APRIL FOOLS!

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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)

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

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

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.