Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Year!

This isn't a self portrait as I know way better than to try such a thing (well, to be honest, I tried once...not good).


Anyway, I wish for you all a year of reaching for the stars and dreams coming true.


Happy New Year, everyone!!

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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Love...

We've been doing a lot of clearing out lately. And in the process of clearing things out it became clear that some things were definitely not on the "clear out" list.


Little guy: "What the heck is this?"

Dave: "It's a typewriter."


And the "antique" from the 80s was carefully placed upon a high shelf where it will live out its life as an unused, yet loved and appreciated part of our past.

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Monday, December 29, 2014

Got Wind?

Sometimes things are not as they appear...or smell.


Dave and I went on a romantic date to the grocery store. Here's how the next few hours went.


We got in the car.

Dave: "Did you fart?"

Me: "No."


We got home and put the food we'd bought in the fridge.

Dave: "Did you fart?"

Me: "No!"


I got the broccoli out and put it in the steamer.

Dave: "Did you fart?"

Me: "No!!!"


And then we noticed that the broccoli was rather mushy and a bit on the liquidy side in the bag...and totally smelled like the worst fart ever.


Um...thanks for the romantic scapegoating, darlin'. Good thing I know that Dave totally loves his vegetables.

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Sunday, December 28, 2014

Cat Woman

Sometimes I'm a nag. Well, a lot of the time if you ask my family. Tonight my nagginess was aimed at my little guy.


Me: "I need you to go close the chickens in the coop and take care of both of our neighbors' cats."

Little guy: "In a minute."

Me: "Bawk, bawk, bawk, meow, meow."

Little guy: "You're annoying."

Me: "BAWK, BAWK, BAWK, MEOW, MEOW!"


And he went out to close the chickens in their coop.


Me: "Meow, meow."

Little guy: "Stop it, mom."

Me: "MEOW, MEOW!"

Little guy: "You are really annoying."


Annoying, perhaps. Effective, absolutely.

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Saturday, December 27, 2014

Fair Weather

Conversation as we were walking to the car in the grocery story parking lot. The little guy was pushing the cart as he always insists upon doing.


Me: "I never pushed a grocery cart until I moved out of my parents' house."

Little guy: "Mom, you know you live with a bunch of control freaks."

Me: "We're going to put gas in the car next. Are you going to insist on filling it?"

Little guy: "No way."


Fair weather control freak....

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Friday, December 26, 2014

Peaceful

Peaceful...that sums up how I've felt throughout this holiday season.

We've had our years of the big decorated tree in the corner of the living room, the abundance of gifts underneath, the staying up way past my bedtime to do Santa duties, the being woken by wee ones mere hours after I'd finally gone to sleep, and the blissful exhaustion that all of that was.


But now that our kids are big (16 and 19) the holidays are delightfully easy going and low key. We had no tree, only lights thumb tacked to the walls in a delightfully whimsical way. We purchased absolutely no gifts for one another (just transferred money to the kids' bank accounts). We all went to bed when our own beds called to us. The teenagers slept till close till noon. And we were all well rested.

I treasure both experiences, but I gotta give peaceful the win.

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Thursday, December 25, 2014

An Explosion of Color

OK, fair warning. This blog post is kind of gross...colorful, but definitely icky.

I wish this were about the delightful splash of color that the holiday lights are casting in my living room, but instead this is about a box of crayons. A poor unfortunate box of chunky crayons that became a midnight snack for our misguided, and evidently ravenous dog, Scout.

So this morning we were greeted by a partially processed rainbow of colors...all about our hallway. No additional details will be given. This is my gift to you.

And on this Christmas Day we are every so thankful for the miracle of carpet cleaners.



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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Following the Light

Dave was clearing out some old stuff from his office and came upon an old laser pointer. Now this is not one of those tiny ones, no, this is a large hand held piece of equipment. And since it was out he figured, why not see what the animals will do with the light it projects.

Well...

Hazel, our 85 pound wonder puppy chicken immediately ran to the hallway and remained there until the laser pointer was put away.

Pug, our senior tabby cat gave it a brief look and bid it farewell.

Tommy, our kitten thought it was the best thing since canned cat food.

And Scout, our old lady dog, had the best time of all, chasing it about, to and fro, until her bursitis got the best of her.

Good times were had.

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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Love and Light

We've got lovely family joining us for the next couple of days, and for the first time in years we don't have a tree to decorate. I didn't even drag our porch plant in and put lights on it like I usually do. My inner voice just kept shouting...

"No tree, no tree, no tree!"

So "no tree" it is. Instead, this year I just tacked strings of colorful lights up, down, and all around on our living room walls.


Perfection!


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Monday, December 22, 2014

For the Love of Rituals

I adore rituals. You know, the awesome little things that become our rituals because we end up doing them over and over again. Like my love of tea. The heating of the water, the steeping of the bag, the blissful experience of the tea as I take that first sip.  Love!

Well, by golly, I think I have a new ritual. Every couple of weeks I think I'll create a new henna drawing on myself. This wee flower on my inner arm is my second try ever. My hand is still shaky as I'm getting used to this exciting and amazing media, but I think I'll improve over time. Practice, practice, practice.

Thanks for going on this henna ride with me!

Nope, my arm isn't for sale, but...Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.
 
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Sunday, December 21, 2014

Older and Wiser

My Bunco group had its annual Holiday party last night. When we started about fourteen years ago, we were all young moms desperately eager to get together once a month and get our crazy on. We've all grown a lot since then and I think the changes are rather lovely.

The details will remain known only to us, Bunco rules are like Vegas rules in that way, but I will say that we're older, wiser, and ever so much more awesome. We sport our gray hair and our reading glasses like the sexy mamas we are. And we are proof positive that bigger, wider, and, yes, saggier is absolutely better.

I'm madly in love with my Bunco Babes!!

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Saturday, December 20, 2014

Up

My little guy, who is now sixteen, is growing up.


The last two days have been spent totally cleaning his bedroom. He got rid of so many things...basically an entire childhood's worth.

- almost all of the trophies he's won.
- his well loved and worn out Scooby and Shaggy.
- so, so, so many candy and other food wrappers.
- the DVDs he watched countless times.
- a small baseball glove and other sports equipment.
- the poster of "Uranus" he made in elementary school...still can't say "Uranus" without giggling.
- and one very shriveled apple core.


But thankfully the little kid is still in there because these happily remain.

- a big bin of Legos.
- a bin of Star Wars action figures (from my childhood).
- a poster with every imaginable super hero.


So glad he still embraces the little guy within.

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Friday, December 19, 2014

Aroma

The poor little guy gets blamed for everything!

...or at least his feet do.


I was in the car with him and freaked my freak because he took off his shoes. This is not allowed because his feet, well, stink. There, I said it. But off his shoes were and totally stinkified was my car. So I opened all the windows...and the smell got even worse. We must've been driving by where someone had dumped a bunch of maneur. Then the smell shifted to skunk. And up the windows went.


Then later that night I was cooking up a Kali style snack.


Dave: "Dude, your feet stink! Put your shoes back on."

Little guy: "It's not my feet!"

Me: "I'm cooking broccoli."

Little guy: "You guys need to leave my feet alone."


OK, so his feet were innocent in this case, but believe me, they have not lead the clean life.

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Thursday, December 18, 2014

Peace

Conversation with my little guy...

Little guy: "Why are you so passionate about bullying?"

Me: "Because I was terribly bullied as a kid."

Little guy: "It's not that big of a deal any more."


This lady breathes a huge mom sigh of relief, you know, the kind where you realize that your kid is managing to avoid the kind of funk you suffered as a kid.

And now I'm wondering what his version of childhood funk will be when he thinks back as an adult. Likely all those times his technology was taken away for this reason and that. And the old lady me will remind him that when I was a kid I had to get up to change the channel on the TV.

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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The Wonder of Quilts

I painted this miniature quilt for a lovely friend of mine whom I've had the great pleasure of working with for the past eleven years. Lucky, lucky me!!! Oh, and she happens to also be a fabulous quilter.


But then, of course, my mind wanders as I gaze upon this wee little quilt. You see, I had a fabulous quilt experience just this morning. We had a washing machine mishap as I was about to leave for work this morning. Last night I'd cleaned out the little filter thing and I thought I'd gotten it completely back in...but the water rushing out of our laundry room told a completely different story.

I ran and got towels. I ran and woke up Dave. I ran and got more towels...and more towels...and more towels! And even with every bath towel we owned spread around on our floor, it was not enough.

So I ran and got two of our quilts. And those quilts had some super soaker soaking up power!

And then my mind wandered again and I thought, "Now I get why toilet paper is 'quilted'!"

...Yup, my early morning "aha" moment.

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Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Surrounded by Love

Last weekend I attended a reception at a gallery where some of my art is on display. It was incredibly wonderful. The most delightful folks were there...other artists (my mom among them) and folks that appreciated art (my husband among them). It was positively blissful to be in a space filled with such a love for art.

Honored, humbled, and deeply grateful....

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Monday, December 15, 2014

Love it So

If loving my car is wrong...I don't wanna be right.


I had to do my monthly fill-my-tank-with-gas adventure the other day. It's always my opportunity to reset the mpg info on the screen. The big guy had used my car when his was in the shop and, by golly, the mpg was so much lower than when I drive it, so I was just itchin' to reset that booger.

34.5 mpg...RESET

Now I know this isn't terrible mileage in the huge scope of things, but I'm spoiled by my Prius. I have much higher expectations. And after three days of me behind the wheel instead of my apparently lead-footed nineteen year old...

47.6 mpg

Yup, I love my car.

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Sunday, December 14, 2014

Chicken Dance

The little guy had his karate holiday party today. It was all perfectly wonderful...until...it was time for the parents to try their hand at what the kids do.

Dave pulled the whole "I'm being the photographer, I can't." And so it was me.

The kid tried to teach me a few things and soon realized that I am, in fact, unteachable.

So when it was my turn to get in front of the students and their parents, I bowed, pointed at my kid and said, "He taught me everything I know," and then I did ten punches followed by the chicken dance and a loud, "BA-CAW!!!!"

I did the kid proud, I have no doubt.

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Saturday, December 13, 2014

I'm my own Canvas

I got to try something new today for the first time ever. I've always wanted to try it. So when a lovely friend invited me to a henna party, of course I said, "YES!!"

While my work is super far from perfect, there are things I wish I could go back in time and change, and likely no one else would want to be stuck with this flawed work on their hand for a week or two, I'm super satisfied and will sport it with pride.

A little while after I'd applied the henna...it's starting to dry and flake off.

After all the henna was washed off.
While my hands are not for sale...
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Friday, December 12, 2014

The Space Between the Spots

I trimmed our old dog, Scout, the other day. With sweet Scout, time is measurable in a few ways.


• the amount her hair has grown since the last trim.

• the increase in her arthritis symptoms.

• the lessening of the space between her cute little freckles.


She and I both share the first and the last of these measurables. I had my hair trimmed just yesterday and, by golly, new age spots freckles show up on my hands with increasing frequency.

Time, she marches on...and, happily, freckles remain forever cute.

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Thursday, December 11, 2014

A Little Drippy

I got my hair cut today. It was awesome as always, but today there was an added bonus. I was in a chair by the front window of the salon and I tell you what, I was pretty much on exhibition. You know, like a fish in a fish bowl. Totally aware of this, I caught my reflection in the mirror, all drowned rat looking from my shampooing and oh, so pale from lack of sun exposure, and went, "Sigh...."

And then I was turned in the chair toward the window. A fella kindly gave me a thumbs up and several folks waved as they strolled by. I felt like I should've done a trick, a flip, jazz hands, something, but the kind folks of Austin had to settle for stationary, drippy, pasty me.

Love my super friendly and accepting town.

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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Graffiti Love

I love graffiti. Not the mean spirited or the "I own this so I'm marking this" kind, but the kind communicating beauty, sadness, love, bliss, remorse, joy....

There are a number of places in Austin where graffiti is gifted and then after some time it's covered, sometimes by the city, sometimes by other graffiti artists, sometimes just by the elements of life itself. These are amazing living walls of reflection and sharing.

In the next few weeks I will dedicate a wall or door in my house to take on such a life.

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Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Smile and say, "Cheese"

I learned something new, something that I bet you didn't know, but that you might just have to verify on your own.

What I learned is this...It is nearly impossible, well, for me totally impossible, to take a selfie with your tongue out and still look good. I learned this, of course, because I wanted to capture an image of my bruised tongue.

I tried looking surprised - not good.

I tried looking sad - not good.

I even tried looking "normal" - so not good.


So, go for it, you know you want to. Stick that tongue out and snap a pic.


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Monday, December 8, 2014

Something New...Something Blue

I love trying new things, I really do, but something I just did for the first time ever is not working out so well for me.

You see, I managed to bite my tongue in what appears to be the absolute, perfect way to bruise it good and plenty. While I've bruised pretty much everything else at one time or another (I tend to walk into things a lot), who knew that it was even possible to bruise a tongue?

Anyway, I'll be distracted by this whole event for a while...I figure my entire sense of reality has undergone a shift.

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Sunday, December 7, 2014

Days Gone By

I was digging through my desk drawers at work last week. It's not the most organized space, but it's OK, there's not much in there to keep track of. I noticed one thing, though. I have a TON of hair ties and there are some in every drawer. I haven't a clue as to why, but it's a fact. And I also have a ton of them at home.

AND I'm getting my short hair cut to an even shorter length tomorrow.


So I'm thinking that I must gather all those hair ties up and add them to my "Days Gone By" collection...current members are my nose rings, my many containers of crazy color nail polish, my belly dance stuff, my biker jacket, and on and on.

Mind you, "Days Gone By" is decidedly not a life sentence, every item is available for resurrection at a moment's notice.

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Saturday, December 6, 2014

Holiday Traditions

Most years we make it down to the Trail of Lights and the Zilker Tree...after all, it's just a quick walk from our house. Last night we all went and happily my big guy's girlfriend joined us, too. What a lovely night of family tradition togetherness, right?

Well, here's how it went. My big guy and his girlfriend split off from us right away. I suppose to make the first night of a tradition for just the two of them. They graciously allowed me to take a quick photo of them first...you know, so I could prove we were together at least briefly. Then Dave took out his camera and stopped about every 10 feet to take an amazing picture. It reminded me of how it was when we had a male dog and he needed to stop to pee every few feet.

The little guy and I had a quick chat and agreed that we should move on on our own and let Dave catch up.

So our group of five was now two. The kid and I walked and talked and he gifted me with a selfie or two. And then Dave found us. And then the big guy texted me. And all of a sudden it felt like all five of us were together again.

Holiday traditions evolve...bliss.

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Friday, December 5, 2014

A Bit of a Scare

My sweet husband...

Last night I asked him to go with me to the school where I work so I could put a gift on the desk of one of the office ladies whose birthday is today.

The reason I asked him is because, frankly, my school feels super scary at night. It always reminds me of the original "Halloween" movie when they're in the school and the hallways are only lit by the red exit signs. Scare-freakin'-ree!

So what did my sweet husband do? Well, he took every opportunity to freak me out. And I held it together just fine until we had left and I was waiting for him to get in his side of the car and unlock mine...but he didn't do that...he sneaked around to my side and jumped at me.


"Aaaaaaa!"


I think from now on I'll be expecting him to open my door for me.  Good thing he's so freakin' cute.

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Thursday, December 4, 2014

Noticing...

I went to the main grocery store in my hood today after school.  It's the grocery store where I go to buy, for lack of a better word, crap.

Yes, there are things on our shopping list that the family wants but I can't find at my preferred stores.


Anyway, at this particular store, where I often feel thankful that there's security on the premises, I always find myself gifted with awesome/strange/beautiful happenings, and this afternoon was no exception.


- I saw a fella pick up what looked like a wallet and immediately take it to a lady who had just gotten in her car (bonus points because she is a friend of mine and we'd just chatted...though I hadn't noticed the dropped wallet).

- I saw a family posing for a photo in front of a display of toilet paper...on purpose!

- I saw a lady who was likely in her 70s with pink and gray hair...I want to be her when I grow up!


Good times!

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Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Color Me Impressed

I had a rare awesome opportunity today to get a glimpse of a part of my kid that I didn't really know about. As you likely know by now, I'm a special ed teacher. My assistant, who is phenomenal, was out today, and my big guy was her substitute. And I tell you what, by the end of the day you could seriously color me impressed.

I've worked with a huge number of subs over the years, some downright awful and some really great. And my kid, the one I have to nag to take the ridiculous number of dishes he's got stashed in his bedroom to the kitchen, totally rocked it today. He was calm, professional, kind, and officially the most adored person my students have met all year.

It was an honor and a privilege to work with my big guy.

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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Blissful Sleep

I took the best nap EVER the other day. Don't even try to tell me that you've taken a better nap, it's simply not possible. So, if you want to have the best nap ever, let me tell you exactly what to do.


1. Place your pillow in the middle of the couch.

2. Rest your calves on the arm rest.

3. Tell you husband that it's NOT okay to tickle your feet (yes, your shoes must be off during this nap).

4. Ask your husband to put your dog on top of you so you have an 80+ pound blanket of love.

5. Wait five minutes for your dog to fall asleep and begin softly snoring.

6. Close your eyes and tune out the background noise of whatever T.V. show your husband happens to be watching ("Once Upon a Time" in this case, but any show will do).

7. Fall asleep.


I promise it'll be your best nap ever...now go give it a go.

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Monday, December 1, 2014

Tangled with Me

It finally happened.

One of my family members paid the price for scaring me. The thing is, my family loves to scare me.  They do it all the time. Hiding in the closet and jumping out at me...standing in the shower and yelling when I enter the dark bathroom...and standing right behind or beside me just waiting, waiting, to be noticed.

Well, poor Dave did the last of those just a couple nights ago, and I'd like to think he's lived to regret it. You see, it turns out that if someone comes up beside me while I've got my headphones on and I'm watching something scary on Netflix, and they just stand there super close waiting to be noticed, well, when I notice them I scream and start slapping them something silly.

Not my fault. I accept no responsibility. Though I do feel a bit guilty for the red hand print I left on him. But just a little bit.

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