up for sale......soon!

here is the second side to the charms below!

ugh...this new scanner is drivin' me nuts! but i will get the hang of it....i will...i will... 

up for sale soon!!!!!!!

well, i am excited....this is the first thing i have scanned using my kinda sorta in a way maybe new scanner......i hate figuring out how to use new stuff!
the screen on this scanner is slightly slanted and these puppies kept sliding off! time for some creative adjusting to the scanner!


well, these charms will soon be for sale! eeeeeeeee! i am so excited to finally have the courage to do this! i want to thank my wonderful hubby who has been nothing but supportive and encouraging since the first day i met him.....just a bit over 20 years ago! (wow, that just made me feel old to say i have know him that long!) it took a long time for it to sink in that he was being truthful and not just a wonderfully supportive hubby being sweet!

these charms are two sided, the second side coming up next! 

meteor shower

last night bill and i sat outside to watch the meteor shower........he was soooo exhausted from not sleeping well all week, and i think as much as the extra money would help out we both secretly were glad he did not get asked to work overtime this weekend. we both sat ourselves down, and wiggled into a comfortable position, each using one chair to sit on and one to prop our tired legs upon.

in my world of being hearing impaired, it has its disadvantages, but it has one beautiful advantage......when i have my hearing aids in, the sounds of the outdoors are like bold colors from an artists palate that are each thrown on to a canvas, when i remove my hearing aids the sounds of the crickets, frogs, and the occasional owls, coyotes, turkeys, neighborhood dogs, cars, all become beautifully blended, one into the other, all of them becoming muted colors of their former selves and it becomes the most beautiful symphony of sound that seems to almost immediatly erase all of stress of the day and make you feel at peace down to the deepest, darkest places of your soul.

so here we sat, bill falls asleep almost as soon as he get comfortable, i poke him and tell him how uncomfortable he looks, and being his wonderfully sweet self says he wants to be outside with me and he is just fine, then begins to snore. we came out at 10:45, the peak for the shower is between 1am and 4 am......., i am bound and determined to see as many shooting stars as i can.........the first 45 minutes go by and and i start thinking that maybe the meteor shower we saw 2 weeks ago that was not listed as a 2006 shower on any websites schedule was it.....afterall these things do not have calendars and watches, maybe it came early, and maybe we should just pack it in and go inside.........it is kind of chilly, i am tired, bill is all crunched up in his chair setup, and my rls (restless leg syndrome) is acting up pretty bad and it actually feeling quite painful at times.........and as usual....i gotta pee......again.........then i decide i will wait just a bit longer, afterall the peak times to watch are from 1 - 4 am........so i go in and get a blanket and come back out, i look up to the sky and say quietly to myself ' if both of these businesses i am starting up are going to be as successful as everyone thinks and i hope please send me a sign God and send me just 1 shooting star'........... within minutes i see 2 of them! until 12:30 we see only a couple more, and then my good friend denise calls, she and her hubby FINALLY got their power back, after it was out for 9 days, and the storm that caused everyone to lose power also, they discover, killed their air conditioner........what a letdown for them, but at least they have electricity now for fans, so now the horrid heat can be circulated.....so she and i talk about our day, and at the end of the conversation she says 'i hope you get to see lots of your shooting stars' and i agree and we hang up. with that i look up and i see one, two, three........ten......eleven......twelve...over the next hour. what a wonderful gift......my friend's wish was heard by the heavens. every time i see a shooting star it takes my breath away, just as if it was the first one i had ever seen. i think of just how small we are in comparison to this event, and what a spectacular thing it is to witness such a wonderfully big thing. i am a science geek at heart after all. when you think of the journey that meteor has made through our universe, how many bazillions of miles and light years it has traveled, its size, and that we are witnessing its' death as it burns up entering our atmosphere.

after that things slowed a bit and i dozed off here and there and finally decided to pack it in, afterall we have a busy day ahead, and i am SLEEPING IN, after a full week of max being back in school! so i am off to start a day of searching for just the right stuff to put together to sell, and tonight i will sit outside again and hopefully get to watch another one of the universe's beautiful light shows.

ok, i am back again!

ok, well today i am starting to settle back into a routine, max has officially started his first full week back to school..........he is already a 5th grader! my baby is so grown up.......oh, twinge of ache in the overies......they are saying we still have eggs in here.........i keep saying they are past their freshness date.........i don't think i really could do the baby thing anymore anyway.....i am loving the independence one starts getting back as the children get older......so anyway, where was i.....

so, routine is working its nasty little self back in our lives with max back in school, the computer is running smoothly still, knock on wood and i am working reading emails and blog hop-ing back into my morning. oh part of me already misses the informality that summer break brings..... no schedules, timetables, homework, projects.........we are all night owls, we stay up late, watch the stars, sleep late.........but, a part of me was missing routine, my alone time. i always thought of myself as one who hated with every fiber of my being the feeling of being alone, but i find i love being my own person, doing my own thing....i crave it by summers end.....

so today i am working on cleaning up what my daughter say looks like an art supply store that blew up in my living room.........ha ha!

by this time in the next week or two, or when the oldest 2 kids return to school i will have 2 more websites up and going....one for me to sell my art on, and the other a collaborative between me, my hubby and good friends of our as we begin to sell kits and gatherings of pieces and bits to create art with! i am so excited! i can not wait, and for the first time i feel no self doubt or fear, and i feel like a little girl counting down the days til christmas.....not knowing what awaits m ,but knowing it is good, all good!

well, now i am off to fix the disaster of a living room so that i have room to start dumping the clean laundry on that backed up because i had no room to empty the clean clothes basket onto because the stuff was so piled up in the living room......did that make sense?

there will be pics of new art coming soon........i have to take it all one step at a time, cross off each item on my list before starting on the next.....oh that is soooo hard for me. uploading new pics is about 10 items down on the list.....now if i can find a way to add about 23 and a half more hours to the day i should be able to upload by wednesday or thursday...........

ughhhhhhhh!

a couple of hours ago i sat down, typed a nice little hi there how ya doin', hit the freaking publish button and poof.........everything i had typed disappeared! oh, i swear!

ok, i am going to breathe in, breathe out, and find my happy place......be back in a minute..........breathe, breathe............whoosaaaaaaa.....ok.....

as soon as i can afford it....which i hope is in a month or two i may have to go typepad! anyone out there ever have any problems with them? i think i am going to start typing an entry, publish and then go back and add and republish so that this does not happen again.....it seems like it happens all of the time! ok, i am better now!

hey there......remember me?

ok....yikes did not realize just how long it had been since i had posted until this past weekend! yikes!

well, some parts of life are still all blahhhhhh, but we are adjusting to said blahhhhh......

so far everyone has survived family togetherness during summer break.....barely......i have only threatened to duct tape the kids to the inside of their closets a few times so far.......why can't they just leave each other A L O N E ! how hard is it really.......? most days it kinda sounds like this......

steph.....morning mom...how are you?
me.....great....how are you sweetie?
steph....oh fine....
me.......are the boys still sleeping..........
steph.....yup...wanna sneak in the pool before they wake up
me.....of course!!!!
sam......stop it max
max...stop what...i did not do anything
sam....yes you did and i am telling mmmmmooooooooooooommmmmmmmmm.......max________ (insert: hitted me, poked me, touched me, spit on me, looked at me, breathed on me, put his gross disgusting smelly pig feet on me.......etc, etc, etc......)
me.......max leave your broth.....
max.....i did not do anything to him
me......er alone!
max.....but i did not do it and besides he did it to me first
sam....did not
max....did too
sam....did not dork
max....did too dorkity dork
sam....did too smelly underwear boy super dork
max....mom he said i have smelly underwear
sam....well you do, and you need to change them cuz you got skid marks
max......mommmmmmmm sam said i have.....
mom....will both of you stop it now or i am taking you to walmart and putting a free to good home sign around both of your necks!
max......skid marks and i don't cuz i changed 'em last night......
me.....boys get along now or i am sending you both out to clean up dog poo in the yard with your bare hands.......and madalyn got into the trash last night and you ought to see what she left in the yard.........
steph....max and sam shut up you are giving me a headache
boys.....mom steph said shut up
me......dog poo in the yard or get along.........
max.....mommmmmmm
sam......mommmmmmm
me.....well, what is it gonna be
sam......mom is mean.....
me.....yes i am and at the mean mommy academy i got an a+ in super mean mommy class!
max....hey sam...wanna play a video game
sam....yeah sure.....dork
max....bigger butt dork
sam....i get to play first
max....you got to play first last time...thats not fair....mommmmmmmmm
me.......warm, gooey, smelly dog poo.................
max.....ok sam you can go first....geez mom is crabby......

someday i am actually going to miss this! ha! geez! add in a daughter with att-it-tude and what a fun house this is! i am very lucky because i have really sweet wonderful kids, or so i keep telling my self! i do really. really i do..........yup, i do........

so anyway, the youngest goes back to school this week, the other two have almost a month.......then 3 weeks after they go back the youngest is already on cycle break........ughhhhhhhhhhh!

ok, so i am looking forward to some me time, can ya tell!

well, i have had lots of stuff going on this summer....trying to get a 'business' going selling my art, jewelry, etc and a joint venture with a really good friend, trying to fit in housework, artwork, exercise, yardwork, yadda yadda yadda, oh yeah, and a little sleep here and there. we have had some pretty annoying computer problems for almost 2 months.....partially thanks to my oldest sons friend who came over and spent the night and without our permission made himself at home on our computer and we ended up with a virus. the kid was strange, i really don't like most other peoples kids! it blows my mind at their bad manners, if they have any at all!

we were given an english bulldog....free......but is anything ever really free!? ha! she was 11 months old, we have had her for a month.....omg what a riot she is! you ought to hear her version of howling.........and of course like every other animal in this house she brought with her 'issues' and health problems....but she is so funny! pictures coming soon.........i have not yet scanned anything or uploaded any photos from this computer yet! i may wait until will and denise come over again and will can be here in case i make the computer smoke and burn! i have learned how to burn cd's, and will installed a dvd player so now i can watch movies on my computer in my studio while i art........ohhhhhh i love it! my honey got me surround sound speakers!

i am trying to get us all back on a normal people schedule. i hate this! i actually have ancestors that came from transylvania, so i joke that i am part vampire......ha ha ha ha ha.....just the sleep during the day live by night part.....not the grody suck-your-blood part.....ewwww, totally! the kids and i all seem to function better and feel better during the evening so during summer months we stay up until the wee hours of the morn' and sleep late, well, they do at least. i get up and enjoy the peace and quiet!

well, i have tons more to say, but i can hardly keep my eyes open....a couple hours in the pool with 3 kids can poop you out! tonight we swam until 10 pm! i hate coming in to the air conditioning soaking wet.....i am getting to old for this! my hubby and i still need to fit in our annual nakey swimming.....can't call it skinny dipping cause their aint nothin' skinny about it, but we have done it every year.....the kids found out about it this year and it grossed them out! oh, i love it..........and i am rambling again......i can never just say see ya later and shut up! so, anyway just wanted to say hi, and will post pics of all the neat art i have done over the last couple of months in the next couple of days or so! i am going to blog surf, i have not done that in a couple of months..........okay i am shutting up now......ok now.......now i am for real.........

a bit of life in our home

i was hoping things were settling down, once again to add some entries and art this week, and it seems this will not happen.

first, before i forget i want to thank will and denise for their friendship, we have actually adopted them as family. april 22nd was my birthday, and in the midst of coping with the brutal murder of will's nephew the previous week he put a wonderful computer system together for me as a birthday gift so that i could have a computer of my very own to get my business started. i am in the process of creating some unbelievable necklaces and bracelets using vintage appliques that were denise's grandmothers, that she so sweetly shared with me.

this last week has yet been another roller coaster ride for us. i have been horribly sick with a kidney/bladder infection and the medicine and i are not compatable, but i have no choice but to take it and deal with the horrible side effects. one of the side effects is vision disturbances, and i pray that i will not experience this one in particular after the bizzare reaction i had to steroids i had to take last year that sent me to a neuro-opthomologist.

thursday we received information that my husbands sister only had a few days to live. she has been ill for several years, and for the last six months or so had been dying, but did not want any of the family notified until the end. it was not uncommon for us not to hear from her, and it was my husband who sought his sister out to check on her from time to time. they were very close as kids, and those memories my hubby always held dear to his heart no matter what had changed as they became adults. she passed away sunday morning. my hubby never got a chance to talk to her one last time, by the time we were given the news she was already too far gone to even comprehend his presence in the room. he went to see her this morning after a doctors appointment, which almost got cancelled....the dr's office called and said our doctor had a death in the family and we had to cancel.....my hubby had been out of his meds for a couple of days and this is the last thing he needed....i pleaded with the secretary to see if she could squeeze him in with another doc since all he needed was a script, so......
after working 3rd shift, after the doctors office visit which is a the hospital across the highway, he went to the other hospital, he scrubbed up, gowned and gloved up and went to walk in the room and a man lay in the bed she had occupied the previous day. no one called to let any of us know she was gone. there is no good way to find out a loved one has passed, but this was by far one of the worst ways. my hubby left the hospital, drove to his brothers home, no one was there, drove to his sisters ex-husbands home, no one there either. he came home, mentally and physically exhausted and fell asleep.

the news of her illness came from my hubby's brother, who is also very ill and is on an organ transplant list. he is a mere shadow of the man he was, broken. and i often wonder if he will live long enough to get the phone call that they have a match. he is a wonderful person with a wonderful heart that spent most of his life lost, too, and i only hope and pray that help is just 'round the corner. his wife passed away almost 4 years ago, a year after she had gastric bypass surgery. something my hubby also had, and seeing what she went through and what my hubby goes through on almost a daily basis i would hate to see anyone else go through this. this morning my brother -in-law came to give us info on the arrangements for their sister, and had found out that his wife's sister will not be able to fly in because she is having surgery, she has skin cancer and they think it may have gone to her brain.

if you sit and think about all of this too much the room begins to spin.

we are also in for a summer of doctors appointments with our 3 kids. the youngest back at the neurologist, the other 2 the neurologists office has referred to other specialists.

there are a few other things going on for us here that we have been dealing with for months that continue to be issues. someday posting in such a public place about some private things of the past will be an option i do not feel i have now.

right now i feel like our life is a beautiful, irreplaceable, precious vase that fell from a shelf and shattered, and someone scooped us up and put all the pieces back where they belong, only they have not yet been glued in place, so one wrong move, one more jolt, and the vase will crumble down again. oh, what humpty must have felt like. we sit and wait, patience is a virture they say, we wait for someone to come with the glue so we can stand solid and sure once again. i am so thankful to have such a wonderful husband and kids, and adopted family to go through this with.


i hope to return soon. with stories with happy endings and art.

thank you everyone who has left wonderful comments here, and at my email address. i have not taken the time lately to send personal notes of thanks, but soon i hope to.