a random fact about me....I'm really good at making desserts. My friends say I should open up a bakery/dessert shoppe. Now that would definitely be a lifestyle change. If I ever give up on meeting Mr. Right, maybe I'll do that. (I say that because I'd probably gain 100 pounds and have to wear a mumu if I had desserts around all day every day). Maybe it'll be in a bed and breakfast. Better yet, I don't like mornings, so it'll be a bed and dessert. I'll wake up when I feel like it, concoct some deliciously sinful confections, mill around with the guests, take it easy and then of course, sample the goods (job hazard). Not a bad life. Maybe I'll marry a dentist who likes rotund women, then I could have it all.

So what's your favorite pie? I of course can't pick just one, but some of my favorites are Key lime, Black bottom chocolate pie, Caramel pie, and Turtle pie. Happy pie day! Have a piece (or 2) for me!

Rats!

2007-01-23T00:12:00.000-06:00

Well, I am having a terrible start to my resolution to go to bed earlier (note the time), so my rant for tonight will be short...... Why of all God's beautiful creatures, do I have to be a rat on the Chinese Zodiac? And secondly, why is this important tidbit posted in my profile for all the world to see, as if it's one of my greatest accomplishments? I'm just not feeling it. I think we rats should start a revolt and declare ourselves a new animal. Whad'ya think? Dolphin, unicorn, leopard? Heck, even elephant would be better than rat. On the up side, at least I'm not a snake (no offense to you snakes out there....I feel your pain).

Worst Case Scenario

2007-01-21T23:40:00.000-06:00

Well here I am in a place I never thought I'd be.....the blogworld. What am I doing in a place where people regurgitate their most intimate thoughts for all the world to see? Well, I can tell you right now that there won't be any of that. Worst case scenario comes to mind.....One day I'm typing along about my innermost thoughts and get carried away about how someone's done me wrong. They happen to find my blog. Not pretty. Or I start writing about my occasional bout of irrational thoughts. Some guy I've been getting to know finds my blog and thinks I'm neurotic. Or I post about one of my pitiful (but often humorous) adventures in online dating and the guy in question reads my blog. Could cause a slight problem. Anyway, maybe I'm just paranoid, but I prefer to keep my innermost thoughts in what Jerry Seinfeld called "the vault". Next best option....a locked diary hidden in.....well I can't tell you where. Am I a private person? Slightly. I mean we're talking about the girl who in the 7th grade went to Dad's workshop and built a box she could lock away her private stuff (which at the time included Maxipads). So anyway, if you're looking for really juicy tidbits about me, you've come to the wrong place. For me this is just a fun way to keep my friends up to date on the happenings in my world, post some pictures, which I love taking by the way, and rant & rave (& ramble).