My Cover Girl, and more road rage

Hiya! Important business first. Miss Eleanor is a Cover Girl! My page "Beckoned" featuring a picture of Eleanor, and gorgeous products designed by Lorie Davison, is on the cover of the August Issue of The Artisan Notebook! Linky here:



And, speaking of bumper stickers. I happened across this car in a parking lot today and just had to stop and snap a shot!



Well, thanks for stopping by! I'm sure I'll have a wordier post sometime soon!

A New Layout, a Freebie and Road Rage

Michael pointed out a news item to me just the other day. He said that studies have shown that folks who have their cars plastered with a lot of bumper stickers are more likely to dish out a little road rage on their fellow drivers. I think he was filling me in on this tidbit because I have my van plastered with magnetic mod flowers. I love it! Now you might think that sweet little flowers are pretty innocuous, but the article specifically mentioned that the content of the bumper stickers is actually irrelevant. Apparently, folks who cover their cars with personal touches are very territorial. Yup, that's me. Here's the article if you're curious: Bumper Stickers = Road Rage I think territorial describes me to a tee. In fact, it really explains a lot. So, if you see a threatening Sea foam green Toyota Sienna covered with crazy daisys bearing down on you in your rearview mirror, well…you'll know it's me. Reminds me a little of the Stephen King story, Christine.

Now I have a treat today. A new scrapbook page. I just finished this one. I'm doing a guest spot for Lorie Davison for July, and I'm tickled pink, by the way! So, I used three of her kits, the newest is a Collaboration with Edeline Marta and is called A Walk in The Meadow, and the other two are Faerily Moonlit and Water Spirit. Here's what I came up with.



I also used my great grandmother's reading spectacles in the LO. I photographed them, extracted them and then, for my little learning experience this week, I figured out how to make them transparent (without making them disappear…thank you Thena!) So, since I went to all the trouble, I thought I'd offer them as a little token of my appreciation, as a blog freebie to you. You can download them here:

NanniesSpecs.png.zip

The rest of the credits can be found in my DST Gallery

Read anything good lately? I just finished Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan. It's historical fiction about Frank Lloyd Wright and and affair he had which lured him away from his family in the prime of his career. Fantasic book, actually horrific in many ways, but a great read, I must recommend it. Well, I'm a bit all over the map today, but, after all, that's why I called this "mental detritus!" See you next time!

A Day for Cute Quotes

Okay, first business is to tell you about my mysterious trip. Kenneth and I went to Baltimore for the Davidson Young Scholars Summit. It was really enjoyable. Kenneth and I both had a great time. He got to learn chess from a grandmaster, attend a class on the solar system taught by Frank Summers…who is so awesome at teaching classes on the Solar System that he has a DVD for sale through the Teaching Company. He also got to hang out with some of his buddies from previous years, like Madison and Dominic, for instance. Way Cool!

Then we were off to Colorado for a family reunion and that was plenty of fun too. We went to an aligator farm, where yours truly held a gator for the family photo, I was the only one present who was even willing to consider it. I guess the McCalpins are more squeamish than the Reids (wink!) We also visited the Sand Dunes National Park and the creek was running so we got to play in the sand and eat a pic-nic lunch with Grandma & Grandpa. It was a wonderful visit. The highlight of the trip had to be our participation in the Great Crestone Parade and Waterfight. Uncle Jim Drove his old Army Truck and the boys in the back were armed and dangerous. I was sitting in the cab with Eleanor…I repeat…in the cab, and we were drenched. There was water dripping from the ceiling. Eleanor finally said at near the end, "Dat 'nuff water!"

So, for todays quotes. All three children were kind enough to provide me with quotes today.

First Reid: I picked him up from his first day of Lego Early Structures camp and this is the conversation we had:
Me: Did you Have fun?
Reid: Well, sort of.
Me: What did you do?
Reid: Well, all the other kids built stuff with Legos while I played in the swivel chair.
Me: You didn't want to build anything with the Legos?
Reid: Well…ya know, I know you wanted me to have fun, Mom, but I have fun all the time at home with you.

That was $90 well spent.

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Next Quote Kenneth: This is also when I asked about his Lego camp which was, "World of Droids."
Kenneth: We were talking about Wall-e in my camp today. My teacher said he didn't get a chance to see it because his wife dragged him off to do something else. I was listening to him and thinking, "Hey Mr! Don't let your wife push you around!"

Umm Hmm.

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Final Quote from Eleanor. We were eating our pic-nic lunch outside on the grass after the boys' camps and Reid, never one to sit still, had dashed off to go climb a crepe myrtle, in which he promptly got stuck and required my help to get down. We walked back to our blanket, he took off and nearly immediately climbed the tree again. Eleanor, who had wondered over there with him and was down on the ground looking up at him, put her hands on her hips, turned toward me and yelled, "MoooOOoooM! Reid's stuck in the tree again."

I guess I just have funny kids! They certainly make me laugh! Hope you are having a wonderful day.

New Favorite Song

I just hit the dentist and the doctor all in one day. Whew! It's a sad thing when going to the dentist is a treat because getting your teeth cleaned is still a little break from your children. Let's just try that again with a positive spin, shall we?… I really appreciate opportunities for a change of scenery and going to the dentist is no exception. I had a chance to watch a few minutes of Rachel Ray talking about obese pets (!) and I even got to read a couple pages of a magazine. It was a nice break. After the dentist, I got to go to the doctor, while I was there, I heard a song. It's probably not new, I'm good at getting excited about stuff that's ancient history, but I loved it and I bopped right home and got myself a copy from the itunes store. It's Brad Paisley She's Everything. I'm an eclectic kind of girl, I'll listen to anything if it has good lyrics.

Tomorrow I'm leaving on a little mini vacation with just Kenneth, it's top secret so I'll tell you more when I get back. (See, now you are curious!) Tee hee.

Speaking of Kenneth, fencing camp was interesting for him, but ultimately good. Coach is Polish and pretty hard core. I think it was good for Kenneth to have a pretty rigid environment, but it did remind me that Kenneth is not a joiner or a socialite. He definitely has some personality quirks that make group activities challenging for him. Something to work on as we wend our way on this journey together.

Reid ran right into a doorknob last week and gave himself a black eye. It looks worse now that it is healing than it did when it was fresh. Isn't that one of those ridiculous classic stories though? Poor little guy, he was not only hurt but, I'm pretty sure offended. He was very concerned about the upcoming trip. He wanted to know which days of the week he'd be staying with Daddy. I told him, "Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday," at which point he started groaning. When I asked why he said, "Oh no! Some of those are work days, which means Daddy is going to be on the phone all day!!" I assured him that Daddy had taken vacation days so he will be available to mind Reid, himself and Miss Eleanor. He was tentatively accepting, but I could tell he had his suspicions.

Speaking of Miss Eleanor, she has turned into quite the little chatter box. She knows the alphabet now, primarily thanks to Dr. Seuss ABC. Now we are working on learning to use the Track Ball on the computer, although I must confess I'm lousy about practicing with her. She talks up a storm, using ginormous sentences. Reminds me a lot of a certain redhead I know.

For Father's Day we gave Michael some software for his blackberry and 84 pictures so now he has a wallet sized slideshow. Pretty cool. He used it this week already when a new client said, "So, you gotta wife? kids?" I'm so proud!

Ah well, it's late. I should go to bed. Busy day tomorrow. See ya sooN!

Too Long!

Okay it's 3:00 am on a Monday and I can't sleep. Oh…what to do? I know! Post on my poor sad, neglected blog. I just returned today from a wonderful weekend away from my family. I went on a scrapbooking retreat! Can you believe it? I stayed at the most wonderful bed and breakfast in Grand Saline, Texas. I had meals prepared for me, a wonderful, beautifully lit scrap room to work in and the company of wonderful friends. All on a lovely creekside rural setting. It was quite a get-away. I really didn't want to come home. Really. I mean, I probably would have wanted to come home eventually, but I wasn't ready yet!

Kenneth starts fencing camp tomorrow (well, er, I guess that would be today) He should do okay, I'm going to try really hard not to worry about him too much, but being dropped off at 9:00 and working all day is a very different experience for my little homeschooled one. I hope he doesn't get discouraged. He's kind of quick to throw in the towel if he's not marvelous at something on the first try. I'll definitely be in his corner pulling for him, no matter what.

Speaking of summer…oh, I wasn't was I? Well, I was talking about camp, and camp is one of those things that happens in the summer. Since it's summer now you'd think I'd lighten up on the kiddos, but I'm not planning to. I figure they get enough breaks here and there every week, all year long, why should they get the summer off? I'm mean, aren't I? I just want them to stay sharp. Kenneth will be getting enough of a break by going to all these camps.

Well, I'll see if I can post something else new sooner rather than later, but for now I'm off. ta ta!

Double RAK'd!

Whoa! I got RAK'd twice in one day, and really within about 15 minutes of each other! The first RAK was from Madame Mim. She sent me this lovely kit called Guinevere's Tale:

The papers are amazing! All handmade! So gorgeous!

So, I captured this extremely cool picture of Reid, complete with Dandelion Seeds!

And I used her gorgeous kit to turn it into this:

Other Stuff I used:
Printer Blocks Alpha from Kim Hill
and font is Dakota Handwriting

The second RAK was from the talented Candice Wong. I think she knew I needed to see her stuff so she sent this to me to lure me into spending more money on the rest of the gear in her shop. She's got some absolutely to die for items! Here's Spring Flowers, which she sent me. I'll let you know when I've got a LO with it! Ta ta for now!

You can get her stuff at DigiGirlsDesigns OR at Purple Paper Flowers

Okay, now! It's very late (even later than it was this time last night, thanks to the time change) SO…I'm off to bed. see you next time. (Maybe I'll have more to tell and less to show next time!)

This is What happens when it Snows Twice in A Week…In Texas!

The snow started falling like crazy around 11:00 pm on Monday night. I threw the tripod out on the front porch and captured this amazing pic. This is our tree that has landscape lighting coming from below. I love the way it looks, and I love the streaks from the falling snow too.

I tried to wake Kenneth up, I really did! I was so excited, and I wanted him to see it, but he was out cold. (I only WISH I could sleep that soundly!) By the next morning though, our whole yard was completely smothered in vanilla ice cream. It was so beautiful! I got up very early and went out to snag a few shots before the kids were even out of bed. Of course, you can count on Texas for this bizarre juxtaposition:

When it snows, the tradition in my extended family is to call each other up on the telephone and say simply, "Look outside!" We don't even need to say, "It's snowing." We need only say, "Look outside," and the other person knows immediately what that implies. So…I sent an email to all my family entitled, "Look Outside" with this picture:

Of course we had to go out and play in it, which provided even more photo opportunities. I got the group shot first and then I moved on to the boys. I should have done Eleanor first because…by the time I got to her, well, a picture is worth a thousand words! (But doesn't she look like a little pink marshmallow peep, even through the tears?)

The one of the three of them together turned out nicely I think, too bad it's too late to use it for a Christmas card!

Michael even got one of me!



They only lasted about five minutes at a stretch playing in the stuff, but they really had a great time. I still remember the overwhelming joy on snowdays. About mid morning, Kenneth said to me, "Is school out? Because if it's school out for them, can we copy after them just this once? Pur-leeeeezze?" I'd already pretty much decided that even homeschooled kids ought to have a snow day, just for the experience of it. Each time they came back in, they expected hot chocolate, complete with whipped cream on top, of course. I keep a can of whipped cream in the fridge for just such occasions. They get a mug filled about 1/3 of the way with hot chocolate and then I fill up the rest with whipped cream. ( I usually refill the whipped cream once too!) On a cold snowy day when they are in and out every five minutes, that can add up to a lot of hot chocolate! Who needs lunch?!

Well, since I let them off the hook for schoolwork, I figured I had to do something productive with the day, so we tackled the job of cleaning their room. Not just the usual tidy-it-up stuff, either, I shoved all the debris from the closet floor out into the middle of the room, and made them put everything where it actually goes. When Legos are your passion, this can become a monumental task. All the while, Reid was clamoring to build a snowman. He kept running to the window to see if the snow had melted yet. I promised him we would build the snowman as soon as Eleanor went down for her nap. As soon as she did, and the room was clean, out we went. Kenneth, who was all done with the snow by then, chose to participate in a strictly advisory role through the window. We built him right outside the boys' bedroom so they could see him from their bunk beds. He didn't even last an hour! He had already toppled. I'm glad I got the pictures when I did! He has mushrooms for eyes, a traditional carrot nose, and a red bell pepper slice smile.

Reid was quite proud.

So then, the snow melted away and the next day it was 60 degrees and the snow was just a distant memory. The boys asked me, "When will it snow again?" I sighed wistfully, "Not until next year." (or not…)
When the first snow fell, I pulled my REI hiking boots out of semi-retirement. I hadn't worn them since our hike in Grenada on our cruise 3 years ago. In fact, they were still covered with mud from Grenada! They were perfect snow shoes. They kept my feet dry and warm. When I took them off, I left them in the mudroom, but this morning, I was tidying up. I put them away, and actually thought, "who knows when I'll need these again! I better put them away so they don't stay in the mudroom until July!" Yeah, right. Little did I know I'd have them right back on again this afternoon. It was 80 on Sunday, and 60 yesterday for crying out loud!

When it started piling up this afternoon, the boys were in heaven!

Eleanor liked it better today too!

And, when we came inside, and I started mixing up the hot chocolate, Eleanor took her finger and made a gesture as though she were pressing on the nozzle of the whipped cream can…and she accompanied this gesture with a sound effect, "sshhhhhttt" like the whipped cream coming out. Now that completely cracked me up. But for all that our snow was a big big deal. It doesn't compare with the REALLY big news of the day. Eleanor used the potty! Here she is putting her reward sticker on it, while big brother Reid looks on with praising amazement. Then there she is, grinning with pride after the big moment. Yay Eleanor!

And so, Mommy ponders, there is light at the end of the diaper tunnel! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
Have a great day…or week…or however long it takes me to write another exciting installment. toodle-loo!