buggabu

lightening storm

2009-06-05T00:00:00.002-04:00

view from our back deck.

there was more than 1400 lightening strikes in this one storm, for California this is a very rare experience. It filled our hearts with fond memories of when we lived along the western shore of lake michigan.

back in internet-land

2009-06-01T18:44:00.005-04:00

We had some sort of digital power surge that literally smoked our modem so we were without Internet for the last week and a half. At first I was annoyed not having it and that it would take them so long to get here, but after a while I liked the quiet and even read and finished a book in my spare time not checking facebook or blogs!

It seems that we have a small wildlife refuge living in our backyard. Our house backs up to the American River Canyon. The national forest is right behind our yard. It is lovely to live on a cliff and be up where the hawks and birds soar. We have deer, turkey, a raccoon that sneaks up on our deck and eats all of Caden's raspberries, and a bear with two little babies that prefer to lay by the bridge leading to our front door.

this is the pregnant deer watching me take a picture of here through the window next to our stairs leading to the bedroom level. She was munching on our azaelia. They eat everything.

she is literally six inches from our window. We were enjoying checking each other out!

And here is mamma bear. This is 2pm in the afternoon. I was heading to my car to pick Caden up from school. The only way we got her to leave was to set off the car alarm. Then she just slowly meandered away, like "ok alright already I get the hint." We are taking every precaution to be able to let the bear live here. As long as she does not act aggressively. We all keep our trash inside until trash morning. She did attack our trash the first week we were here, she enjoyed some of Caden's birthday cake. She spread our trash everywhere, it was quite a mess. Then we left the empty trash can down by the garage and she drug it back up the driveway.

We contacted the fish and game and they do not relocate anymore. They would destroy her and her babies. That does not seem fair. So the neighborhood, mostly us (because she likes our house the best) are trying to make her wary of people and we are very aware of our surroundings. She seems to understand. She grunts and warns us where she is, and we carry a whistle wherever we go. We also posted notices by the trail that is right by our house. We will see. I hope we will all get along, because now we will have three bears to worry about.

here is the fiercest animal in the hood, Suki, she is in love with all of our windows that go all the way to the floor!

Our little guy is not so little, he just turned 8 a couple of weeks ago, he was so exhausted from all of the commotion!

thanks for stopping by! Talk to you all soon!

ups and downs

2009-05-12T19:58:00.002-04:00

Well, we have had another bump in our road, but all things happen for a reason and it seems we are on the up side now! The place we were renting was unexpectedly sold (was foreclosed upon). We were given six days over spring vacation to move. We ended up putting our stuff in storage and staying with my dad for a few weeks. But we do have good news. We found the most beautiful mid-century modern house on the canyon edge. We really are working towards buying this place, it is beautiful and a dream fulfilled for all of us. There is even a swingset play area for Caden. We call it the treehouse. It is built in an 150 year old olive orchard.

we can see the American River and the snow capped sierra mountains(on a clear day, this picture was taken on a rare cloudy day) and the canyon.

the backyard

the back of the house and decks

the front door and bridge to the house

I will update with more pictures of the inside and Caden's 8th birthday soon!

happy easter

2009-04-11T23:23:00.001-04:00

a really cool video...

2009-03-28T23:00:00.002-04:00

baa studios...extreme sheep herding
Extreme Sheep Herding on youtube

I made something...

2009-03-25T19:38:00.007-04:00

..well I am in the process of making something. A couple of weeks ago I made plaster slip casting molds. My kitchen was covered with white dust everywhere! My first set did not come out so pretty, so I chucked them in the trash! Trial and error, thats how I learn....This is the next set:

I think they are adorable! There is a mold for a small bowl/tea cup, a square bowl that is a little larger than a cereal bowl, a deep cereal bowl that is narrow at the bottom-it fits nicely in your hand, and a mold or a round cereal size bowl. I also made some slump molds (not pictured) Those are easy to make.

This is the first one to drop out...the small tea-cup/bowl that I shape a little pour spout on before it got leather dry.

here it is:

another view:

I am working on making silkscreen images (with my Gocco that I have had for a couple of years and am terrified of "wasting" it) of my artwork. I also am looking into getting a laser printer to make decals of my artwork (our church might have an old one, we just need to go to storage to look for it)

In family news, we are all doing well. I have been able to do pilates three times a week. I am due for my next set of injections for my back, so I have been more flared up than usual. I see those doctors on Monday, so I should have the injections scheduled to happen in a few weeks. The injections last for about 6 weeks. My appointments are every four weeks, so there is always a lapse of time where I am in a flare. Ok thats enough of that!

Thanks for stopping by!

the leprechaunator 2009

2009-03-17T16:10:00.002-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's day! Caden has a thing for leprechauns. He is determined to catch one, so he spent yesterday afternoon creating the "leprechaunator 2009".

He thought that the leprechaun may be attracted to the scent of a sharpie pen so he "scented" the trap and wrote "leprechaun" on the metal bar to let the little creature know where he needed to be...x marks the spot! To sweeten the pot even more, he drew a rainbow to draw the sneaky little leprechaun near. But.....the leprechaun ended up springhe trap and taking the rainbow and left a note with a one dollar bill for good measure!

{ our cute kid }

2009-02-24T16:50:00.004-05:00

We went to South Lake Tahoe this weekend before the next rain storm blew in. We took a gondola ride up to Heavenly Ski Resort. It was an amazing view.

The gondola starts at about lake level and shoot nearly straight up the mountain. It is a pretty crazy tall mountain.

This is the view of lake Tahoe from the first stop. It was really windy up on the mountain, we had to hold our hats on. Caden insists that he is afraid of heights, but it must not be too great of a fear because he was jumping on the grated decking that has a clear veiw way down the mountain just right under our feet.

This is the view of the first stop as we were going back down the hill.

Our goofy kid!

We are still contemplating the possibility of moving to the UK. Big decision.

february snow

2009-02-18T14:39:00.004-05:00

One of the things that we have missed since moving back to California from Michigan is the snow. We live in the Sierra foothills so we are not too far away from the snow and we go and "visit" it every once in a while, but last Friday, the snow came to us!

Caden had a snow day, his class Valentine's party was postponed and all of this hoopla over an inch or two of snow. It was all gone by 11am. It was fun while it lasted though!

Let's see...we also had the Pinewood derby for scouts this last month. Caden's car came in at exactly 5 ounces, but we still didn't place. Here is a picture of all of the kid's cars. They were all very creative. Caden's is the red one on the bottom row, second in from the left.

We also learned how to cross-country ski with the Junior Olympians. It was really fun. Caden ended up getting five patches and two belt loops at the boyscout awards assembly. Here he is, proud of his achievements:

Paul was in Hong Kong for four days for work last week, and he is leaving for England next week. In fact his work has been courting the idea of moving us to London area for five years. It would be quite an opportunity, I love to travel, but I am worried what implications it would have on Caden. What would school be like for him? What will medical care be like for my chronic illness? And how do you transport a turtle? What would we bring, what do we do with our cars? Ugh, so many questions, so much to think about. Needless to say, we are not jumping into this decision. We are getting our passports and we will be traveling to England with Paul, probably within the next month or two. Caden is quite excited about that trip.

I am trying to be a better blogger and to update this more often, my craft room is getting organized and I have a couple of projects in the works. I am especially excited that I have a brand new laptop on the way, my very own airbook, my first mac! I am so thrilled and am counting the days until it gets here! woo hoo! I do say that I got a very nice Valentine's Day gift!

now interrupting my silence!

2008-12-04T16:23:00.003-05:00

So sorry for the far and few between posts. Life is, well.....life and it keeps on going and going and time slips away.

One of the reasons that I have been away is that my flickr picture account is full and I am trying to figure out a way to post my pics on the web (I could pay for a bigger account through flickr, but I rather find a way to do this for free.) stay tuned for a post with pics quite soon. We have Caden's Christmas list (with picture examples!) and the halloween picture!

off to go grocery shopping and I will try to get this stuff blogged tonight!

the last two weeks...

2008-08-06T14:18:00.002-04:00

We were able to go for a long weekend trip to the ocean two weekend ago...we visited our old stomping grounds where Paul and I were counselors in high school, and where we would escape to go camping quite often when we were dating. Now we get to share it with our son. It is amazing how much the ocean erodes the coast line. You really see it after not being able to visit for over seven years. We had so much fun just being able to hang out as a family without the daily distractions. Here are some of our pictures...

Caden on the trail that we used to bring the 5th graders on....it was such a beautiful day.

This was in the middle of the day in the redwoods...it is so dark from the thick canopy of redwood trees. Caden and I were touching an old decomposing stump, it felt like cardboard.

The plant life is so different on the coast. I just loved this bright pink thistle flower. Plants have to be strong to be able to survive on the coast.

Caden pondering the waves....

This is in the Russian Gulch State Park.

This is the devil's punch bowl, also in the Russian Gulch, it is caused by the ocean tunneling a cave inland and the power of the waves punching through the land.

more beautiful ocean.

< src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3254/2739318950_e89cc10e46_m.jpg">
Caden pointing, he said it looked like a giant hot tub, brrr I don't think so....

This is the bridge crossing the Russian Gulch, it was the first of its type, and, to me, one of the most beautiful bridges.

an interior shot of the bridge.

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Caden is going back to school August 15th. So soon. His very first soccer practice was last night.
He did a good job for his first try. He is so tall and lanky compared to the other kids, you just see his long legs towering over everyone!

here he is posing:

and running in for a break...

In other news, Paul had a bought of insomnia and was able to take my kiln apart and fix it. I wish I was as productive when I have insomnia, I just get mad! So when Caden gets back to school, hopefully I can start firing the kiln....

thanks for stopping by!

i killed the kiln :(

2008-07-23T13:47:00.002-04:00

My kiln has taken a dive and we haven't quite fixed it, well because, I have no idea how to fix it...Paul is going to take it apart, it looks like the element might have gone bad (which is a normal thing) but neither of us know where to get parts for it or exactly which part is broken. Paul has been busy with work, as usual, so i decided to work on some log cabin quilted pillows for our couch.

Both pillows are pieced, but still need to be quilted. I have found that I am great at beginning a project, but not so great at finishing it!

tiny visitor

2008-07-23T13:42:00.002-04:00

we had a baby praying mantis visit one of my bonsai trees....he was so delicately tiny and cute!

don't you agree? This maple tree is a bonsai, so the leaf he is one is less than one inch long, the little guy was the size of my pinky fingernail!

hello, haven't seen you around here lately...

2008-07-22T14:10:00.002-04:00

ok, no good excuses for me, I am a big blog slacker. Sorry. We were gone for about ten days visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Oregon and helping with a wedding. I don't think I worked that hard on my own wedding! There was a lot of little things that I didn't have to think about because our venue took care of those little things like moving the chairs, set-up etc that make you scramble about and not enjoy the wedding as much. But all the stress was worth it, the wedding turned out very nice. Paul and I were in charge of the music and photography.

This last week was a busy one for us also. We celebrated Paul's birthday and our 11th anniversary. On our anniversary we went car shopping and finally found a nice car, low mileage and not a huge payment. But as soon as we brought the car home and thought we could celebrate our anniversary the right way, Paul got very ill. He got the worse cluster migraine he ever had and could not stop vomiting. I had to call an ambulance because he couldn't walk downstairs and he was really ill, I was afraid it was an aneurysm or something horrible. After some anti-nausea meds and pain meds, Paul had his sense of humor left and we were able to go home. Needless to say, Sunday was spent chilling. So here is a picture of the car that sent Paul to the hospital, I hope we have better luck with this car than it started out! :)

( that is caden in the driver's seat! )

ok, well I have the computer now and I know how to load pics, so I WILL, yes, I think definitely I will be posting more often. I will just get myself out of my blues! somehow, some way!

bumming

2008-05-30T19:17:00.004-04:00

That's me right now, bumming. Paul has been working really long hours. He hasn't been home for dinner on a weeknight for about three weeks. They have been working on a big project, so that is the way it is. I always seem to call his office at the wrong time. I just haven't gotten my grove back yet since our move back to California. Everyone is busy, busy doing what I do not know, but busy. I just don't have any close friendships here yet. I have been thinking about trying to take an art class or something, to meet people that have similar interests and to learn a little something, but it doesn't fit into Caden's school schedule and I never know when to count on Paul being home, so that will have to wait too. It seems like all I have been doing is waiting. I have been waiting for my new laptop to load our pictures from Caden's 7th birthday party at Disneyland.

To top it all off, we just found out that our car that we purchased would have to be titled as a salvage, so now I am carless and we have to begin another search for a car. We seem to have no luck whatsoever with keeping a second car. It was a volvo wagon with only 70,ooo miles on it only a couple of surface dents, and it rode and drove really nice. Oh well, at least we had it to get us to Disneyland and back! So wish us luck on finding a car and actually keeping it :).....

OK, so that is my lame explanation on why I do not blog so much anymore, it seems the same story, different day. I still am having extreme problems with my back. I am trying a new treatment where they burn the small nerves that are impinged in my facet joints. The first of three procedures is next Wednesday. They will numb the nerves to see if it helps, if it does help, it will only be for a few hours. The second procedure will be the same to make sure the first wasn't a "placebo" effect. The fthird and final procedure is where they actually burn the nerves, it has helped some people for 6-12 months, and ever so often has taken almost all of the back pain away. My regual nerve blocks help my leg nerve pain from the scar tissue and permanent nerve damage on the sciatic nerve, but do not help at all with the back pain. We are hoping and praying this helps. I want so badly to get to work on my ceramic art again, I have been drawing so many ideas, but cannot stand at the table long enough to complete anything.

Ok, I am sick of complaining. If you got this far, sorry for whining. Just gotta let it out....

So to get my mind off of all of these things I cannot take cafe of right now, I played a little flickr game....

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

my answers:

out of the digital loop

2008-04-30T16:46:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the lack of communication here lately. We sold my laptop and we still have not received the replacement one, so I took an involuntary which turned into a voluntary blog/internet break. It was kinda nice. I find myself distracted by the computer, not getting much accomplished. We had out desktop computer, but I cannot sit at a chair too long with my back problems.

So lets update everyone on what we have been up to. We went to San Francisco three weekends ago. It was beautiful. We brought the convertible, it was so fun driving through the city with the top down, we got to see a lot more of the architecture. We visited the seals at pier 39 and took a little boat cruise to under the golden gate bridge and around alcatraz island. It was a beautiful, warm weekend. We ended the day with a drive down scenic highway 1 and put our feet in the cold cold pacific ocean.

Two weekends ago we drove up to Oregon to visit with Paul's family and deliver the Wii we got for his mom. We had multiple family Wii bowling tournaments. We also got to watch our neice, Mandi, perform in the school play.

Last weekend we vegged!

My back has been horrible. I am waiting for the authorization to come through to take an MRI to see if the fusion has changed. I have had bruising and extreme tenderness around one of the bolt areas. I have another nerve block scheduled for May 7th, hopefully it helps as much as it did before. After that injection, we will begin the radio-frequency rounds where the small inpinged nerves can be burned away.

Caden lost his other front tooth and is on his way to losing another bottom tooth. He is growing like a weed! We will be going to Disneyland with some friends for a long weekend on his birthday. That is what we will be doing next week! I have not been to Disneyland since I was 8 years old! I am sure it has drastically changed. Caden is beyond excited!

Ok, so I thought that I would update you all since I have received a couple of worried emails.

'Oh yeah...guess what...we sold the Michigan house! It hasn't quite been finalized, but soon!
Once my laptop comes I will be able to upload pictures a lot more easily. So hopefully I can share some pics soon!

thanks for stopping by!

March

2008-03-06T18:37:00.002-05:00

Caden lost his third tooth on February 20, 2008! It is his first tooth he has lost on the top. Now he has a gaping hole, so so cute! He was working on getting it out for quite a while.

see it?

We have been very busy around here. We are about all settled in, although my studio isn't set up yet. We are waiting to go to ikea to pick up some storage cabinets, and Paul is putting legs or having a couple of custom cabinets made for a butcher table top that we have sitting around to make a high work center for my studio. (that will be so nice for my back) We have it all planned out, it is just a matter of gathering up the supplies. Next week I am going over to a friend's house to pick out some more ceramic supplies, the people who owned their house must have been ceramic artists and left tons of supplies there. So rather than through them out, I get to have dibs!

Last week I had another round of epidural nerve block injections. This time they did L4, L5 and S1 on the right. It has helped, so that is a relief! I have also been having physical therapy in a warm salt water therapy pool. I found out that with my insurance that I will be enrolling into, I will get a free gym membership to the gym that has this pool, so I will be able to continue to keep up on working out. I really enjoy the pool, it allows me to get a lot more longer of a workout than I would be able to on land.

This is the picture of our new house (and my new little orange convertible VW!). We love it so much. We have discovered that is is really close to a part of the Western States trail that goes down to the American River and through the canyon. We took about a three mile hike yesterday. It is so beautiful, spring has sprung, and little wildflowers are starting to come out. Next time we will bring the camera! The only problem with the hiking is that the way down is great, but coming back up is all up hill, so we have to pay more attention to how far we go, Caden wasn't too thrilled about the long walk up to home. He survived....just as we knew he would, but you sure wouldn't think he would according to his drama :) Oh to be six again!

I also wanted to post his school picture for this year, I know that I have had a few requests for copies, we didn't get a big package this year because the pictures were taken like the second week after we moved cross country. So we bought the image CD so we could share.
here it is-all of his teeth and all!

Thanks for sticking with reading the blog. It looks like things here are settling down, and once the studio is finished I will be in production mode. I have tried blogging like three times this last month but this laptop has been a pill. It caught a horrible bug again, locked down the motherboard and all. After that was fixed it started acting weird again, so Paul just redid the whole computer again. Looks like we are in business now (we hope!) I cannot wait until we can switch to a mac! One thing at a time, though!

Take care! Thanks for stopping by!

We get to keep Suki!

2008-02-15T12:23:00.002-05:00

We were able to agree to the lease option, so we get to keep our beloved cat, Suki. I am so glad we get to keep her. It was breaking our hearts just to think of finding her a new home. She has traveled with us for two cross country moves. She is such a trooper. Her allergies seem to be a little better here in the new house too!

We still have a few boxes to move over to the new house and the final cleaning. We need to have everything done by Sunday. This moving stuff is exhausting. We are looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday!

That is it for now! Hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day. We sure did. I have the sweetest husband, and I must say, Caden is learning to be quite the little charmer too!

take care! thanks for stopping by!

busy-ness

2008-02-07T13:16:00.000-05:00

Life has gotten a bit busy around here. We are packing up the house and getting ready to move out of the mold this weekend. We are looking forward to moving into a bigger, brighter house! A house! Not a condo with no yard. I am so looking forward to see Caden ride his scooter again and get back to learning to ride his bike (once we can repair it from the last move-the movers crushed it a bit) Caden will be able to play outside again without me by his side every moment making sure he doesn't "disturb" the neighbors (mostly the manager...ugh!). It will be like regaining a bit of freedom back, like we had at our house in Michigan. Speaking of which, we got an offer, less than what we owe, but maybe viable with a counter offer and some generosity from the bank we will get out of the house without going under any further. Pray pray pray, please please please :) !!!

I have been going to physical therapy in a salt water pool two times a week. It is nice to be able to exercise a little, although I much prefer working up a sweat and seeing results like I did when I was able to run oh so long ago, but I am thankful that I am able to do something at least. The pool is nice and warm. My last injection was a complete failure, unfortunately. It ended up flaring up the nerves even more. Apparently this happens about once out of 200 patients. I have had so many nerve blocks that have been successful, I was so disappointed when my legs went freezing cold and burning, like when you have really cold hands and stick them under hot water-that sort of feeling. It remained like that for over a week, but now seems to just be lessening now, thankfully. I also got disappointing news yesterday that it looks like the surgery I had in December for endometriosis was also not successful. Such a bummer. My body and I are not getting along. I wish I could trade it in!

Caden is doing great in school. We made crayon hearts for valentine's day. You collect all of the broken up crayons, break them up some more, combine them in various colors and put them in a heart shaped silicon mold and heat them up in an oven at about 250 degrees for 15 minutes or so or until all melted together. It makes a multi-colored heart shaped crayon that we will attach to the valentines Caden will be giving his friends next week.

(pictures from familyfun.go.com arts and crafts site where you can find complete directions)

Ok, I better get back to packing so we can get outta here! We are convinced that the mold in this house have been causing Paul's headaches and just a general fatigue feeling. If anything, I know it isn't a healthy thing to be living in a house with mold and if they are not going to do anything more than spray some bleach water on the wall, it isn't going to get any better and we are not going to argue about it with the owner anymore.

it is always something...

2008-01-24T14:52:00.000-05:00

Well, this week is zooming by. I had my caudal epidural injections yesterday at the surgery center. The doctor had to do it twice because my anatomy was different (his explanation) and he had to move the needles lower. It should start to help within 3-5 days, fingers crossed.

Our garage has had a mold problem for quite some time and we have become concerned that it may cause us to be ill. We have given notice here and found a house with an option to buy after things with our house in Michigan clear up. The house is great, I will have an indoor studio, Caden will have a back yard to play in, and we will even have a reason to buy furniture eventually, as it has a living room and a family room. The neighborhood also has a small park. The only problem is that we cannot bring Suki with us. We are hoping that a friend will be able to care for her until we can purchase the place (if that happens). The owner had a really bad experience with cats and she absolutely will not allow us to have a cat. We are concerned for Suki because she has a chronic upper respiratory infection that our vet says will always be a problem, so finding her a new home will be difficult. She is a big part of our family, but it is so difficult to find places that allow a cat, and we have to put our family's health and Caden first. The condo where we live currently is run by a really difficult person who does not allow kids to play outside. We knew this would be a temporary move when we moved in, but the mold situation has caused us to step up the house search. Ugh, it is always something. The move is set for February 15th.

Next weekend we will be traveling to Oregon for Paul's Dad's birthday. The big boys get to go deep sea fishing, while the girls and Caden get to hang out. So that will be fun!

I don't think that I have told you all that Caden was able to get his turtle! His name is Sheldon and he is a asian aquatic turtle. He is quite cute! I will try to post some pictures of his soon! The turtle can make the move to the new house.

We have also found a church home. We are so happy to start getting back involved in a community. It is a new, small church call Elevation. Paul's good friend from high school goes there and invited us to check it out. It is very different, in a good way, from what we are used to. Being so small is an advantage though, we have already had a few volunteers to help us move. It is a very young church, mostly young families, we have more kids than adults! Oh, I almost forgot! One of the teachers in Caden's room moved into a house where the owner must have been a potter and left a lot of supplies. She invited me to come over one of these days and take whatever I want of the supplies that the former occupant left! I am so excited to see everything!

Well, thanks for stopping by! I will try to post some pictures of Sheldon the turtle soon! Take care!

Januray Storm

2008-01-13T21:08:00.001-05:00

As most of you know, we had a pretty big storm in Northern California last week. There are still a few houses without electricity! When the news tells you to stay home and out of the storm, what do we do? We go out and try to float the car....

Caden had fun, he thought that we were trying to become photo-journalists! Here are a few pics!

The park where Paul asked me to marry him (Auburn Recreation Park-ARD) lost quite a few old oaks.

Caden's school even had two trees fall down.

an inpromtu waterfall, not meant for drainage, but water goes the path of least resistence.

ornament exchange 2007

2008-01-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

Just thought I would share a quick picture of all of the ornaments I received from around the world in this last ornament swap. They are all so wonderful!

goodbye 2007...hello 2008!

2008-01-02T20:38:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

The surgery went fine, I am healing up well. I am still waiting for the date for my back procedures. It should be before January 14th, which is the next appointment with the specialist. I am really happy with my new doctor, he is quite familiar with managing the results of a failed back fusion. Apparently, my entire fusion has slipped and is crooked which has caused more nerve impingement among other issues. I guess it is good to know it isn't "in my head" but sucks to know there really isn't anything I, or anyone else for that matter, can do to fix it. A total disc replacement is on the horizon, but being 32, I am quite young for something like that. Ok, so onward and upward!

We had a beautiful Christmas. The weekend before we were able to spend with Paul's family in Oregon, Mom and I had a quick, but successful shopping adventure. I needed some better shoes and fell in love with her clogs. So we went to the place she had bought them in Ashland, Oregon. They were out of hers, but they had a big sale and I was able to buy two pairs of shoes for the price of a little more than one pair normally costs. I got a cute pair of clogs and some ballet flats. Paul and I were able to go to a party with his family also....Caden spent time with his cousin, and we went out alone! Our first party without kid since I was pregnant with him! We all had fun. Christmas day was spent at our house. Caden made out like usual! Everyone sent such great gifts this year. My mom got Caden a cute Gap sweatshirt and great toys. He also got two huge lego sets. He got so many toys that we decided to go to ikea the following day to get a storage unit for all the new books and toys. (We need to go and get one more for his room, the first one filled up so quickly that there is no room left for 'sheldon' the turtle who will be arriving later on this month). Paul and I decided to save money this year for a vacation and to not exchange gifts. But strangely enough, our cat Suki must have gotten out to go shopping because I got some perfume from her and a beautiful necklace from Caden. One of the many reasons why I married Paul, very creative guy I have! After the Christmas toys and joys were unwrapped, we enjoyed a quiet day and prime rib dinner with my Dad. New Year's Eve was also quiet, we looked for trouble, but all we found was the back of our eyelids well before midnight. Caden and I woke Paul up for the countdown for a New Year's hug and kiss!

We have two possible deals in the works for our house in Michigan. Please pray for us on this matter if you can. We so miss our house, our neighbors, our yard...it would make a beautiful home for someone, just a shame to sit there vacant. We have been advised not to rent out because we are so far away and it is more difficult to sell. If something doesn't take place soon, we will be in a really bad place. We need the house to sell so badly. The new year is looking up!

That is it for now, I am trying to update once a week and add more pictures too! I will upload Caden's school pic this week so everyone who didn't get one in the mail can have one--we only paid for four prints this year and the CD, school pics are so pricey and we thought that this way was a smart option.

Happy New Year! Stop bye often and soon! Take care for now!

holiday check-in

2007-12-17T15:41:00.000-05:00

Wow, things have been crazy around here. My surgery was cancelled and now is resceduled for December 27th. Good thing though, because we spent all of the day Saturday in the ER with Paul. We were getting ready to go see a movie and as his was walking upstairs he pulled something in his back and couldn't move his arms or left leg and it hurt to breathe. Panic set in....we were thinking, ok he pulled a muscle or a rib popped out, no problem, it will pop back in in a couple of minutes. Nope...so I had to put his shoes on him and help him hobble down two flight of stairs to the car and off the the ER, no Chipmunk movie for us. Because of Paul's cancer history, they took tons of tests. Thankfully, no cancer spots on his lungs or any problem with his bloodwork. Just excrutiating pain. Caden was an angel throughout the whole ordeal. The doctors do think that it is a soft tissue issue, but we are going to be on the safe side and Paul is seeing the family doctor today to schedule an MRI to rule out any herniation. It is a very high place to be herniated, so I have been hoping and praying it is a rib out and will heal and that will be that. Rib injuries are really painful. I have had a laminotomy at the T10 area and I know kinda what it feels like to have a disc problem up there...I hope he heals fast and doesn't turn chronic.

Ok, in happier news, I finished the ornaments I was working on for the 2007 Ornament Swap.

I made ceramic snowflakes, with holiday sentiments like "joy", "sparkle", "ho, ho, ho" hand embossed and glitter snow imbedded in the glaze.

here is an example:

and wrapped them all up like this:

I sent them off to locations from Hong Kong, Australia, and all over the United States. I have received some beautiful ornaments in exchange. I really enjoy doing this exchange!

I made 25 more snowflakes and a red-nosed reindeer that are in the kiln right now for the bisque fire. I numbered them 1 through 25 and I plan on making them into an advent garland for Caden where he would move the red-nosed reindeer each day to countdown the Christmas. I know, I am pretty far behind for it to work for this year :) but he will enjoy it next year! Maybe he will be able to countdown from 24 to 25!

Caden had his first stage performance last Wednesday. He and his first grade class sang a rap song called "Ribbons and Bows" in the school Christmas program. He hammed it up!

the pre-requisite goofy pose pre-performance! Like any six year old would want to have a plain smile for the camera!

He really really wanted a tie, he was the only one with a tie, but he loves wearing ties like daddy does. I had to pry it off twice before school, he insisted he needed to wear it to school, with a turtleneck, quite a style. That is Caden though, our little style maker.

Because it was a rap song, they put sunglasses on during the performance. Caden insisted on wearing my sunglasses, so they kept slipping down his face! Here he is, isn't he cute!

I was also the lucky winner of some beautiful ceramic loot from Linda at little flower designs

so so very cute, she is very talented:

(this is her picture, but it is the stuff she sent me, it is too dark today to take a decent pic!)

The little scoop with the bird face on it is adorable! I have the wee vase by my sink with a flower in it, it is perfect for that! And the ornament, oh so cute! So well made, and packaged with such love and care! I love to see what methods other ceramic artists use. She is very prolific and creative! Thank you Linda!

updates...

2007-11-28T20:33:00.000-05:00

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa-lini's house. We left Oregon feeling very full and satiated. It is nice being closer to family, we have spent so few holidays together.

Posting may be a bit more sporadic here...I have just found out that I need to have surgery on December 13th, which also means at least 4 doctors appointments in between now and then. On top of that I am participating in the ornament swap that I did last year. I signed up before I knew I had to have said surgery. I am finishing up 10 ceramic ornaments that need to be shipped by the 10th. I love this swap. It is the one and only swap I have ever participated in.

On the 19th, I finally get to see a local neuro here about my spinal disease issues. I haven't had a nerve block for over eight months, so I am moving slowly around here. I usually get injections at least every 6-8 weeks. Hopefully they can do the injections in office like my last physician could. It would be so nice to be out of my flare before Christmas.

Boy, this is a downer post, but I just thought I would let everyone know what is up. We have settled in quite nicely here in California, we just have to get the health issues in check and start being more productive! I wish my body would accomplish one tenth of the things I sketch out and aspire to make. I have made a new mold for a 6 inch bowl and also a smaller mold for a tea cup or small bowl. My next task is making a mold of a vintage child's bowling pin. I love the shape, I think it would make a cool vase. This mold will be my first attempt at a slip-mold (a two part mold, much more technically difficult).

We are taking our kitty Suki to the vet tomorrow to see if they can do anything about her allergies, she has been sneezing up a storm. Poor thing....

That is it for now, Paul is on his way home and Caden is starving (as usual), time to make dinner!

I will try to post soon, but don't worry if I don't! Take care!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2007-11-10T00:42:00.000-05:00

Wishing you a very happy birthday, Mom! We miss you so much! Hope the weather is nice in Michigan so you can go to Saugatauk! Talk to you soon!

thank's mom!

2007-11-06T13:59:00.000-05:00

this is one of the reason's why I miss Michigan...

my mom sent me pictures of a big storm blowing in off from Lake Michigan. Thanks mom, I miss you!

California is treating us well, though. The weather has been beautiful (as usual).

Caden is making new friends...

and joined the Boyscouts....

and we have been enjoying the nice weather, these pics are from a trip to a pumpkin patch with Caden's first grade class...

the corn maze, Caden towers over all of his class mates, he is not the oldest by far, but he is just so very tall....

sunflowers surrounding the pumpkin patch and corn fields.

a rooster that escaped his coop and followed us around for a while.

and a last shot of some more sunflowers...

I have been working in the studio, I made a few ornaments and a bowl. They are still drying, but I will take some pictures soon! Thanks for stopping by!

happy halloween!

2007-10-31T17:11:00.000-04:00

pictures as promised...

caden in his bat costume, wings made from a broken umbrella (armature taken out because I was too worried that someone would poke their eye out-I am just no fun!)

a close-up on his ears and the mask that I felted extra fur into the ears and on the sides of the mask.

boo! I tried to carve the word boo into one of our small pumpkins...it didn't really work out.

Paul always has to something different to his pumpkins, so he painted it black this year.

this is my pumpkin, Caden said it wasn't scary enough, so I gave it a skull and bones "tattoo"

Caden designed and cut his pumpkin all by himself. He even crafted a hole to light it with a flashlight. Apparently they are teaching him in school that it isn't safe to use a tealight to light your pumpkin (perhaps they are not safe only if you leave them unattended).

flashlight hole.

Well we are off for the first trick or treating adventure right now-downtown Auburn is hosting trick or treating iin the afternoon. We will venture out later tonight too!

2007-10-29T14:36:00.000-04:00

Well, I have been waiting to post until I had some new pictures to share, but that isn't going to cut it. The hard drive is on order for my regular laptop which has a card reader for our camera. I cannot find out portable card reader right now so I thought I would just pop in to say "hi" and let you know that I have started Caden's Christmas list on the side of the blog.

Caden is going to be a bat for Halloween. I made his wings out of an old umbrella for his wings and made felt ears and a mask. To make it more realistic looking I needle felted "fur" in the ears and on the sides of his mask. I have pictures to share, but they will need to wait until I can upload them to the computer...sorry :(.
This picture was my jumping off point....
which is from the craft queen herself, I ended up taking all of the metal parts out of the umbrella because I just didn't trust Caden not to poke his eye or someone else's eye out. Better to be safe than sorry is my motto.

This weekend was full of jack-o-lantern creating. Our cat Suki really wanted to help us out, she kept stealing the tools and trying to take the smoochy innards out of the pumpkin and spread them throughout the house.

We are pretty much settled into our house. Paul even surprised me by setting up my crafting studio in the corner of our garage. I have been excited to get back to creating. We need to get some shelving for me to use to dry green ware and for display. We also need one more table for me to use to roll out clay. A trip to Ikea may be in order for this next weekend.

happy birthday to me

2007-10-01T19:00:00.000-04:00

all I want for my birthday is our house to sell :) .....
I am one year older today!

update

2007-10-01T15:25:00.000-04:00

Caden says the funniest things. This weekend we went to the Auburn Home Show and we got to pick up baby chickens. He just loved them. We went back twice. He was able to feed them and pick them up. He told me that "chicks love him".... It is funny because it is true for both baby fowl and girls. He is already quite a popular little guy at school too!
------------------------------------

We have settled into a rhythm here. Staying with my dad has gone a lot better than we expected. We have found a condo to lease, it will be ready this week, but we are waiting until mid-October to move, hoping that finances will smooth out. Paul is enjoying working with the American Red Cross again. We had found a new (to us) car to buy, did all of the financing etc and got in to drive it home and the "check engine" light went on. Isn't that just our luck? After waiting a week for the dealer to fix it or even call and let us know what was happening, we got our deposit back and are on the lookout for a reliable car again.

I have been working on my design ideas for "buggabu studio". Paul surprised me and updated the website a little and set up an etsy account for me. For those of you who don't know what etsy is, it is an online community for handmade goods sorta like ebay, but so so much better! There are so many talented artists who sell their work on the etsy website. I am excited to get back to the production phase, but we need to complete our move first. Once we are settled in our new place, I can get the studio set up and get to work!

The update on the moving truck (penske) situation is not good. They have not been communicating with us unless we call and call them. The truck cost was not refunded as promised, nor was our extra hotel and gas costs. That was supposed to be handled right away. The damaged furniture, etc (about 80-90% of all of our stuff was damaged or destroyed in the move) is being handled by Penke's insurance company. We have jumped through so many hoops we feel like we have joined the circus. We had to unload the storage unit for their agent to re-take pictures of all of the damage. This took them a week to decide, it has been such a waste of time and energy. Now they say it will take another two weeks for them to "research" the products damaged. It has been a very trying experience.

Other than that, Caden is doing great in school. I have been volunteering in his classroom every Thursday. Caden loves to have me in his class, it is so cute. In other news, he wants to be Harry Potter for Halloween. He is growing like a weed. None of his pants fit him. He is so tall. He towers over all of his classmates. Also, he is now a cub scout. His second meeting is next week. He is very excited!

Please continue to pray for our house to sell. We really need this additional stressors out of our life. We just want to be able to try to "start over". The economy is so bad in Michigan that we really just want out of our mortgage, we don't care if we lose our initial down payment. It is such a beautiful house in a great neighborhood. We miss it dearly. We miss our family and friends in Michigan too. But we feel blessed to be able to come "home" to where we grew up in California to raise Caden and be able to have more financial stability. It is also nice to be close to our west coast family and catch up with some old friends.

art sale

2007-09-19T15:14:00.000-04:00

one of my absolute favorite artists, Amy Ruppel, is having a big sale of her newest works...
you can check it out here here.

oh I cannot wait until we find our own place and I can set my studio back up and start creating and carving into ceramic.

We have found a condo close to Caden's school with a couple of openings in mid October. We are hoping and praying that one of those will work out for us. It has a small one car garage that I can convert into my studio. Who knows what furniture we will have to move there, though, since every single piece of our furniture was damaged or destroyed when the movers transferred our property from the broken down moving truck. It has taken us weeks to finally get the correct information to the correct people (we hope) so that they can take care of this for us. It is so sad to tell Caden that he cannot play with his bike because the wheel has been bent or his favorite truck is "missing" because it really is shattered to pieces. It is just stuff, though. That is why Amy's work above ("portable home") really speaks to me. My home is wherever my family is. Our "stuff" makes us more comfortable, but I am thankful for our love.

9000 miles in 30 days or less

2007-09-11T19:29:00.000-04:00

Well hello there! The title sums up the last month of our life. South Carolina to California, California to South Carolina and then back to California with our moving truck. Yep, we did it. We are crazy and we know it. Visiting California and our family made us miss being near to family. Going back to South Carolina in the hottest summer in over 100 years made us miss it even more. We love our house, friends and family in Michigan, but have found that in the past 5 years the economy makes it quite difficult to survive. Within two days of our decision to move back "home" (where we grew up) in Northern California, Paul was offered a job with the American Red Cross (going back to his roots in disaster services) and we were able to get out of our lease. The house we were leasing was nice, but would not cool below 93 degrees when it was hot and humid outside and the pool had broken once again. We had fixed it once already on our own just waiting for them to have a pool service come, which they never did. But the icing on the cake was Caden's first day of school. The school actually lost our kid for over an hour and would not let us go back to try to find him. Paul had to go to the police officer in the parking lot to get anyone to listen to him. Caden was so traumatized. I had never seen him like that. They discouraged parental involvement because of security concerns. That was the final straw. Caden only missed two days of school when we made the big move, which included three broken moving trucks. But that is another story in itself, lets just wait to see if Penske actually lives up to their promises.

Ok, I cannot resist. The first truck made it halfway to our house before the engine light began to blink and screech something awful. The second truck, which Paul meticulously packed made it about 15 miles until the lights started to flash along with loud, strange sounds. Sixty miles later we were directed to a shop that found the front tires to be unsafe and stripped, but they had no idea why we were having the other problems. So we were sent on our way with a hope and a prayer. The truck made it to a rest stop in Tennessee. We waited three hours in the middle of the night for a mechanic to come, he couldn't help. Two hours later a tow truck showed up, but was unprepared for a 26 foot truck, apparently he was told it was a 16 foot truck. We arrived at a cheap dive in Morristown, Tennessee at three thirty in the morning. Paul was told to meet the "movers" at eight the next morning to transfer our worldly possessions from one truck to another. The next truck lasted until Nevada...but 95% of our possessions are scratched, cracked, damaged, ruined etc. Now, we are basically storing our broken stuff in a storage unit and staying with my dad until we find a place to lease in South Auburn. At least we arrived safe and sound, stuff is just stuff. A lot of it is not replaceable, but at least we have the memories. I can only imagine what people feel when they lose their homes to fire or flood.

My laptop was one of the things destroyed in the move...so I will try my best to post pictures and update the blog. Thanks for stopping by and for all of your prayers and help in this last bump in our path. We hope we are "home" and Caden will go to the same schools we did, we feel safe here and that is what matters.

California ahoy!

2007-08-03T17:37:00.000-04:00

After nearly 2800 long long long miles we made it to California last night at around 11pm local time. We did stop for less than 10 hours at a hotel somewhere between Denver, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming. We saw antelope in Wyoming and counted 72 oil rigs from Kansas through Wyoming. Caden watched his favorite movie "Twister" literally 18 times and was obsessed with tornado's the whole time. Caden called Kansas "tornado world" and Nevada "desert land". We are all glad to get out of the car, though. We have been taking a lot of pictures, so eventually, I will update the blog with scenery pics etc. It looks like I have an Internet connection here, so I can update this week with all of our action and adventures!

the adventure is on...

2007-07-31T12:25:00.001-04:00

Caden and I were supposed to be catching an airplane tomorrow. Instead we are driving to California. It seems out wonderful credit card flagged our ticket purchase as possible fraud (because we rarely use the card) but neglected to notify us until Sunday night. Now the flight are outrageously expensive...so...our option? Drive! Woo hoo, Caden shed a few tears because he really loves flying and we just drove from Michigan to South Carolina like three times in the last few months. But all is well now, the contract Paul is working on is in its initial stages so he has two weeks he can work from phone/computer etc, so it seemed that it was go now or never.
We are planning on possibly camping or just driving mostly straight through. We will see.

We gave Caden a digital camera so he can document the drive and we will print pics and put it in a scrapbook when we get home, that idea dried up his tears.

So posting may be sketchy for the next two weeks, depending on connection and time. Hope you have a great two weeks! See you soon!

A busy week!

2007-07-20T13:19:00.000-04:00

This has been a very busy week for us....lets start from the top.....

Introducing Poppy, the third (and hopefully final!) in the succession of replacement gold fish since the unfortunate demise of Bob. Apparently the chlorine in the water was killing them. We did not have city water in Michigan, so that must have prolonged Bob's life. These weeks of dying fish has made us leery of the water but, in a strange bit of coincidence the "Today Show" had a city water contest where critics judged various water from cities around the United States and Columbia was in the top 3! I was shocked.

Tuesday was Paul's 31st birthday!

Caden and I decorated the house. Paul was really touched, he doesn't like people making a big deal for his birthday. We usually do something low-key, but we changed things up this year and I think we all had a good time.

The cake matched the wrapping paper, it was a little feminine for Paul but, hey, it was summery and cheerful!

Caden helped his dad blow out the candles!

all and all it was a good day.

Ok...lets see....every day this week Caden has been attending VBS at the church that we have been trying out for the last two weeks. He has had a lot of fun and has made some friends. He even has a "girlfriend" named Marissa. She turns six today. They are really cute together. I had to go over some "rules" with Caden...like no kissing! They would hold each other's hands and sneak away from the group. When I asked Caden what he likes about her he said she has a beautiful name and that she likes what he likes. Hey, what more in life do you need? The following day after they announced that they were boyfriend and girlfriend Caden wanted to bring her a dollar so she could "get something for herself that she likes". Thankfully he forgot about his plans before we went to VBS. We will be ending this grand adventure by going to a small water park with the church tonight for the VBS finally.

Last but not least, yesterday was our tenth anniversary! Ten years...wow. We have been through so much. He is still my best friend and all that I could ever ask for. God has blessed our lives. We found each other young, and we have grown so much, gone through cancer twice, eight back surgeries, 4 cross country moves, and one Caden! I am thankful for each and every day we have had together and I look forward to many many many more years, and hopefully decades together.

Paul sent me the most beautiful flower arrangement. Sunflowers + aubergine lilies = one happy girl. In addition he purchased the last band for my wedding ring. I got him a digital picture frame to record our memories past, present and future. We went out for a really nice dinner while Caden was at VBS. (It was the best week for Caden to go to VBS, we really lucked out!...being new to the area and all, we do not have a baby sitter yet!) After Caden went to bed we took a dip in the pool.

So that is our week thus far...we also have made arrangements to go out to California to visit family in August. My dad paid for Caden and my plane tickets (for my birthday gift) which enabled Paul to come out for one of the weeks. Things are tight here with owning two houses right now. Caden and I will spend a week with my dad and when Paul flies out, we will be going on his family's annual camping trip for five days up in Trinity National Forest. It will be the first time in three years for Paul to see his family. Caden hasn't seen Paul's family for two years, and the last time we saw them it was only for a couple of hours.

The real estate sales in Michigan are scary right now. My uncle has had a beautiful new house for sale for over three years and they had an open house last weekend and no one attended. Our house has had a lot of action on the website, lots of people viewing it online and at the open houses, which is good, but no offers yet. We do have one very good possibility but it depends on things working out right on their end too, so, if you can, please pray for things to work out and the house to sell very soon. We had a two hundred dollar electricity bill for our Michigan house and no one is living there (the pool and maybe ac for the open houses)....I have no idea what is up with that...hopefully that will be taken care of for next month-it is ridiculous...I think someone left the pool running or something. It is hard not to have any control over you own house. So, once again, if you can, any prayers for a fast sale on the house would be so appreciated, we need this stress to be taken out of our lives!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a lovely weekend!

proof!

2007-07-16T15:50:00.000-04:00

Remember months and months ago I posted about making a quilt? And then a few months later I said I finished it? Well, now I finally uploaded some proof!

I sewed yards and yards of patchwork, and then more and more yards of linen strips. Then sewed and sewed some more. Once it was all pieced together I quilted it all together. I made it into a duvet cover, and it was ready right in time to move to South Carolina, whew! You know how much we needed a hot quilt right in the middle of summer in the south! We still use it, just turn the air conditioner down and pretend! Caden has decided that he doesn't get enough use of it, so he wants one of his own!
indulge me with viewing some more pics!

The back and quilted front are attached together with printed twill tape that I had collected.

This pic is of the back, sear sucker fabric with rivets on top and natural linen separated by a strip of patchwork!

hooray!!!

...ok the fireworks weren't for me....but we didn't even have to leave our house for the 4th of July, our neighbors had dueling firework displays, I guess there are no illegal fireworks in South

Carolina! It was beautiful!

We have been getting spoiled by going to the movies a lot. We have seen more movies this week than we have seen all of last year. We went to Evan Almighty, Ratatouille and Transformers. It is nice and cool inside there! It is nice that Caden is getting to an age that he can enjoy a movie and sit still long enough that others can enjoy as well.

This is a big week for our family. Tomorrow is Paul's birthday and Thursday will be our tenth anniversary. Caden will be attending VBS this week at a church that we have been trying out. He is excited!

Ok, I better go, Caden is waiting for me to finish so we can go swimming in the pool.

The move is over!

2007-07-03T17:25:00.000-04:00

the hammock is hung, we are home....

Well, we are mostly settled into our new home in Northeast Columbia, South Carolina. It was a long move, one thousand miles on the dot, but not our first long move, just the first in a long while. Many of you know our moving history, but for the rest, let's recap...we moved from California to Oregon 1998, then Oregon to Michigan 2001, Michigan to Oregon 2002, Oregon to Michigan 2003, and now this move. The Michigan to Oregon move in the middle was us running back to be with family after Paul's first battle with cancer. He got cancer again in Oregon and we decided that cancer sucks anywhere, so we might as well live where we feel at home. We loved living on the shores of Lake Michigan, but the economy was tough on us. South Carolina brings us new prospects and hopefully more stability. If anyone wants to experience the beauty of Michigan we still have our three bedroom, two bath ranch with 2200 square feet, in ground pool set on a half acre lot backed by the wooded section of a golf course :) It is for sale... (hint, hint)we decided not to lease it out. We just have too much on our plates to keep up with two properties. Our realtor and some good friends are helping to take care of the property until it sells.

It is beautiful here in South Carolina. Sometimes the weather reminds me of the feeling when you stick your head into a warm, moist dryer full of damp clothes, but I have heard that the rest of the year is quite seasonable. We sold our snow shovel and plow, now we have the pleasure of visiting the snow, or once in a while have an inch or two visit us oh so briefly.

Paul and I had pretty much decided on a house when Caden and I came down for our three week visit in May. But at the very last minute...literally Paul decided to visit a house that had just come onto the market. It has a pool and an overgrown, but beautifully landscaped yard. It is a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath with a large bonus room and cathedral ceilings. It has windows everywhere and great light. It just spoke to him, and I trusted his judgement, so we decided to switch to this house. It is in a great, safe and quiet neighborhood, and in the best school district in the county. The pool looked like Shrek's swamp, but we were told it would be taken care of...more on that later.

the pool before---well midway, we had to drain it, it was full to the brim with green muck and leaves...no vermin though!

So the actual move was great, the gas prices had just gone down a bit, Caden was so well behaved and didn't complain at all. Even our cat, Suki-whose previous car rides were full of meowing and complaints, settled in and quietly enjoyed the long ride. Our beloved boogie eyed goldfish Bob even made it down here, but once we introduced him to fresh Columbia water, he passed on to the big fishbowl in the sky. He had a small, prayer filled service led by Caden and now is buried under the bird bath in the back yard. The little replacement "bob" we got even passed away (err..got a cold and had to be traded in, so Caden thinks, it was too much death too soon). Little "speck" is the newest replacement fish and is thriving. Fingers crossed, we will have this little fish for a long time. We have been drinking bottled water ever since just in case the water had anything to do with these fishy deaths....;)

We took the move slow...about three days to get down here as to try to not flare up my back anymore because I had to drive our SUV behind Paul who was driving the 26 foot rental moving truck. We sold half of our stuff in our yard sale, which was a good thing, because even at that we didn't have enough room for everything. We left behind our futon frame, all of the houseplants, the fridge, my slab roller ( :( ), and some other stuff, about a small trailer full. We will pick it up later in a month or so, or when the house sells.

Please pray for the house to sell soon, it would free up so much room of our minds that are currently full of stress.

Once we got here, well things stopped going so smoothly...The electricity wasn't on, which meant the pool hadn't been serviced and the house was like 140 degrees. (well it seemed like it anyway) It was unlivable.....when they turn things off down here, they turn everything off, the water, sewer, gas, electricity....everything. The house was filthy, the carpets were nasty. They hadn't done what was promised whatsoever. We ended up having to stay in a hotel three additional nights due to everything, which then messed up our help that was scheduled to help us move things in. Eventually, the house cleaned up beautifully. And we called the realtor to help us find professional movers, they cost us extra, but it was so hot and humid, I think Paul would have killed himself getting everything in.

So we are all moved in. We put the studio upstairs in a spare bedroom. We will need to go to ikea to get a couple of storage lockers and a large work table. But that will be later when we have a little more time and spare funds, for now, I am thankful for the folding tables. We have quite a few things to hang up on the studio walls, but after that is done, the studio will be ready to roll. Caden's room needs to be repainted as well as the master. His room is painted an awful teal sponge paint and ours is an ok green but also sponge painted. The rest of the house is a neutral light sand color, the dining room is a nice grey shade. I was excited about that because I have always wanted a grey room. I am thinking about a blue-grey for Caden's room (he has a red,white and blue quilt, denim suspender curtains, and a sorta retro camping theme). I really wanted to paint it navy blue, but I am worried it will be too dark. Target has the cutest red lanterns for $19.99 each, with a couple of those, his room would be so cute. Also at target, in the came Woolrich camping collection they have a tent bed topper for $29.99 that would really spruce it up. He doesn't have a bunk bed anymore because the ladder broke. Who knows, maybe on that trip to ikea in Atlanta, we will find some more bedding for him. I was looking at a number fabric collection in their catalog that looked cute. He has requested his own hand-made quilt now that I finished our quilt. That is -why I am thinking a blue-grey would be a lot more neutral for me to mix and match, because I like to change things up so much. I want to do a grass cloth affect in our room. We have vaulted ceilings in the master, and our bedding is red, so the light beige grass cloth paint job would be a great effect. Having a new house is exciting, it gives us so much opportunity for new dreams and projects. Like in the kitchen, it is fine now, but eventually I would love to paint the cabinets white with a little burnt umber rub to antique them a bit, install slate flooring and a dark granite counter top with a rich red wall. We have a small half bath on the main floor and I would love to paint it a shocking rich color like orange, or maybe a bright limey green. We also want to replace most of the lighting in time. We have so many ideas, we definitely won't be bored!

So now that things have settled down for us, I will be blogging at least once a week....please come back and check in often! I have missed you all, thank you for your emails and checking in on us! It sure made us feel loved!

the pool after four hard days of work.

caden jumpin' in and a tiny glimpse of me scrubbin'

our new home from the front. The lawn needs revitalizing and we have since done a lot of trimming of all of the overgrown shrubbery. I love the driveway-it provides a perfect place for a basketball hoop, eventually.

the living room fireplace

the living room looking from upstairs.

living room/dining area

the front door

we interrupt this lack of posting with....

2007-05-07T15:24:00.000-04:00

a brief message...

We are visiting Paul in South Carolina. We found a house, but are not quite ready to financially support two homes. It is a scary thing...coming up with another down payment, moving to another state, changing everything...AGAIN...but also exciting. Seeing new places, visiting the Atlantic ocean and Charleston. Learning new things, meeting new people.

We miss our home, our kitties, our beds and our family and friends. But it is so nice to be together with my husband, even though we are camping out on airbeds in the spare bedroom of an apartment rented by a co-worker friend of Paul's. Life is an adventure.

I cannot wait to settle in and experience life in this new area, set my studio back up and start working on my art again. This will have to wait about one to two months.

Caden is taking a vacation from school and I am home schooling him with the work provided by his teacher. Caden misses school and his friends. He turns 6 on Thursday. He is so excited and the countdown to THE DAY is repeated over and over every day. He is very thrilled that we are swing set shopping for the new house (but has the understanding that the house has to be purchased, school needs to get out, and we need to move before we can purchase said swing set/fort contraption). Just something he can look forward to.

ok.. off to entertain one bored little guy who has been harassing me all day.....we both miss school!

photo free for all....

2007-04-20T19:36:00.000-04:00

Well, the car lot has not come through for us, Caden and I are still car-less. The "rental" they had offered ended up to be broken. Just like a lot of promises....Luckily my mom was able to pick us up to get a couple of errands done and we were able to get a ride to Caden's school to go on the field trip that he has been looking forward to for days. Needless to say, our life has been filled to the brim with stress. Ok, enough of that ugly subject!

We were able to get away from the hustle and bustle and attend the spring kindergarten class field trip to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum and Frederick Meijer Gardens. I will let the pictures to most of the talking....

This week in pictures starts with April 15, the evening Caden lost his second tooth.

the tooth fairy left $1.50 in quarters which is burning a deep hole in Caden's pocket already!

Tuesday's field trip began with the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. Caden has been there two or three times. I think this will be the last, unless they do a major change up, it kinda gets redundant after so many trips.

domino stacking...

mirrored tunnel posing...(this is the only unsolicited pose I got, Caden bemoaned the fact that I was shooting so many pictures)

Caden particularly enjoyed working at the wee bank drive Thru window, and had his go at robbing the ATM also.

as always, the bubble area was a big hit.

such concentration!

and finally a little practice for backyard camping in the summertime..

Next it was time to go see the butterflies!

they set out nectar fulled sponges for the butterflies to feast upon. You can see the star of the show on the left, it is a clear wing butterfly. Beautiful!

views inside the butterfly incubator....

the moon moth, my favorite this year.

so pretty!

so many cocoons in various stages of development. What a wonderful sight!

and moments after:

it hopped onto my pant leg. We got it safely off the walkway.

a final close-up on another clear wing.

They also have a beautiful display of orchids...

and a family of flightless Japanese quail, but only one little guy kept following us around...

we finished up our day quickly observing some of the sculptures in the sculpture garden and playing in the playground.

sculpture made out of bicycle parts.

As you can see I got a lot of practice using the macro setting on the camera!

ps...Caden did his own hair, especially "spiked" to give the butterflies a place to land! so cute!

the amazing internet...

2007-04-16T09:08:00.000-04:00

Ok, I am really thinking I am a puppet with someone with a strange sense of humor at the strings just trying to push me over the edge. We have all of last week, which is summed up in the post right below. Then I had the wonderful luck of our phone being called three times a minute for three and a half hours, from midnight to three thirty. Apparently one of those wonderful "unknown" callers, who use automatic dialer's targeted poor little me. I turned off the phone, but could still hear the answering machine. I called Paul, it interrupted me through caller id, beep beep beep. Hello? click. ugh. Going insane....Luckily Caden was fast asleep and blissfully unaware of my trauma.

We finally got it to end by looking the problem up on the wonderful world of the Internet. Apparently you answer the call and push 11 * 3617 #* . Who would have thought of that. I was in disbelief, but it actually worked.

So I got three hours of sleep last night and did not wake up on the right side of the bed so to speak. Where is that magical hole that I can crawl into? Oh yeah, I am a parent, not so healthy. No hole. Today will be a better day.....um please?

My Life...a sad, sad book?

2007-04-15T17:27:00.000-04:00

We have been told more than once that we should write a book about our life and our multiple experiences. At church today we were talking about how sometimes some people go through so many trials and others, well, not so much. Everyone has trials, but then there are TRIALS. For example a couple from our church lost a baby tragically last year, and then this year, while on vacation, the husband dove into a wave and broke his neck. Now that is a TRIAL. He is a pastor. Miracles have been happening for them, but he is still paralyzed. But God has equipped us to make it through our trials. When I have a bad few days like I have been having lately, I am reminded of their journey and every step of the way when a door closed, at least one window of opportunity opened.

Ok, back to our zany trials. Paul has been in South Carolina for a week. In that week I locked myself out of the house. I discovered that Paul had all of the house keys. I discovered that I cannot kick a door in. I also discovered that calling a locksmith is much cheaper than kicking said door in. Then our telephone went on the blitz. I could call out, but every time someone called me it rang once on their end and promptly hung up. It never rang inside the house. This problem caused me to crawl around the house trying to figure out if something was wrong inside the house etc. Not fun. Well, that got fixed by our lovely AT &T man. He was awfully kind. I was finally coming out from underneath my week of small trials and tribulations when someone knocked on my door this afternoon after church.

Who could it be? Well, apparently, while the phone was on the blitz the car dealership where we just bought our car two weeks ago had been trying to get a hold of us. The title papers did not go through on their end and they discovered someone had not paid the lien on the car. It was basically illegal for me to have the car. Bye bye...Audi. See you later. Me, here, all alone, no car. Ok, panic settling in. The dealership was very understanding and is bringing me a loaner car tomorrow until we can find another car of theirs that we like. They think that they have a used lexus coming in (I have never driven one, we are more Saab, VW, Audi people) But at this point I will just be happy with four wheels that will safely get Caden to school and back.

....
suddenly, as I was just writing this, I realized that the timer for my comfort food (chocolate chip cookies) didn't go off. Can it get any more like a sitcom? I don't want to ask, I am afraid of the answer. My cookies are now very brown, but I think salvageable......

ok...well wish me luck for a better week this week. Caden has a field trip on Tuesday and we need transportation that day or he will miss it. The car guy even gave me a hug...so he better keep up on his promise for the loaner car tomorrow. Or I will cry.

I thank God that all of my trials this week can be fixed. I am thankful for our health, I am thankful that Paul's cancer is in remission and I am thankful that I have a good set of doctors that help me deal with my back. I thank God for the hope of another day, and for that day to be better than today.

ok, venting does help. I don't feel like crawling into a hole too much anymore....

happy Easter

2007-04-08T13:54:00.000-04:00

Caden (still with his fever rash above his lip from being so sick last week) posing with his new little mini moopy bunny.

Happy Easter.....♥ ♥ ♥ Paul, Michelle and Caden

ps....this is our weather...colder than Christmas! too funny!

hackers suck!

2007-04-06T12:08:00.000-04:00

Two days ago I was cruising the web, answering email, you know, the daily routine...and I was interrupted, left a few windows open connected to the web. Well, withing ten minutes we were under attack from some nameless predator who strives only to wreck other people's things, even livelihoods could be affected. Someone completely hacked my new lap top. I mean I have had this thing for like three weeks. I was so devastated. They locked down everything, right down to the motherboard, basically rendering it a six pound chunk of junk. I thought that I had lost everything again (only a month or so ago my last laptop had a meltdown and I lost all of the info on that one).

Luckily I have a husband who, given a little time, was able to break back in and get it back to normal. When this happened he was really skeptical if he could fix it. He was also swamped with work. We were really fortunate that Paul was home when this was happening and on the network and was able to stop the attack as it preceded onto the rest of the computers on our network. Even though it is just a "thing", I felt so violated, even lost sleep, just because someone, who does not even know who they are attacking, violated us.

So, I just wanted to warn you not to leave your computer with open windows. One day, you may find yourself with a locked down computer or worse, they could take vital info from you.

We are all better now, thankfully.

The Easter bunny decided to make an early Saturday stop at out house, so Paul can enjoy a little Easter celebration before he leaves for South Carolina. We were able to find a second car, and are enjoying having two car payments once again, so he is able to drive down. This saves us tons of money as renting a car is quite costly. Now the only thing left is to find housing (the house we think we are going with is not quite finished) sell half of our furniture, (the house does not have a basement and is about one thousand square feet smaller than our current house), lease our current house (we are not selling it because the economy in Michigan is scary, plus we haven't owned the house long enough to have much equity, and Paul wants to keep it as an asset), Caden to finish kindergarten, pack, have a yard sale, and move in mid-June. Oh boy....wish us luck.

bug is sick....

2007-04-02T16:27:00.000-04:00

Caden has been very sick for the last three days. 103 temperature....brought him to urgent care because we were afraid of pneumonia, but they said it was viral. After another talk with his pediatrition today, they said the fever could last one week. ugh. poor little bug, not a way to start Easter break...

spring has sprung!

2007-03-28T11:58:00.000-04:00

Spring break officially starts this Friday for Caden. We are thinking that we will be driving down to South Carolina to check out houses. We are all pre-qualified and think we have found a house, but we still are keeping several others in mind. It is difficult to pick a house out without seeing it.

This is a picture of our first possibility. It is on almost an acre of land and is brand new. It has a double deep garage, but we are used to a double garage that is extra deep, we have talked to the builders about the possibility of adding a separate garage with a studio for my ceramic work. We will see. This has been a bit overwhelming for me. This is why there hasn't been much conversation here on this blog these days.

There has been a little crafting though. I received my Lotta Jansdotter book "Simple Sewing"
It is full of pattern, texture and inspiration. I adore everythingLotta. I admire her aesthetic.
I would like to make the roll-up tool case for my ceramic tools, the hat, and, if I get really gutsy (I am not the most experienced seamstress), I would love to make the garden tote to use to put some portable art supplies in.

I also covered a cork board and added a pocket to it. I made a large tin board and a magnetic chalkboard, all of which are in storage for the move to South Carolina. Oh, I was so inspired by this that I made my own out of my favorite fabric, all of which are now in storage too. (the picture below is the work in progress)

I searched all over the area for baker's twine :

but was out of luck, so I ended up dying hemp twine in several colors to use in my packaging of products.

Let's see, Caden had a great school conference. He is progressing great and gets along with everyone. He is such the thoughtful, caring little guy.

Yesterday he made some chalk art of our family (notice Paul is bald, he he), he was very proud of his creation!

Today I have my follow-up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon to see if the nerve block series worked. I would say that the shots helped about 40% of my problem with my back, it relieved the radiating nerve pain down my legs, but did not help my SI joint area at all. So it looks like that both above and below my fusion may be deteriorating. It is good that we are getting somewhere though.

Thanks for stopping by, I will try to update at least once a week, please don't give up on this blog! I promise to share some of my ceramic jewelry too, it is on hold for a bit while we are in this transition time between Michigan and South Carolina. I even got a new slab roller! I am so so excited! But, we decided to keep it boxed up until the move is over, :( I guess I will have even more to look forward to. It is just killing me though, seeing my slab roller sitting there in the box, just wanting to get out and be used! But for right now I focusing on trying to finish my patchwork quilted duvet cover so I can work solely on my ceramic once the move is done in June.

See ya'll soon!

2007-03-15T21:21:00.000-04:00

Well Paul is off in South Carolina, so far so good. Although we all are a bit discombobulated....

I read "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" By Mo Willems (a fantastic book!) to Caden's kindergarten class today. He beemed with delight! It is the small things in life that mean so much, isn't it?

I had my nerve roots injected at the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. I received four injections instead of two, so that was surprising. They seem to be helping. He hit the bone several times during the injection, and I was only given a valium, so I wasn't something I enjoyed to say the least.

I habe been working on a quilted pathwork duvet cover as well as wall organizers, pictures to follow....it is much too dark to take pics right now. I am awaiting the arrival of a tabletop slab maker for my ceramics. This will be so make it much more easy physically for me to roll clay slabs. It will also speed up production. I am thinking of making ceramic magnets also. I have a tiny kiln, so I am limited to small items, but I am not complaining, there are endless things you can make with a hunk of clay, you are only limited by time and imagination!

Well, just a quick update. I will include pics tomorrow or so!

Thanks for stopping by!

2007-03-15T21:19:00.000-04:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

2007-03-08T12:24:00.000-05:00

Look what I got in the mail! Artist Amy Rice sent me these lovely gocco prints! I love them! She has a lovely blog too!

Well that was an impromptu blog vacation! Sorry about the lack of interesting events over here. We have been busy dealing with life. Not much art going on for the last few weeks. Everything has come to a stand still as we try to deal with the imminent move to South Carolina. For weeks we did not know the exact location of the Blue Cross position Paul had been hired for. Alas, we now know it is Charleston, South Carolina. He is to go down there next Wednesday. He will be gone for most of the month :(..... This will be a very huge challenge for our family. We are all very close and not used to being apart. It is not fair to take Caden out of school in the middle of the year, so we will be here in Michigan until the end of the school year. We will be able to visit during Spring Break and also we have our first vacation since our honeymoon ten years ago scheduled for May. At the end of May, we will be residing in South Carolina, near the ocean, hopefully soaking up the warm ocean air! As for our house here....we are not selling yet. We may rent it out. That all remains to be seen.

C'mon, who would want to leave this icy wonderland behind? (hehe) Actually, I love the change of seasons, although this has been a particularly long winter....we would love to stay in Michigan, but welcome to upcoming adventure, and look forward to making our home in South Carolina. We have heard such lovely things about the area.

In other news... Caden lost his first tooth on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007! One tooth down, lots to go! He took it really well, not a tear was shed. The tooth fairy traded him a two dollar bill for his tooth. Caden is quite proud of this achievement!

he finally got to put his tooth pillow to work!

Our cross-eyed Siamese, Suki, finally got to come home after four weeks at the vet. She still has cold symptoms, but we think that she has environmental allergies.

Zoe is not too happy that Suki came back....

:)

I also have some shop related news. Paul surprised me by scooping up the domain for buggabu! He had been trying to get it for quite some time, so when it came available he snatched it right up. Right now we are using a free web design service, so it isn't spectacular, but it is all mine. It is under construction, but you are welcome to come and visit: www.buggabu.com ! My satin glazes came in this week, so keep a look out for some finished jewelry and other goodies! In addition, we splurged and used up a lot of our paypal money and bought a digital SLR camera, I cannot wait for it to come and take some better pictures!

Ok, if you made it this far, you deserve a pat on the back! Sorry for the super long winded post. I will be trying to update more often! Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

news.....

2007-02-21T14:24:00.000-05:00

The image above is by my new-found ceramic hero Rae Dunn.

Ok, on to the news. I had my appointment with my orthopedic surgeon. He took one look at my MRI and said that I definitely had a problem with my fusion. It seems that the bone did not grow in my fusion. They had used cadaver bone, and, apparently my body rejected it. After three years there is hardly any bone growth in the fusion. So, basically, that is a failed fusion. He is 99% positive this is what's the problem. I have a special kind of Cat Scan scheduled for tomorrow to confirm the diagnosis. We will find out the results and where we go from there on my next appointment on March 6Th.

In other news, Paul has accepted a position in South Carolina. Yes, South Carolina. It is not set in stone yet. But we are preparing mentally and researching possibilities. Caden and I will stay at out home in Michigan for at least three months. Caden needs to finish kindergarten. We also don't want to put the house up for sale and move our entire life if the job isn't what Paul really wants. There are a couple of opportunities for local employment, and one that would allow for Paul to work from home for three weeks a month and be in Wisconsin for one week a month. So far though, all of the opportunities have been in the Charleston, South Carolina area. We love the ocean and I have heard that there is a lot of interest in art in the area, so it sounds great, we just do not want to risk making a mistake.

So what does this mean? I have no idea. We are just trying to stay afloat here! I have no idea what will happen if I need surgery. I cannot live on the medications I am on for all of my life, if I do, I will have a much shortened life. We love Michigan, especially where we live, on the lake shore. That said, the economy here is struggling, and we struggle along in it, and we are tired of living like this. The business would be successful if the clients could pay there bills, but it is just not happening. We even had a client that paid us in product from his former job as a sales consultant for Hobby Lobby. It is just that way here.

Ok, enough of that! Paul is feeling a little better, but hasn't fully recovered from the pleurisy yet. Caden is great, growing leaps and bounds, right out of all of his pants! :) He is a happy kid and so very intelligent, strong-willed and independent.

It is time for me to go and count the food in the food pantry at church, so that we can fill it up with fresh groceries. Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

PS. thank you all for the kind comments and emails about my artwork. It really encouraged me! I have been focusing on my ceramic art lately, but overworked the clay yesterday and only produced two pendants. I am trying to create a cup that I had designed, but the clay is not cooperating!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2007-02-14T12:59:00.000-05:00

Wishing everyone a happy Valentine's Day!

Paul has been ill lately. He has had pain in his chest radiating down his left arm and poor circulation. He has been really cold, not even able to heat up by sitting by the fireplace. He finally ended up going to the ER, kind of convinced he was having a heart attack at age 30. Well, no heart attack, thank goodness. It isn't a re-assurance of his cancer either, thank God again. He has pleurisy. A viral infection of the lining of his lungs, which is quite painful and causes you to breath more shallow, which, in turn, causes his circulation to decrease. Since it is a virus, it has to work its way out naturally. Antibiotics won't work. He is doing better now, especially that he knows what it is. Needless to say we have been even more stressed than usual. This makes this valentine's day even more meaningful, just being aware of our thankfulness to be together and semi-healthy.

Paul's business has been so stressful too. The economy here is awful. Most of his clients are not being their bills, which is so hard on us. In fact, he has stopped work completely with two clients until they pay their bills. Paul has been interviewing for jobs, but it is a competitive market here, due to so many qualified people being unemployed. He also has two job opportunities in Ohio and one in South Carolina. We have been praying for a long long time about Paul leaving the business sector and going into ministry. More and more we feel the push to go into ministry. The South Carolina job is for director of technical services for a church. It is funny how things happen. After another restless night, Paul picked up the bible. Long story short, he opened the lap top and stumbled upon the job in South Carolina, and the Pastor emailed him right away. God works in his time, sometimes it astounds us how quickly things work! We will see. Right now, Paul is at his second interview at another promising prospect. We only have one car now, so the job that he is interviewing for now would be great because we have a good friend that works there and they could carpool. We just hope that something happens soon! If you are so inclined, we would appreciate every prayer!

Ok, onto the Valentine's day celebration. I was greeted with breakfast in bed and Caden wrote valentine's to us (and himself :) on his own. So cute. We have such a loving son. I attempted my first encaustic collage/painting. Encaustic medium is a mixture of beeswax and resin. I was inspired by Amy Ruppel and Meredith Baxter.

The deer symbolize our family. The clouds are maps....button flowers, the deer are etched and filled in with a charcoal pencil.

P+M+R=C (Paul +Michelle +R (our last name and date of marriage) = Caden. The measuring tape I used is vintage from my grandmother's sewing kit that I inherited.

close up on some of the flowers. The hills were made from grouped shades of green punched circles from sheets of scrapbook paper, paint chip samples and magazine paper.

Paul really liked it. He had no idea that I was making it for him. He, of course knew I was making something,( it is difficult to hide the sound of a heat gun triggering the smoke detector!), but he has absolutely no idea that I was making it for him. All and all I am satisfied on how it turned out, I need more practice to be as good as I would like, but for a first try, it is ok.

Happy Valentine's Day!

ps..I found it extremely difficult to photograph the encaustic...it is much brighter in person.

Tooth Fairy Time!

2007-02-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

Look everyone! Loose tooth!

Caden has had a slightly loose tooth for a couple of weeks, but it is really progression now. There is a large gap where the adult tooth is pushing through and his baby tooth is really loose.
So, that gave me the inspiration for a tooth fairy pillow. At first Paul wasn't too hip on my idea, he has memories of a white envelope from the tooth fairy, I had a heart shaped strawberry shortcake pillow. So, we had clashing traditions. I came up with a compromise that the gift from the tooth fairy can be put into a white envelope and Caden's tooth can be in the pillow.
I had Caden write the word "tooth" and used carbon paper to transfer it to the linen. I then embroidered it (this is my first time embroidering, so that explains why it is goofy looking, but I think it adds to the look of Caden's writing) I was very inspired by these two nifty crafters.

tooth-shaped tooth fairy pillow.

close-up on the embroidery and the patchwork pocket.

close-up on the "tooth" written by Caden.

I also hand felted a pin cushion using some organic silk and wool that I had laying around. I have read that it is better (keeps needles sharper) if you store your needles in a wool pin cushion. I love how the silk fiber is slightly wavy and shimmers.

.......We also pinched our pennies to go to a "monster jam" this weekend. Caden had seen the commercial on TV and we knew he would love to see the huge monster trucks. It was loud and crowded and fun, just what any five and a half year old thrives on. It is so cold and snowy here, there isn't much to do unless it is inside. We also got to see one of the two in the world "jet quad" which is an ATV set on a jet engine. VERY loud. It shot around the stadium making flames and basically sounded like a jet airplane. Quite interesting, I never even knew about this "monster" truck world.

here are some highlights:
before:

after:

(broken axel)
we were rooting for this guy:

In other news, our kitten, suki, is still sick. We are setting up a visitation time, since we haven't been allowed to see her in three weeks. She has been gone longer than we had her. It is so sad that they allowed a sick cat to be adopted, we are so attached and miss her so, but have no idea when and, now, even if we can get her back. They still do not have a definitive diagnosis, they have just been giving her different doses of antibiotics.

Thankful.

2007-02-01T15:27:00.000-05:00

Today I am thankful for just being alive. I am thankful that I went to my regular pharmacy with a new prescription. Had I not, well, I probably would not be talking about it today. My regular doctor prescribed something that has a lethal interaction with one of my ongoing medications. The pharmacist caught it, very luckily. Needless to say, Paul was irate, we went to the doctor's office today and let them know. Wow, certainly got me thinking about mortality. Speaking about medical stuff, I have an appointment on the 20th with my orthopedic surgeon to see if repairing the herniated disc and removing scar tissue around the fusion and the nerve is an option, or if it will cause even more scar tissue and make things worse....we will see....

We have had about two feet of snow in the last few days. Starting this weekend will be five days of below twenty degrees with the nights dropping in the negatives. This is the coldest it has been here in about 12 years.

Paul plowing the driveway, a daily necessity!

I just think the trees are so beautiful when the branches are full of snow.

Suki is still at the shelter, she has to stay there until she is done with her antibiotics and she is given a clean bill of health. I miss her...

I have been busy down in the studio creating my ceramic wares. I have been making "flower buckets"

this hasn't been fired yet. I want them to look like fabric boxes, kinda loose, after the glaze fire I will add ribbon handles or wire handles. I also have been making small embossed tags that can be displayed in multiples. (I use my handmade stamps and antique letterpress for the images). In addition, I have been making small tea light "bags" that can be hung on a nail or set on a table. I have had a lot of breakage lately, because I am trying to make the clay as thin as possible, but it is still fun. I think the challenge makes it exciting. In the mix is also some pendants and even a bracelet. I will update pics when I can. As you can see, I haven't perfected photographing my ceramics, the lighting is horrible down there.

This is a small shoe that I hand crafted. I guess I will use it as a paperweight :) I just made it without thinking, it was just an image stuck in my head....

Tonight we get to bring Caden to a Rain Forest animal performance that they are having at his school. After that, Paul and I will be going out on a date night, the first in quite a while! Yay!
Have a great day!

PS...Happy Birthday Grandpa-lini!

...captains log....

2007-01-23T18:43:00.000-05:00

Caden had a blast last Friday at the birthday party. I was so proud of him, he was so well behaved. He is really growing up fast these days. He even brings his very first report card home tomorrow. He is learning how to write a lot more words, too. He regularly write me a note that says "hi mom, I love you". Other than his first name, his first words that he wrote were "mom" and "hi". So cute. He also knows how to write "thank you", he taught himself that phrase, it was on a card that they colored in at Sunday school, he used it as reference and wrote a thank you note to the cat.

poor little suki...

Speaking of our cats...Suki (the new one) has never been healthy sense we adopted her. She sneezes and actually has like a sinus infection and on top of that has diarrhea very badly. The shelter finally agreed to check her out. They have been taking care of her since Saturday. We miss her so much. Even Zoe, our other cat, seems lost for her, she searches the house and meows at night now. It is like she is searching for her buddy. We hope to hear word soon and have her back. Luckily, Zoe did not catch the illness.

Last Thursday I went in for my nerve block. This time I spoke with my regular doctor and he reviewed my last MRI. I guess that my L5-S1 disc has re-herniated...again. This is the third time. The fusion is supposed to limit motion to prevent this from happening. Apparently, it did not. The MD said that my disc must be pretty weak to keep bursting. I made an appointment with my primary care to get a referral to an ortho or my neuro surgeon to see what to do now. At least the MRI gave insight for my nerve block.

progress

2007-01-14T13:38:00.000-05:00

Our amaryllis is almost in bloom, just peeking through. It doesn't look like spring here anymore. Winter has come back, we are expecting snow for the next week or so. Once the lake effect snow kicks in, it stays for a while. This has been a really warm winter.

Caden is so excited, he gets to go to a birthday party. This is the first class party that he has been able to attend. And the birthday boy, Chaz, is one of Caden's good friends. It works out great, because the kids do not have school Thursday and Friday.

Paul has been interviewing for lots of jobs. We are madly trying to stay in Michigan, but so many jobs are out of state. Michigan has the worst economy in the US. Wednesday, Paul has a very promising interview, so please, if you can, join us in good thoughts and prayer. Otherwise, we will be forced for Paul to work out of state and live separate. Because of our health issues, it is difficult to get health insurance through our business. Paul has been doing plenty of consulting work, but we are just striving for a stable existence. We don't want to leave our home.

In other news, I did the final glaze fire on my last round of ceramic prototypes.

I had some stain issues, I added more frit, so I think that I have solved that issue. I also have decided that I like a more matte appearance. So, that means more supplies. Hopefully I can order some more glaze this week. There are not any local places that sell glaze. Ugh....the only thing is, with Internet purchases, the shipping is slow and costs a lot. So, when I do order, I am going to get everything I need so that I don't waste anymore shipping. I am getting matte transparent, matte white and four other colors that are included in the package. I am also going to get a thinner gauge high temperature wire. I found that my holes were too small, that combined with shrinkage during firing, caused me to break several pieces when I was taking them off the bead tree post glaze fire. I am also going to work on a couple of matryoshka like (but animal themed) pieces that you can put a tea light in or just keep small trinkets in.

I have another nerve block on Thursday. I get to meet with both my usual doctor and the doctor that is replacing him. We will also discuss what to do (if anything) about my disc that has become re-herniated. I thought that my fusion was supposed to prevent this from happening, but apparently not.

That is enough for now...I think that I have blurted out just about everything going on with us...
sorry for the long post....thanks for stopping by!

putzing along...

2007-01-09T16:22:00.000-05:00

I am finaaly getting around to glazing some of the buttons and pendants that I have been making. I ordered mason stain and once it arrived, I realized that I needed to mix it with a "flux" to make it stick. Ugh. I didn't know what to mix it with, so onto the beads of clay yahoo group. Such a helpful group if you are interested in making ceramic art, especially beads. They also have a flickr group. So long story short, I was able to start the expiramenting today. I have found that, for me, I have had to do a lot of expiramenting to find my true niche. I am so excited to get back working with clay. I have decided that we really need a butter dish. So instead of going out to buy one, I am going to create one. Sure it may take me a couple of months (I am pokey), but we have lived this long without one, a couple more months won't hurt! But, I am most excited about a new concept I am working on, "nesting dolls" but in animal for, like a little bird that can open up and you can place little trasures inside etc. I think that, for me, jewelry was limiting me, slowing me down. I love to make jewelry and will continue it, but I want to also make small ornaments, candle sticks, figures etc.

This is a picture of some of my glass collection. I have been trying to imbed the various glass beads and shards into glaze. I have found that some colors work better than others.

These are the next set of expiramental glass imbedded pendants, they are glazed and ready to fire. I will show you all the results later, I am not sure if I am going to fire these separate from the pendants above.

Thanks for stopping by..have a great day!

ceramic doodles...

2007-01-05T19:17:00.000-05:00

I worked on a reference sample board of all of my glaze over the holiday break. I made ceramic earthenware tags painted half with one layer of glaze, the other half with three layers of glaze and the bottom with a clear over glaze. I was really surprised at some of the results. It is good that I did that, I think it will save me some tears in the future. A couple of the under glazes actually fired shiny without the over glaze. This seemed to happen in the darker colors. I made some trial ceramic pendants with various glass fused in the clear glaze in the second firing. That was not as successful as I wanted.

Please excuse the horrible picture, but I thought I would give you an idea of what I was talking about. The greens/blues turned out ok, but the darker red glass discolored and muddied. I will need to work on the firing process. I will probably add glass to a third firing and do it at a lower temperature as to not "burn" the glass (I don't know, it is all an experiment, but it is fun though!)

We adopted a nine month old Siamese mix kitten. We named her Suki. She is slightly cross-eyed and has huge pupils, I really wouldn't have noticed she was cross-eyed right away if they wouldn't have listed it on her records. She is so cuddly and affectionate. She has brought out some better traits in our other cat, Zoe. They, amazingly look like twins, except Zoe is long haired and bigger.

This is Zoe, just a couple of minutes ago, attacking the camera cord!

This is Sukie, lounging in the TV cabinet, she is a perfect fit for our family. We were not seriously looking, but she stuck in our heads and we went back to get her three days later, literally seconds before she was going to someone else. She is the first cat that I have had to train no to get on the counter tops, and she has discovered notorious BOB (our boogie-eyed goldfish). She is mischievous, but cute, affectionate, comes when she is called, and fetches!

another Sukie, picture....

Needless to say, Caden is also very happy with the new addition, she likes to play a lot, just like Caden!

Thanks for stopping by, talk to you soon! Have a great weekend!

bring it on...

2006-12-30T16:08:00.000-05:00

From our family to yours; wishing you a happy and healthy new year.

Thank you for stopping by, all of the nice comments, emails, advice, inspiration and understanding. We are hoping for a great new year.

We have a lot of change that could come next year. My MRI showed that I have another bulging disc in my fusion, but the fusion is not broken. The disc is just bulged again, although I have no idea why you can herniate a disc in the place that you have a fusion. So more meds for me, woohoo :( I do get to have epidural injections in mid-January, and beyond that, I am not sure if I am prepared to do anything else.

Paul has been desperately searching for good, stable jobs locally. The economy just stinks here. All of the viable offers have been out of state or out of country. He tried commuting to Chicago and that just did not work, he got extremely depressed being away from us. So, where-ever or whatever the decision is, Caden and I will follow, after the end of the school year. Paul was contacted by a company in the UK, and they will be meeting with him this next week. This would be a huge opportunity for his career. It would also be "fun" to travel and learn different cultures. At least it is an English speaking country. There have been other offers to places way way away. It is the thoughts of what are we going to do about Caden's schooling, my medical problems and what would we do with the house that swim through my head at night. We will just jump over that hurdle when and if it comes.

Paul and I had a lovely night last night. My cousin Sarah saved our day and was able to watch Caden. Paul was able to recover from his stomach virus just in time, also.

thanks for stopping by....take care and have a wonderful and safe New Year's eve/day!

time to organize..

2006-12-29T15:30:00.000-05:00

{via illustrator Sara Finelli, she is a great artist!}
cannot wait to take down the tree and clean out the house! Today Caden and I organized all of his toys. Yes, ALL of them. A new rule has been made, no more toys unless we donate some. We did a little donating before Christmas, but not as much as I wanted to. Santa was very generous this year.

Paul surprised us with a Disney Cruise. This was a huge surprise, we were not exchanging gifts for us, things are a little tight in this economy. Paul had purchased this in August, so he has been sitting on the secret for quite a while. We are so excited as we have not had a real vacation since our honeymoon. We all are going in mid-May. We will be on the boat for Caden's birthday, so Caden thinks this is his party! He keeps repeating "I cannot wait till my birthday!" We will
probably have a small party for his birthday after we get back.

Tonight, my cousin Sarah is coming here to watch Caden so Paul and I can redeem our free stay at the Amway Grand and have some together (alone) time. That is, if Paul can get better soon. He suddenly came down this morning with a bad stomach sickness. As of a couple of minutes ago he says he feels better ,but he has not budged himself off from the bed. If we go, we will be back by noon and probably put Christmas away. I love Christmas, but it is nice to be back to a more uncluttered living space.

While shopping the other day, we ran into Petco. I found the most loving, adorable Siamese mix. She wasn't shy at all, not skiddish and just wanted to be pet. We are so tempted to get her. We almost left the store with her, but we decided we better give it some good thought. I think our other cat, Zoe, wouldn't mind, we rescued her from a household full of cats. Zoe is a great cat, but she is sorta stuck up, she doesn't sit on our laps or anything like that. She just likes to be pet on her own time and she will disappear for hours, she could really care less about us it seems. So that is why I would like to get another cat, a cuddly one, and a companion for Zoe when we are gone. We will see what happens.....

for more of Sara Fanelli's artwork please visit here.

ps...Aunt Cheryl, can you please email me your address, we have some pictures and a card for you, but were unable to locate your new address. thanks :)

Merry Christmas

2006-12-22T22:33:00.000-05:00

wishing everyone a very merry Christmas from our family to yours...

I just wanted to thank each and every one of you for stopping by, all of the nice comments, all of the wonderful e-mail and especially this little community that the "blogworld" provides!

news..

2006-12-16T13:33:00.000-05:00

...All presents have been sent and all but one card is on its way! We do not have one address of a relative, so a little research has to be done :) woo hoo

It was too soon to have a spinal injection so I was sent home with yet more pain meds and an order for a MRI. I get to go have the MRI on Sunday at 915 and another appointment with the back doctor on the 28th. I think I can get an injection on that day. Maybe the MRI will give us some more answers. I haven't had one since the fusion. After the MRI it is church and a family Christmas get-together. I am in the midst of baking my apple cake and mac and cheese. Luckily those dishes get better sitting over night.

Paul and I are not exchanging gifts, we decided to spend our gift on a baby sitter. We have a gift certificate for a nice hotel in Grand Rapids {Amway Grand} so we will be going to spend a night away, together. And Caden gets to have fun with a sitter. Luckily he loves his sitters. He doesn't get to see them very much, so I think it is still special to him.

Flickr was acting silly, so no pics :(...

thanks for stopping by!

holiday hurry

2006-12-13T12:28:00.000-05:00

{picture of the grand haven pier taken by my mom's friend the other day...}

We have been very busy running around trying to gather gifts for the upcoming holidays. We have one family Christmas celebration this Sunday, a small group celebration Tuesday, Caden's school Christmas party Wednesday, Caden's school caroling on Thursday and after that things will settle down...I have lots and lots of baking and cooking to do...For our celebration on Sunday I am preparing mac and cheese with Grandma Realini's recipe and an apple cake. Tuesday's event is "Christmas morning" theme, so I am bringing banana bread or muffins, and I need to make tons of Christmas sugar cookies for the kids to decorate at Caden's school party. Fun.

My back has been in a huge flare again, so I was lucky to be able to move up my injection to tomorrow.(hopefully-I have an appointment, but it may be too soon to have more injections) We will see what the specialist says. When I called to reschedule I found out that my doctor is no longer going to work on the lakeshore so I will be seeing yet another doctor for my next appointments in the new year. It is always a bit of a set back explaining the years of surgeries and etc to another doctor, but it also means that I will get another opinion and maybe more possibilities of relief. There isn't much you can do to fix a failed fusion though.

Caden has had a lot of troubles with his ears. He had an ear infection last month that went away with anti-biotics, but his ear still had a lot of fluid in it. He hasn't stopped complaining about his ears, so we have kept a close eye on them. They seem like they are getting worse, so we are going to the doctor today to have them checked again....Hopefully we will find a solution, poor little guy...

Well I am off to count the food at the food pantry and then to pick up Caden from school to go to the doctor..

talk to you all soon!
happy holidays to you!

we heart snow

2006-12-05T20:50:00.000-05:00

{for now, anyways}

"snowflakes on my tongue, yum"

the art of making a snow angel, he may have started upside down, but he got the hang of it.

pure bliss

Welcome::

2006-12-04T18:40:00.000-05:00

Welcome:: to my newest collection:Letterpress. Letterpress of all kind, but especially wooded letterpress. I also have several birds,shells, bicycles, etc that I use to stamp my ceramic pieces.

Introducing:: the final version of the owl ornament. I used a celadon glaze. I think that I will be making more of these, but maybe pure white with a staining of underglaze that would allow the texture to "pop" even more. But first I am making tags to lable the glazes I have. I think it is so lovely to see all of the color choices at hand, almost a piece of art in itself.

Goodbye:: to the turkey and...

Hello:: Christmas {isn't he getting so big?}

happiness is..

2006-11-29T16:43:00.000-05:00

happiness is trying to teach Caden how to blow a bubble with bubble gum. I have no idea how I learned this particularly "cool" (to a five year old) ability, but Caden sure helps me relish in the little things in life. He has not yet mastered this talent, but he has been trying and trying all afternoon.

In other news, the vin number on the wheels to our stolen car has been "pinged" in the database. Apparently they are somewhere in Detroit. I wonder if we at least get the wheels back? The car has to be gone for 30 days until the insurance pays us for it. Thank goodness for insurance. Caden's theory of the whole car thing is that they simply needed a ride because they lost their car, and they needed to "use" daddy's car. Hmm, to think so much of this world. Caden was quite heatbroken because he had his two "favorite" (everything is his favorite) trucks were in the car. Daddy is upset because his peacoat was in the car (winter is coming tomorrow, literally) and all of his computer programming programs...oh bugger. This is our third stolen car, and it just sucks. It is hard to keep starting over again, but, once again, that is why we carry good insurance. Sometimes it seems that if we didn't have bad luck, we would have no luck at all. But really, we just need to stop buying cars that everyone else likes to steal.

The first batch of owls are cooling down from the glaze firing. {I peeked, they look cute!} Looks like they will be packaged and ready to fly away on December first, right on the deadline!

press on...

2006-11-28T16:39:00.000-05:00

Well, here I am, all in a sour mood, for a couple of reasons, but mainly because Paul's car was stolen today. In broad daylight. This is the third car that we have lost to theft. This was won the record, we had it for less than it takes to make a payment. Ugh, but then in all my self pity I read this....

Life is so important, things are things, they can be replaced.

wild bird

2006-11-27T20:45:00.001-05:00

Last week we had a bird smack into out bay window. It was so stunned, it walked right onto my Dad's hand...

the bird didn't want to leave my Dad's finger, he sat on his finger for at least ten minutes...

Paul was able to coerce it onto a stick and tranfer the bird to safety to our pine tree. It sat on the tree for another thirty minutes or so until it must have regained it wits and went on with its life.

Oh, just another exciting chapter in our life......more to come, I am sure.

Happy Thanksgiving...

2006-11-22T23:32:00.000-05:00

Wishing everyone a happy and safe thanksgiving!

And a very happy anniversary to Mom and Dad in Oregon...

200th post....

2006-11-22T23:00:00.000-05:00

Finally....I have some pictures of some ceramic art in process. I am making owl ornaments for an international ornament swap. I need to have them all fired twice and sent out by December 1st!

this is an owl in process...

I am making ten of them right now, maybe I will make more for our tree if I have time!

I decided to add a beak, which was kinda tricky...

ten little owls, drying out, waiting for sanding, then the first bisque fire, glazing and then glaze fire, packaging and out in the mail by December 1st.

Caden was inspired by Mommy's studio-palooza, and decided to make bird ornaments for his friends and teacher. He use polymer clay, which cures in the oven.

such concentration...and, may I say (as a proud and slightly biased mother, such an artist, already!)

Caden had been quite ill with an ear infection, actually missing pj day at church and laying down for the entire day. He has never, ever, done that, although he has been more ill than this, he was in a lot of pain from the pressure of fluid in the ear. It took two screaming doctor's appointments, but it finally got diagnosed and is on the mend, thankfully.

(still sucking his two fingers, in fact he has started to chew on then collars of his shirts..? I think that maybe he is getting ready to lose his first tooth? who knows, he sure is oral, in every way...his bus driver has notified us that caden's voice works better than a megaphone)

and finally...a little levity..

On a little hike in the golf course woods that are behind our house, we found a tumbleweed, and Paul, always the entertainer, well...I guess the picture speaks for itself!

Quote of the day...

2006-11-15T12:48:00.000-05:00

"The shadows prove the sunshine" Switchfoot

Quote of the day...

2006-11-13T14:30:00.000-05:00

"You cannot use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." Maya Angelou

November 10th....

2006-11-10T21:04:00.000-05:00

image from theTiny Showcase

November tenth means one thing....HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!

In other news, I decided to get my rear in gear and participate in an ornament swap. I am designing ceramic ornaments that will be sent all over the world. There are 400 participants. You can view pictures of ornaments in the making here.
I am excited to push myself to finish and share a final product. I am so bad about sharing my art, I feel that I am inadequate. Maybe this will help me towards my goal of starting an etsy shop one of these days.

ps..I have added to Caden's Christmas Wishlist....

no time to blog

2006-11-06T11:29:00.000-05:00

Just a little note to let you know that we are ok, but busy. My dad is visiting from california for two weeks, so I may not have time to post. I still need to share pics of Caden's Halloween.....talk to you all soon!

halloween prep.

2006-10-26T14:49:00.000-04:00

This is our front bay window. The big owl like object is caden's interpretation of a bat, I think that he meant for it to be an owl because I have recently become enamoured with everything owl. Isn't it cute? He did it all by himself, he didn't want to comform to mom's idea of making bat wings from his hand print, we only got one done!

This was my idea, "no mom I want to do it...." Mr. Independant...

I used a template to print out the word "halloween" and strung it on orange yarn from the window top.

We made a whole bunch of just plain old bats and hung them all around the windows. We have pumpkins and gourds grouped all over the house. Having a child is a great excuse to make our house more festive for each holiday.

This is Caden with his prized pumpkin from the farm we visited with his school.

This picture was taken the morning of picture day, he is such a goof...

In other news...we had our first snow of the season, a light dusting..

Caden and all of us send hugs to all family and friends that are far far away!

This week Caden is KinderKing. He got to bring in baby and family pictures and his favorite costume (a huge horse that he wore last halloween) and his favorite book and toys. His favorites depend on the minute you ask him. He has numerous favorites in each category! We also got to bring in a special treat this week, I brought in cupcakes with star wars rings on top. (Caden's choice) But best of all, in Caden's words is that he gets to be the line leader. Yes, we have a born leader here...mr. trouble. he he

.....addition to santa list for Caden.....Toys r Us megafort, and HO scale train parts and pieces. He plays with his train all the time, he can put it together all by himself. I got his a catalog for trains and he circled almost every thing! I think he favors construction additions or something that actually does something like move etc.. I will try to put up his list on the sidebar, just for the fun of it.

Happy week everyone!

tic toc tic toc

2006-10-20T11:38:00.000-04:00

Can you hear it? The tic tic ticking of my biological clock? Well, it has been on overtime since Caden has started kindergarten and I turned 31 a couple of weeks ago. We really want to expand our family. Yesterday was my appointment with my spine specialist. And his answer was not what I wanted to hear. But actually not a big surprise. No, no, no. Not going to happen. He said that the fusion would be stressed and that it would cause more unrepairable damage. I am so grateful to have Caden, truly blessed. So that's that. We have thought about adoption a lot, but I think that I just need to be happy with my little family, making our way through the world.

So I got my spinal injections that I get every three months. My legs are still numb, which I quite prefer to what they usually feel like. So I think it will help out this time. The relief lasts anywhere from 2-6 weeks. It decreases my swelling by a ton, though. I am always amazed how much I really swell and I thought I was getting chubbier. I have been walking on the treadmill and doing pilates for the last couple of weeks, and I hope to keep going on that. We haven't had much sunshine, so the time has come for the treadmill.

The lack of sunshine also means that I cannot get a good picture of my latest crafting adventure. I cut up a felted sweater to make a wrap-around shrug. It is cute, but I think that I will only wear it in the house for now, because I think I may have cut it a little short. Live and learn.

Paul was able to work out his Chicago job to a contract basis, so he will not have to leave us for three weeks at a time. He may need to travel a like two days a week for the next few weeks to finish the contract, but at least we don't have to get an apartment down there and basically pay for two houses, etc. He is now working in Grand Rapids and it seems to be going good. He just hated leaving us for the week. The only bad thing is that we have one car right now, so I am stranded home. We do not have any public transportation out here. That is ok, though. It won't be too much longer until we find the right vehicle. Hopefully within two weeks I will have some new wheels, or I will have the Passat back!

I have had a few requests from family for Christmas ideas for Caden. We just bought him three pairs of shoes last weekend, he wears 13.5 but I would buy 1's. Stripey socks are always a popular thing around here. For clothing, he is a size 6. We have recently purchased a play station two, (PS2), so children's games would be loved. He has always wanted a guitar, in fact he has been saving for a nice one (wooden) for a few months, but he is still far aways from the $40.00 goal. He likes to sing and play music, a karaoke machine or radio with a microphone would be so loved by him (not so sure if we would love it so!;) Books are great. He loves legos. He spends hours putting things together and taking them apart. I hope that this helps you all out.

until next time! have a great weekend!!

Michigan Farm Field Trip

2006-10-11T15:40:00.000-04:00

Well, it is that time of year again, the trees are changing and the air is getting crisp. Time for the annual school field trip to the pumpkin farm. This time we went to an apple farm that happens to grow pumpkins and other stuff too. I am so lucky to be able to come along on the field trips. Caden was proud to have his mom there, he held my hand and introduced me to everyone. I am not looking forward to when he will inevitably get embarassed of having his mom tag along when he gets older.

I will let the pictures do the talking (well, sorta....)
We arrived and went through an eight acre corn stalk maze that was shaped like the state of Michigan. We had to locate eight different cities. After that we got to see how they press the apples to make cider. The kids also got to see the bees.

Caden is so ready to read, he is studying the letters and trying to read the sign, who cares if is is upside down :)....

Next it was time to see how they make those delicious fresh donuts that is a requisite for any visit to a farm in the fall...

Caden and our neighbor friend Aaron were struggling to get on the top rung of the ladder to get the closest view.

Snack time followed...

mmm, tummy rubbing good, fresh donuts and just smooshed apple cider.

we had to wait a while for our hay ride so it was playtime...

nothing beats a pick up game of football between kindergarteners and an imaginary ball.

tackle!

but still the best of friends.

This was followed by duck, duck goose...

and some rest time...

finally..

hay ride time!

some trees are changing...

some are not quite ready.

The twist on this hay ride was that we actually got to pick some apples right off the tree tops while on the hay ride. We all got to enjoy some fresh red delicious apples picked right off the tree. The lady in the background had her pockets stuffed with like 30 apples! Caden enjoyed his "baby" apple.

A great time was had by all.

Now, if only we can all feel better, I went to the doctor today and picked up some anti-biotics to get over my month long sinus infection that turned to a migriane. fun fun.

Email Solutions

2006-10-09T11:30:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, I just thought that I would let you know that if you want to email me, there is a direct link right under the "stay in touch" on the left. The "email me" is a direct link to my email which is mareal719@hotmail.com.

The blog comments are public, so any personal info left in the comment section can be and is seen by a lot of people.

Please feel free to email me anytime!

Also...I cannot respond directly to the comments because blogger doesn't record email addresses, so if it is an anonymous comment and no email address is given, I cannot respond.

I hope that I have not offended anyone, I was trying to retain your privacy.

Have a great day.

close call

2006-10-06T22:39:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I waited for Caden at the bus stop as usual. The bus just drove on past me. I was talking to Paul on the cell phone and all I said was 'they took our kid' and starting running after the bus. I was so upset because what I really was thinking is that he is only 5, they don't stop at the stop when the child is not on the bus, he is only five, he is only five....!!! The bus stopped about a quarter of a mile down the road and the door opened. No Caden. I kept running like a madwoman and I saw Caden at the top of the stairs of the bus, there was a substitute bus driver. Ok, I calmed down. Poor Caden, he has had some bus tribulations so far, not getting along with the older kids and the "pecking order", and once I had to board the bus to get him off because he wasn't sure he was at the right stop yet. This time he said "I thought I was lost in a field" hmmm, no field, but I get what he was saying....It was scary. Today we didn't have any problems, but I think that I will be picking him up after school from now on. He has asked several times, and I just feel more connected to the school and his teachers if I can peak in daily or so.

I spent this afternoon organizing the studio (aka my basement craft room). Paul had ordered some really nice organizing units and they came in this morning, so I made quick work of them. It is so nice to have it a little more organized, especially since my interests have expanded. I have my ceramic studio, am working on my first quilt, and also working on a series of encaustic paintings and collages. On top of all that, we found an old letterpress. I have been collecting letterpress fonts, both wooden and metal, and letterpress stamps that I use for my ceramic work, so we thought that we could use them for the intended purpose also. I also carve my own stamps from clay and rubber, which can also be printed on the letterpress. Now that everything has its own station, I think I will be able to get a lot more work done. Maybe I will even take pics! Paul had the camera card with him in Chicago, so no pics for the last few days.

I also re-scanned all of Caden's art work, but the files were too large to upload on flickr, only a few worked. So I have figured out a way to decrease resolution and maybe I can try to put them on the blog again. He just brought home a whole bunch more art work today, so I have even more for your viewing pleasure! He has been drawing a lot of birds and airplanes lately. Each picture he draws has a little narrated story to it. He is very creative. Today he brought home an 'early reader' book, they are expected to be able to 'read' the book by Monday. He is doing great with it, he almost has it memorized and can identify most of the words. He has been also learning to write more than just his name, so neat to see him grow in leaps and bounds like this. Thursday is picture day, the only problem is that Caden has somehow lost the paperwork between school and the bus drop. I guess I will pick it up after school Monday or on the field trip to the pumpkin farm on Tuesday. Not really a big deal, I just minorly (not a word, just my own special vocabulary ;) panicked.

Up North it is 100% peak color, we should reach peak within the next two weeks. It is so beautiful the way the trees explode with color and then,poof, their leaves just fall off, leaving a whole new view of the woods. I especially like the birch trees with their white bark gleaming in the colorful yellow, orange and red forest. My Dad will be out in November to stay with us for a while, so he will miss the fall and head into the winter chill. For all you friends and relatives out west, I hope you know that our door is always open and we have a spare bedroom, so if you ever want to explore Michigan, you can hang with us. I know I have said this before, but I really am sincere, we cannot go west as much as we used too. I guess that is what happens when we grow up, everyone becomes too busy in their daily lives. I cannot remember when I have had a vacation, we usually are traveling to try to maintain some sort of contact with our widespread family!

have a great weekend all!

birthday gift...

2006-10-02T16:28:00.000-04:00

with some of my birthday money I pre-ordered my very own copy of The crafter's companion!

It is full of projects written by quite a few prolific craft bloggers. I am really excited about the log cabing pillow pattern by lisa who just opened up her adorable shop here.

Thanks, Dad for my gift! (my Dad is a true believer in sending something green and is one size fits all! works for me!)

storms!

2006-10-02T15:14:00.000-04:00

We woke up at about 2 am this morning to huge storms. My favorite! I kind of think that it is a small birthday gift to me! I think these have been the biggest storms we have had this year. Lots of rain and lots and lots of thunder! We tried to get some pictures of lightening after we dropped Caden off at the bus, but only managed to catch a flicker...it is difficult to catch lightening on film. It was almost funny, everytime we gave up, it would suddenly flash, right as we took the camera down hmph!

Thank you everyone for the birthday cards, call, emails and birthday wishes.

Caden gave me the best gift, he got onto the bus and instead of waving, he signed "I love you". The other day he had seen me looking up sign language on the computer and asked about it. I told him that we used it when he was a baby before he spoke--like "all done" or "hungry". It was really a passing moment where I taught him to sign "I love you" and he has done it only a couple of times. But today...oh it melted our hearts.

I will end it with some of Caden's art work, his favorite site to see....

life is short

2006-09-25T20:02:00.000-04:00

Ok, this theme has been an ongoing issue for me and a lot of others I care for. Life is short. Too short to try to make everyone love us. We try so hard to surround ourselves with caring people. But the people who you care for the most can also hurt you the most. Sometimes I think if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. So I should probably shut up. now.

But I have been quiet for too long.

Life is just too hard in the first place to try to get someone to love you for who you are and not forsake you for the circumstances that have happened in your life. Paul had cancer. Past tense. had. Recently, we had a cancer scare. Because of our fear, we called our closest companions. By the grace of God, Paul does not have cancer. The very following moment after we found out the great news we called everyone again. To rejoice in the news. Why does it seem that when people go through trial it drives others away. Like they are afraid of our bad luck. Not everyone, really. It is those those few that turn their backs and run away like we are the plague. It makes me so thankful for those who stick by us through thick and thin.

Paul still hasn't been feeling well. He has been passing the largest kidney stones that I have seen. But it will pass. (literally, not to make a horrible punO) It is the past that makes me avoid sharing things for the sake of others doubts. Life is too short worrying about what others think, or why they don't "like" us. This is the way it is, but I am not going to try to prove my life. These things happen. Believe it or not. Doubt no more. You can doubt, but don't blame your doubt on us, why would I make this stuff up? I am not that ambitious.

My back still sucks. Eight back surgeries down. How many more to go? Who knows. I know that having nerve blocks every three months isn't handling it. I know that it is getting worse. My right leg used to be the worse one. Now the left leg (from the sciatic nerve damage) doesn't like to work. I am thankful I can walk. But, somedays, it is difficult. I am so thankful to have Caden and a loving husband.

Next week Paul starts his new VP position in Chicago. This is going to be a major life change for a while. But the opportunity is too great to give up. Maybe the economy will heal in western Michigan while Paul is gaining new skills and he can find something here after a year or three. He gets to telecommute for one week a month. For that I am thankful.

Ok, on another, less grouchy note...

The leaves are turning. We had quite a breezy day today, so the leaves were floating through the air. We winterized the pool this weekend, that always will be our signal that the seasons are turning.

Caden is doing so well in school. Sorry, Meghan, I cannot find his picture from the first day, but I assure you he is getting tall. He likes to make hair look like a faux-hawk. He does it all by himself, he is so pround of it. There is no toy in the house that has not been taken apart. He loves to take things apart. He also likes to keep everything, much to my dismay. I like neat, tidy, uncluttered space. He knows when I throw a broken toy away, no matter how sneaky i am about it! stay tuned for some Caden art, I scanned it in the computer, now I need to get it out of HP software abyss.

I will leave you with a picture of the quilt I am working on...this is the design..

It is from Denyse Schmidt's book, I have gathered natural linen for the white areas, and graphic black, white, and red fabrics for the red part. I think I am going to make a patchwork of the fabrics with various printed twill ribbons mixed in. That will be in place of the red areas in the quilt. I am sure this will take me about a year! I have too many other hobbies to keep up with!

If you made it this far, I assure you that my rants are few and far between, but sometimes I just have to vent! Besides, it isn't you who I am venting about!

hotel aversions

2006-09-20T15:52:00.000-04:00

As promised, I will share some of our recent hotel experiences. A little less than a year ago, Paul decided to surprise me with our first night out without Caden. We went out for a nice dinner and went to a piano dueling bar. The surprise was that he had booked us to stay at the Amway Grand. Well, they had lost our reservations, and completely fowled up whatever Paul had planned. We had a nice stay anyway, and they gave us some certificates for another stay for free, but it went not so smoothly. No big deal. Apparently this was only the beginning of our bad luck.

The next hotel stay was in May for a trip to Chicago. We stayed at the Westin. It was beautiful, and had a very good view of Chicago. We were quite satisfied, that was until I tidied up the room in the morning. I was picking up one of Caden's toys from underneath the bed and to my horror and disgust I picked up a used condom..ewe... I think I screamed. Needless to say, we immediately got moved into a suite, two rooms at that and we got a wonderful tray of goodies including champagne. They really tried to make up for it.

I had forgotten all about these incidents until this last weekend. This time we stayed at the Omni. As we walked through the hall, Paul and I looked at each other and smiled. All of of previous hotel experience memories come flooding back. What is that I hear? Oh yeah, it is the incessant yapping of a poor little lonely dog trapped in his room. I love animals, but, come on. This animal was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It barked and barked and barked. You could here it all the way down the hall. But our room was right next to the yappy dog. I was surprised to find out that they let dogs stay there in the first place. Their policy is no "yappy" dogs. Well who would ever admit that their dog barked and decide to stay somewhere else. This dog seemed to be in distress. I hope it doesn't do that all the time. Needless to say, we moved to another room. All was well. I feel bad for that dog. It was obviously not happy.

I don't think that we have bad luck, we just have interesting experiences. Besides, good or bad, depends upon how you look at it. What was important was that we had a good time.

renegade loot...

2006-09-18T13:51:00.000-04:00

We went, we saw and we collected...a lot. Paul and I had a really nice, but really busy time in Chicago. Caden had fun too. This was the longest we ever left him with a babysitter. Twenty-eight hours, I think we called like eight times and we missed him terribly. But he had a lot more fun here than if he went with us. Besides, Paul and I got to have a very exquisite dinner. Paul had the best steak that I have ever tasted, it literally melted in your mouth, very decadent. (It better had be at the price that we paid ;) I think it is important to do these things every once in a while to reconnect a little and be reminded what it is like to have a "date" and be a little carefree. But it was so nice to come home to our son.

I took a lot of pictures of the things we collected, so I thought I would share with you!

First, the things we purchased:

"treelets" by Jill Bliss and Shinpei. I was lucky enough to get the very last copy. I am a huge fan of Jill Bliss's work. She lives in San Francisco, which is only about one hundred miles away from where Paul and I grew up in Auburn California. We went to San Francisco at least six times a year when we lived in the area. Jill even signed the book to us. So nice You can buy her work here..

We also got her 2007 calendar which was hot off the presses.

I love love love October's picture:
,
The calendar is a collaboration with Saelee Oh, who is also so so talented, I would love to purchase some of her work too.
Sadly, Jill couldn't bring any of her lovely prints safely via air, so she didn't have any, I really wanted to purchase a print. I will just have to do it online one of these days!

Next I bought a porcelain pin by erin at eek design at etsy, she has been a contact on my flickr because we have a similar hobby/passion. She was so nice and it was nice to actually meet someone you "know" via the Internet.

I also got to meet Heidi and her family from my paper crane. She was, of course, as sweet as you would think! She is talented, Paul even liked her soft sculpture trees and smores on a stick, what an imagination she has!

We also purchased some beautiful hand pulled papers from golden hen press

close-up

and...

last, but not least:

fused glass hair pins from kiki

and

some fabric hair pin from piddleloop

Here are various pictures of all the free things we got for being one of the first 500 to visit on Sunday...

believe it or not, I have even more pictures on flickr. We had another funny hotel fiasco, but more on than later! Thanks for visiting!

renegade...

2006-09-15T12:58:00.000-04:00

yippee!!! We are going to the Renegade Craft Fair in
Chicago tomorrow!!!

Even better yet, Paul and I are going...alone! This will only be the second time that Paul and I have left Caden overnight since he was born over five years ago. So it will be nice :)
We got a fairly good deal at a very nice hotel, so that will be even nicer. We have a great sitter who just so happened to be free. She is even taking Caden to Church and a birthday party she needed to go to. He will have so much fun. Probably a lot more fun than going to a busy craft fair to look at art. He loves his babysitter, he says she is his "favorite girl". (other than mom of course)

I have some good news to share...
Remember the computer incident we had over six months ago? The "borrowed" computer was returned to the Montcalm County Sheriff's office! I had to drive an hour and a half both ways to go pick it up, but we are so happy to have it back. Paul had to completely overhaul it, and, of course, all of our info had "disappeared", but other than a few other minor problems, it is in good shape.

Also, Caden is doing great in kindergarten. He has made a lot of new friends, and has greatly improved in his writing and drawing in just a week! He even has a little "girlfriend". (he he) He did have a little problem on the bus ride home on the second day. I mentioned it to the morning driver the next morning as not to embarrass Caden and she talked with the afternoon driver. So far, it has been resolved, although, today the bus stopped one stop down the road for a long time while the driver had to settle the kids down. It seems it is a rowdy bus. I am still considering driving him home from school, but I do not want to "baby" him too much. Besides, he probably wouldn't want to anyways, he likes watching "the big kids".

I have gotten a lot of great mail lately, and I plan on blogging about it early next week! I have been trying to blog this all week, but every time I started, something came up, or the computer needed to be fixed, or it was cloudy and rainy and I couldn't take good pictures. Excuses, excuses, but all true! I think that the computer is almost all organized and all but a couple of the programs have been loaded, so blogging won't be so laborious! Such is life! I will try to take some pictures of the craft fair and share all of the crafty coolness with you!

kindergarten: t minus 2 days...

2006-09-03T13:13:00.000-04:00

This is the, hopefully, Internet safe version of caden's backpack label. I designed the monkey and put his name and our phone number on it and printed it out on fabric transfer paper. After learning it doesn't adhere to his nylon backpack, I ironed it on to linen and embroidered it onto the back of his backpack.(can't put it on the front because it gives the strangers an opportunity to know his name and call him, all these new safety rules..) I printed out a plain monkey to embroider on the front of the backpack. He loves it, so that is what counts.

We went to a destruction derby last night. It was the State Championship, who could miss that? It was a lot different than the ones we went to in Auburn (California). The arena was a lot smaller. So you would think they would have less cars in it, right? Oh no. Seven to eight crashed up cars dueling to the death. The bleachers were close to the track and a sign stated "enter at your own risk" greeted us. Very funny...ahem, not. We got a seat as far as we deemed safe, but in the middle of a match, Caden had to go potty. So he and I trudged through flying mud balls and the chance of a flying car part to the potty. I actually got hit in the forehead on the way back to our seat. (Which, if you know me, is quite appropriate because if you can get injured somewhere, I will...) I was literally dragging Caden as fast as I could, as he was screaming with delight. Quite an adventure (in the white trash/ way out in a hick town sorta way!) Fun was had by all. No...really!

Paul is off doing a contract computer maintenance job today, so Caden and I are car-less. (not complaining, we just haven't found the right truck/jeep yet) So Caden and I are going to take a nice walk, it is a beautiful day. I am looking for some birch peelings for my first adventure in encaustic collage.

our garden...

2006-09-01T13:48:00.000-04:00

Our first garden in this house is coming to it's summer's end.
here are some pictures.

Our wildlife have planted lots of sunflowers for us.(we feed them all black sunflower seeds since I rather have sunflowers grow than the weed like mixture that results from regular bird seed. besides, the birds seem to love it, it even attracts the brightly colored birds.)

a yet to open sunflower.

the hydrangea's last hurrah.

and some late summer bouquets from the garden:

these hydrangeas are from the same bush, I love that we get all of these colors, earlier in the summer the blooms were bright blue, now we have lime green with tinges of pink and blue.

a late summer bouquet.

a close-up on my one and only dahlia, I think the chipmunks have eaten all the others, or rabbits, or some other form of wildlife, we have them all to chose from.
In fact, we have had the biggest problem with chipmunks, there has been a bumper crop of babies this year and they are not afraid of us. One sits on our front porch, right by the front door, chirping loudly all day long. Somedays it gets on my last nerve, Caden scares it off and it comes right back in less than one minute!

Last, but not least, my biggest helper...

Caden, of course.

and our intrepid observer...

our little kitty, all grown up Zoe. She loves to watch us out the window, but she really enjoys the chipmunks, squirrels, and birds at the feeders, she hunches up like she is going to chase them right through the front bay windows!

fifteen miles of vintage cars

2006-08-31T20:57:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we ventured out to Grand Rapids to see the Fifteen Mile long car show on 28th street. There were so many cars, some were driving along the busy street, others were lined in various parking lots. Literally there were hundreds if not a thousand cars. Most of the cars were beautiful old cars, but there were a few customized cars newer cars. It was a huge car show. I decided to take pictures of mostly the emblems and lettering of the vintage cars.

Here are a few:

vintage corvette

I loved the color of this car, it was quite overcast, so the color isn't true on the picture, but still pretty, it was an apply green, but not overwhelmingly bright.

and some emblems:

and a fully restored 1965 garbage truck:

and we end with Caden, proudly standing in front of a british limo.

the little guy..

2006-08-24T15:32:00.000-04:00

isn't so little anymore...

This is a picture of Caden's big project today. He decided his "cars" needed to be cleaned. He got the soap, bucket, hose, most of his bikes, etc and he even asked before doing it! So cute. Just like his daddy!

change is inevitable....

2006-08-21T12:51:00.000-04:00

This is a adorable little painting by superminx from Australia. I found her art through flickr. I really like flickr for storing my pictures as well as exploring.

I have been loving anything owl lately. sewing stars (picture above) is making lovely hand sewn versions.

this a miniature version made by Theresa as part of another adorable creation like this one:
, aren't they cute?

Ok, well on to why I titled this blog. Caden is now going to kindergarten and not young fives. He is also going to the smaller school district that we live in. We live in the city of Spring Lake, but Fruitport school district. Ugh, so confusing. I talked personally with the principal, and she assured me that he is ready. I still placed him with the teacher that teaches the young fives, just in case he needs to switch, at least he will have the same teacher. It is expected that the kids read by the end of kindergarten, that is wonderful, but I am not sure if it is practical for Caden. We will see. I know a lot of kids going into first grade that haven't started to read. Caden can identify sight words and his name, and tries so hard to read. He wants to learn and is so curious, so I think he will do great.

In light of this news, we went back to school shopping. He is great on pants (unless another growth spurt happens before September fifth!) and ok on shirts. I like the collared shirts, like polo shirts, he doesn't like tight shirts and stretches out the necks of his t-shirts. More nice shirts are what we are looking for, and as always, shoes.

So that is all for now.

marco.... polo

2006-08-09T17:50:00.000-04:00

my boys...

We have all been out of sorts lately. I hope that this will pass by soon...

Even though we seem to have the summertime blues, we cannot let this beautiful weather just pass us by. The pool has seen the majority of action around here. I taught Caden how to play marco/polo in the pool today. He likes to bend the rules...I kept catching him sneaking a peak. :) Caden is getting so tan, even more tan than his father! We are having a small group pool party this Sunday, so I have been trying to clean the pool everyday, so we get to play every afternoon, not much else is getting accomplished. It is so nice for my back to be able to have a pool. I like to be able to be active, but some days even taking a walk is out of the question. One day, maybe doctors could figure something out to fix failed fusions, till then, I am thankful for what I have.

Paul sold his beloved Saab today, we are not too happy to have to let it go, but it isn't practical for us to have two wagons. We hope to find a small truck or jeep. We might have found one, but we are waiting how things out before getting too excited about it.

Oh, on a cute note, Caden won a free meal at a local restaurant for his drawing. He was so proud. And so are we. So there are a couple of things to cure the blues, but I think it will take a little more than that :( Wish us luck!

We are...living

2006-08-08T20:52:00.000-04:00

I have been working on new graphics for the blog and hopefully, eventually, my ceramic jewelry packaging. I have been diligently working on improving my skills and designing the pendants and focal beads for my ceramic jewelry. I have finally figured out how to dry them without distortion, or warping. Now I need to be able to make the pendants as thin as possible, which isn't easy. I like the look of very thin ceramics like this:

this is the work of Mia Goransson
I just love the paper thin effect. She is working with porcelain clay. I want to try porcelain clay out, but I first need to use the twenty five pounds of white stoneware clay! That'll take quite a while.

Mel Robson
also has gorgeously thin work.

On another note, life here has been full of large ups and downs. A couple of weeks ago, Paul's oncology center called to say that his blood came back with evidence of a bloodborn cancer. Given his past history of bone cancer, the oncologist started to prepare us for the worse. There we were, again, feeling so out of control. We called our relatives and church to ask for prayer. On Wednesday of the following week, we had a glimmer of hope, more testing had come back and the high protein levels, and the white blood cell count could be what is called monoclonal gammopathy. Further testing was scheduled. We found out on Friday of the same week, that, indeed, this is what Paul has. I cannot explain what I felt as I heard the phone ring and see on caller id that is was the oncology/hemotology center. It was a mixture of fear and resolve that we can do it, it is early, we can get through it again. But, thankfully, we don't have too. Monoclonal gammopathy can lead to multiple myeloma (the cancer that it was thought most likely to be affecting Paul), but having it doesn't mean you will get multiple myeloma. What a complete blessing. We still don't know why he has high blood proteins, and Paul is still not feeling great, but it isn't cancer and we are so truly blessed. More testing is being done to figure out what, if anything, is wrong. He as been though chemo twice, the fist time he was so lethargic and nauseated, but was able to work most days, the second time was site specific, much more painful to the site, but not all encompassing like general chemo. The oncologist had prepared us that a blood born cancer is much worse, and he wouldn't be able to work. Our whole life once again flashed before us. All I could think was, is Caden going to grow up knowing his father? Thankfully, we are out of the woods. Thank you very much for those who went through it again with us, we are sorry to have caused so much worry, but we cherished the prayers, and believe they worked!

Caden is growing up so fast. He just finished up VBS (the week that we were thinking Paul may be sick again) and we enjoyed the festivities of the Coast Guard Festival last week. He has graduated to swim wings and is swimming like a fish, but not quite strong enough to swim unassisted. Our pool is quite deep and has a very little shallow end, so he wears out fast. His new love is jumping in the pool, anywhere but the diving board, he will jump next to the diving board, but not off from it yet! Sorry for the lack of pictures, the camera has been annoyingly slow and I haven't gotten any good pics lately. Caden is also obsessed with the weather, the weather channel and tornados! He would rather watch the weather channel than cartoons somedays. It was too funny when I caught him, sitting in front of the TV, entranced with the weather channel! Also, at the mere age of five knows everything. At least he thinks he does, oh we will have our hands full when he is a teenager, we already do! He is a great builder, has a huge imagination, and much more mechanically inclined than his mother. Today, Paul let Caden drive the tractor, and he did great, I was so amazed!

Wow, I never get to blogging because I feel like I don't have much to say, but end up blabbing away. Thank you for being there, I know that when miles may separate us, but it means a lot that family and friends take the time to share our life with them. I hope to update soon, maybe even with real pictures!

Work in Progress

2006-07-21T12:04:00.000-04:00

This is a prototype of my new bunny pattern, the pattern was way too small, so I sewed it leaving the rough edges out. I have refined the pattern, as well as a small ducklet pattern, but who knows when I will actually get to sew them. I am thinking that they will be a fall/winter project. Caden loves his bunny, no matter how wonky the poor bunny looks! I am also working on making some headbands like this:

I am growing out my hair, this should keep my unruly main under control. The pattern was provided by the lovely heather bailey She also has a couple other handy tutorials..

I am working on getting the kiln full of all the new beads and buttons I have been making. I have also slipcast a few pendants, and have quite a few designs in the works. We are having a few technical difficulties, as usual. The printer needs ink...My laptop will never return etc...I work so much faster on the laptop, but I am so thankful for the new set-up Paul provided upstairs on our main television.

I had another set of spinal injections yesterday. The neuro added more meds to try to push them further up the spinal canal. So far so good.

Paul has had a change in his work, as in he as to be in Chicago (120 miles away) for ten work days a month. And to ass to that, we have to provide the housing. I would have truly been much more excited if we were childless and were in a different stage of life, but now, this is a bit worrisome. We are looking at small studios, for him to stay Monday thru Thursday night two weeks a month. In the summer, Caden and I will probably stay one week a month with him. We will probably take the train. In the fall, when school starts, we are thinking that caden and I can go over the weekend in between the two weeks. It is hard to tell,. We just found out about this change yesterday, and who knows, maybe it will change for the better...Or something else will come up, it is such a difficult economy.

I have also bee gardening. This is my first (albeit puny) lavender harvest:

I wanted to make a lavender wreath for the front door, but they crumbled and I didn't have nearly enough, so I will have to do something else with this batch, I think I will be planting a few more also.

and my lovely hydrangea's, which I am trying to dry:

Oh, almost forgot, Caden has graduated to only those blow up arm swimmies while in the pool, he is almost ready to swim on his own! I will try to get some pic's this weekend. Next week is VBS, I am helping out at the craft department, caden gets to be in the kindergarten group! Last year I was a group leader (ugh) and Caden ended up joining my group of first graders. I think he is ready to be on his own this year, actually I was quite surprised last year when he wanted to be in my group, he is usually so independent. Thanks for listening! Talk to you guys soon!

Hooray, we are back to "normal"

2006-07-15T21:16:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long delay in posting our vacation pictures. I know some of you have been patiently waiting, and waiting, checking back everyday. Thank you for caring so much, it makes us feel loved!

Caden and I left for sunny and very hot northern California June 19th and came back July fifth. It was a long trip. It is nice to have Caden visit his grandpa, they both had fun getting on each other's nerves. But mostly, it was fun. We were able to go to Monterey and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was a wonderful experience. Caden was amazed and so were we. Sadly, we had to leave Paul at home to work, work, work. After work, he would work on the yard, he created a lovely block retaining wall.

here is our pictorial synopsis....

Caden and Paul at the airport, waiting to leave Chicago airport....

Caden with his trusty "stinkball" (yep, he still has it) as we were taking off for the long trip.

Caden swinging high above Auburn, California, in the same park that Paul asked me to marry him.

more swinging....

now, onto the slide, wondering just how hot it is going to be...Oh just a measly 105!

and down the slide.

onto Monterey....
early in the morning, we went to the beach at low tide, how it conjured up memories of our many trips to the coast and marine biology counseling....

A sea anemone, right on the rocks on lover's beach.

mussels

another anemone.

onto the aquarium...

a crab with an anemone, beautiful lighting in the aquarium.

jellies

white anemones

sea urchin

Caden trying oh so hard to touch the stingray (they have a large aquarium set up for the purpose) they felt like thick velvet. He got so soaked!

This is a spot where you can actually be under a wave, this was one of Caden's favorite exhibits, he would jump and dance and scream in delight.

Caden looking into one of the displays allowing you to see the ocean through the eyes of a bat ray.

Caden dressed up like a whale.

sea otter hamming it up for the cameras.

more otters.

We also went to Nevada City. There were some wonderful stores with great art, but it was quite expensive. Luckily for me, Auburn had a ceramic supply store, and I was able to pick up some items I needed, and my dad and I were able to make a bead stand for my kiln. I am almost ready for my first fire, I have more than enough beads and all the supplies needed, now to find the time...

I hope this post was worth the wait, hopefully, now that Paul set-up a new super dooper computer to our TV in lieu of my laptop, I can post more often! You can also see more of our pictures at my flickr site .

talk to you soon!

***post edit: this was ready to go two days ago, but we have had lovely internet problems lately...err AT&T...

Grand Haven Kite Festival

2006-06-12T14:53:00.000-04:00

Here are the pictures from the kite festival, that I promised oh so long ago. It was another beautiful day, just like today....

this last picture depicts an upside down dog, teddy bear? something? I didn't like that one much, it gave me the heebie jeebies, kind of like he was floating face down...

This is why we don't get pictures of Caden, he is a grouchy picture taker...errr.

we have to distract him and tickle him...

taken with the video camera, no i am definately not photogenic.

studio time

2006-06-12T14:35:00.000-04:00

I was able to squeeze in some studio time this week. I have created a few more hand sculpted ceramic pendants ready for the bisque fire. Here are a few pictures:

the butterfly pendants are about the size of a quarter, they will bisque fire white and then I will glaze them.

they need to dry for a couple of days before I can kiln fire them.

The small pinwheel is my favorite, it is the size of a dime, I think I will make another, larger one, I really liked where this could go, with a little color...

I just wanted to give a shout out to Andi at

Mystic Spiral, who kindly called me and answered all my kiln questions. I have had a kiln for over a year, but have been afraid to use it, silly me! Hopefully, this will get me one step closer to achieving a dream.

One day we want to pick up a Nikon D50 or D70, to take some better pictures, but it won't be anytime soon, unless one drops from heaven......uh didn't think so.

color week: white

2006-06-12T14:17:00.000-04:00

Little Birds and Mav re-started a weekly blog color theme. Today is white. I love white, I even like white walls *gasp*. We love to contrast rich earth tones with white linens and curtains in our house. This is my contribution for today:

my white ikea vases, oh how I love thee.

for the love of ceramics

2006-06-07T11:07:00.000-04:00

I discovered this new to me artist at the doctors' office yesterday. She casts porcelain in molds made from tin takeout containers. Such a great idea...beautiful texture! You can visit her site here.

The lovely peices above are by Mia Goransson. She combines the translucency of porcelain and the beauty of nature together beautifully. She makes molds of fresh buds to create the realistic branch effects. I have been admiring her work for a while now.

Well, that's all for today. Have a wonderful day!

gimping along...

2006-06-06T16:42:00.000-04:00

We took our first pier walk of the year on Sunday. It was absolutely beautiful. The only problem is that I twisted my ankle. It didn't hurt right away, but as the day went on, it got so bad I could hardly walk on it. I went to the Doctor today, as it wasn't getting better. It looks like it is only a Grade II sprain and should be better in a week. Good news, but I was thinking it would get better quicker, I don't like limping around, and Caden is too quick for me on a good day!

Paul has been working lots. He is very busy. He will be traveling a lot at the end of this month, when Caden and I are in California.

I still don't have my laptop back. Our "friend" "borrowed" it about 6 weeks ago. He is no longer returning our calls. hmm, we think that our last resort is to report it stolen, because he took it for supposedly a couple of days, now it has been well over one month, and he isn't returning our calls. Can you trust anyone in this world anymore? hmpffff

Another drama over here is that Caden is first on the waiting list for school of choice for Spring Lake school. Apparently, the superintendent of Fruitport schools lived on our street, and somehow was able to skew the school lines to make our little street part of Fruitport schools, since he needed to live in the district. Well, thanks a lot, good for him. It sucks for everyone else in the neighborhood that wants their kids to go to school in the same town as we live in. Every child on our street goes to Spring Lake Schools. This year, they have 90 kids in the district, whereas 60 is the norm, so they shut down school of choice. We are up in the air on where he will be going to school. I did, however, manage to swindle our way into getting him screened in the Spring Lake schools next week to see if he should go in young fives instead. That is one step in the right direction. If they open up school of choice, he will get in. So, we hope that it all works out. No matter what, he is registered for both districts. Fruitport doesn't screen for young fives, it is parental choice. We, quite frankly, just need a little direction in that matter. I just don't know if he is ready or not. Over here, about 85% of the kids go through young fives first. When I was little, I went to young fives too, but I was always one of the oldest in my class because of it. Who knew that this would be such a drama?

Well that is our latest update, hope all is going well out with you all. Have a great day!

Things Caden says...

2006-06-02T11:20:00.000-04:00

Today, as a large semi truck backs down our street to make a delivery...
Me: "I wonder what it is..."
Caden: "Maybe it is a giant ice cream cone!"

To have the imagination like a child, life is full of grand surprises.

Westward ho!

2006-05-30T15:51:00.000-04:00

Calling all relatives and friends residing on the West coast: That time has come around again, Caden and I will be in California from June 20 to July 5, visiting grandpa. If anyone would like to entertain us, just let us know. We have two weeks to spend catching up. Caden is really lucky to be able to spend so much time with my Dad. Since his birth, my Dad spends his vacation time visiting us in Michigan for two weeks in the fall and then sends Caden and I out for two weeks in the summer. It works out well. It seems like we see each other even more now that we live on the other side of the country. Hopefully we will be able to visit with Grandma and Grandpa "lini" like last year, too.

We had a great weekend. It was hot and humid here in Michigan. We had a garage sale on Saturday, used the proceeds towards a trip to the waterpark on Sunday, and enjoyed our pool Monday. I never thought we would like having a pool as much as we do. It was really nice floating in our very own in-ground pool. We have been cleaning it and feeding it (putting chemicals in it) for two months, but it was worth the wait. It was a pleasant 82 degrees in the water. Not too cold and not too hot. Caden is learning how to swim. His confidence is getting better, he even was jumping in and floating in the deep end. We tried to get him to dive in off the diving boards, but he wasn't quite ready for that. Sorry, no pictures today. I still don't have my laptop back and loading pictures on the spare computer is a real chore.

Today Caden had his first "real" ouchie. He squished the tip of his middle finger in between two 2 pound weights. It is pretty swollen and bruised. Poor guy. We are keeping our eyes on it, if it gets any worse, or he complains about it, I think I'll bring him to the doctor. It is the tip of his finger, so I think there isn't much we can do for it. He seems to be using it, and it bends, so I think it is just a big ouchie.

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend, and we hope to see you soon!

buggabu

lightening storm

back in internet-land

ups and downs

happy easter

a really cool video...

I made something...

the leprechaunator 2009

{ our cute kid }

february snow

now interrupting my silence!

the last two weeks...

i killed the kiln :(

tiny visitor

hello, haven't seen you around here lately...

bumming

out of the digital loop

March

We get to keep Suki!

busy-ness

it is always something...

Januray Storm

ornament exchange 2007

goodbye 2007...hello 2008!

holiday check-in

updates...

Happy Birthday Mom!

thank's mom!

happy halloween!

happy birthday to me

update

art sale

9000 miles in 30 days or less

California ahoy!

the adventure is on...

A busy week!

proof!

The move is over!

we interrupt this lack of posting with....

photo free for all....

the amazing internet...

My Life...a sad, sad book?

happy Easter

hackers suck!

bug is sick....

spring has sprung!

news.....

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tooth Fairy Time!

Thankful.

...captains log....

progress

putzing along...

ceramic doodles...

bring it on...

time to organize..

Merry Christmas

news..

holiday hurry

we *heart* snow

Welcome::

happiness is..

press on...

wild bird

Happy Thanksgiving...

200th post....

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...

November 10th....

no time to blog

halloween prep.

tic toc tic toc

Michigan Farm Field Trip

Email Solutions

close call

birthday gift...

storms!

life is short

hotel aversions

renegade loot...

we heart snow