Wednesday

Well, it's Wednesday.

Half way through the week.

Today is usually one of the more stressfull days of the week. Not so much because anything stressfull happens per sec but because lately, Richie has classes after work (job training) and it means I'm with the girls every single second from the moment they drag me out of bed in the morning ("Mama, Mia's 'wake. I got this from the snack basket. Can you open this for me???") till they get tucked in at night. For some reason, this day of single parenting is more wearing than the rest. I have no clue how REAL single parents do it and maintain their sanity. It is completely baffling. They must be made of stronger stuff than I.

In general though, I'm feeling better today.

Got some of the projects done that had looming deadlines. The ATC Kit I made for Tess is sitting in a box on the front porch waiting for the postlady to come pick it up and send it on it's way. (yay!) The ATC card I owed someone is also in the mail. Most of the invites for the clothes swap are in the mail. The other half ...no more like a third...are sitting on the dining room table awaiting stamps and then they will be out into the mail as well. I finished scanning in the altered book that I need to work on still. I scanned it, uploaded the pictures into a yahoo album and now I only have MY parts to add to the book. I am not sure why that is such a relief but it is. Obligation done.

I am scheduled to be someone's householder next week but that is like almost zero stress. Nothing for me to write. Just show up in modest clothing, read what's on the cards and *poof!* I'm done.

A friend stopped by unexpectedly yesterday.

I probably don't need to say that the house was a complete disaster. I did actually clean it around 4 o'clock so it'd be spiffy when Richie came home. But my dear friend got to see it in all it's filthy splendor. Fortunately, she's not terribly judgemental. I love that in a person. In fact, it is a qualification of ANY close friend in my book. So we hung out and chatted and caught up. I tried not to notice the cheerios crunching under my knees when I sat on the floor. (I don't know why but I always sit on the floor when people visit. Even when there is a perfectly good empty chair available. Some sort of brain wiring issue. Weird.) But it was a nice visit and I loved that it was unexpected too. Kind of like a surprise present....a little adult conversation can sometimes do a stay at home mom a world of good.

ANYHOOO......my stomach is doing better today. Well, it WAS .....until I licked a bunch of envelopes (envelope glue is the nastiest stuff....why can't it taste like bubblegum instead of industrial solvents???) and then had to clean up the contents of one of the cat's colons off my bedroom rug. I think one of them is mad at me. The problem is -- I have no idea which one. And I can't punish them both. ARRGGGHHH.....I couldn't believe all that poop could come out of one animal all at once. It was like LARGE DOG size. *gag* Awful.....and on a formerly white carpet too. Well, I say formerly because of the stains left from other cat-colon-related-episodes. I have to keep reminding myself that cat poop is still better than mouse poop. *sigh* Stupid cats. The longer I have them, the more I feel that I'm really a dog person.

SICK.

Nothing interesting to report.

SICK. Ill. Feeling Green and Ick.

Signing off to go gag and retch....

...ugh.....

eating....baddddd

Well, yesterday I was feeling pretty cruddy for most of the day.

I dragged myself to the meeting because the C.O. was there and it would just be wrong to miss it but then I left right after. We came home, tucked the girls in for naps and I changed into my jammies and laid on the couch....I stayed there most of the next 12 hours or so.

I was so sick to my stomach.

At first I thought it was from consuming chicken products the night before (chicken stock). Then I started thinking about everyone I know who has the flu and I was really worried because it is a ferocious flu. So, to be on the safe side, I ate a snack and took some enzymes. I drank water and more water. Ate another snack with some enzymes......and by the end of the night I started feeling a bit better. I just need to get those chicken remains out of my stomach. Since I don't naturally have the enzymes to break them down myself, the food will sit and rot in my stomach. Lovely picture, don't you think?

I'm sure you are asking by now, "if you know chicken makes you sick, why in the world did you eat it???". Well, I will tell you.

I have this rule. I am very careful to avoid foods that make me sick....sweeteners, msg, complex salts with wierd names, chicken, and sometimes turkey. EXCEPT when I am at someone's house for dinner. If there is no polite way to eat around the food, I just swallow my pride and accept the consequences. This person went out of their way to cook for me and put a lot of work into it. The least I can do is suffer for awhile and enjoy the fruits of their labor. That is my reasoning anyhow.

SO ANYWAY....

my point to explaining the ill feeling was to explain why i spent the day on the couch watching tv. I never do that anymore. I generally will watch at the most, a couple of hours and then I can't stand the tv anymore and I go do something else for awhile. I have plenty of art projects that are ongoing and I'd rather be eating chocolate and doing THOSE anyway. But yesterday was an exception so I caught up on all the stuff I'd recorded on the DVR. I watched CSI-NY, psych (part of the pilot), a USA channel showing of Cold Mountain (with commercials it was 3 HOURS....thank goodness for fast forward!!!), and finally the movie SUPERSIZE ME that had aired awhile back on msnbc. (if you click on the title of this post, it will take you to a picture of the movie cover and give you info on it on amazon.com)

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

After watching that man's experience (the first time he ate that big mac supersized, he got so ill that he threw up out his car window), I am really re-thinking my occasional visits to fast food restaurants. I try to be careful with my choices, especially when it comes to feeding the girls. I thought chicken nuggets would be better than other choices since it was protein. Then, come to find out, MCnuggets are ground up ALL parts of the chicken, combined with fillers and then pressed into "recognizable shapes". Excuse me? Have you looked at those shapes? There is no part of a chicken that looks like that!

Also, I am now more concerned about my liver function and cholesterol levels. I've never had either checked but I eat a lot of fat in my diet.....cheese, sour creme, butter, red meat, etc.... I'm wondering how it is affecting my liver....since it isn't a great liver to start with. I never knew fatty foods could HARM your liver!!! YIKES!!!! It's been years since I had a physical and I'm starting to get a little panicky about that fact. My dr. is leaving the practice in a few days so i'm going to have to find a new one as it is. But EEEK, I better get off my duff and do it more quickly than I had planned!!!!

Friday Morning is underway!

Well, it's another week's end and it is grocery shopping day again. Bella is going to her grandparent's to spend the night. She is all atwitter. She always gets so excited. You'd think she was a teenager the way she is so blase' about leaving for the night. She isn't even four yet and she is a seasoned spend-the-nighter already. Sometimes she gets so excited to be going that she doesn't even wave goodbye! The house is SO quiet without her too. Even with Mia trying to fill the quiet with her little chatter, it is still not to the same decible range. LOL

This morning I need to print out our latest shopping list and then after Mia's nap, we are off to hit the stores.... Caswell's and Big Lots are the first stop to find groceries at below retail....then Shaw's and Walmart with a stop at Starbucks thrown in between for a caffeine rush.

I have several projects awaiting my attention. I still need to finish my sister's ATC KIT that she was promised weeks ago. It is very near completion and yet is sitting unattended on the corner of my art desk. I also need to complete a themed ATC by the end of the month and I have TWO Altered Books that belong to the SAME round robin that need my attention. Yikes.

So far, I've been self-disciplined enough to NOT open the second box that arrived with the second book inside. If I open it, I think just Staring at yet another project that needs doing will send me over the edge. I am so stressed about these seemingly insignificant deadlines that I actually CLEANED the House yesterday instead of working on them. LOL

I was also working on some stamped invitations to a clothes swap a friend and I are planning. I hope it ends up with a lot of participants. Otherwise, it could be a total bust. The invites are just about finished....now we just need to stamp and address all the envelopes....oh yeah, and I need to dig out some stuff to swap.

So....that is how my Friday is shaping up. Yesterday it was 7 degrees when we left the house in the morning and it warmed up to 15. Today is supposed to be colder. The heater is struggling to heat the house at the moment it would seem because the thermostat is severl degrees below its targeted temperature. That is an odd occurance. Hopefully it will catch up soon because I need to take a shower and running around a cold house with wet hair is fairly unpleasant.

Well, I'm off and running!

Toodles!

Poem

ALONE by Maya Angelou

Lying, thinking Last night

How to find my soul a home
Where water is
not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I
don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here
alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone

.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,

But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Squeaky Clean

Well, the girls smell like lavender this morning....all squeaky clean and fresh from the bath. I love how springy Mia's curls get when she is freshly bathed.

Boi-oing!

The living room, on the other hand, is not squeaky clean. There are books and toys all over the floor with a fine coating of cheerio dust and a scattering of cheerios. No one would know that the place was vaacuumed just last night.

UNFINISHED....

HERE is a picture of the main wall in my bathroom. If you look closely, you will see that underneath all of my pictures and signs that are hung on the wall is peeling and peeled away wallpaper. SOMEDAY, we will tear apart this bathroom and totally revamp it. Until then, I've decorated it even though it is in a complete state of disarray.

This is an excellent illustration of my lifestyle.... I love to hang/display/exhibit/etc. beautiful things and things I love (sayings, quotes, favorite artists) but I lack the ambition/energy/impetus to tear it apart and build it correctly from the foundation up.

This is a big part of why I love the art of collage so much. You jumble a bunch of things that strike your fancy together and VIOLA! it is art....

UH-OH....it's official....

So this morning, I was awoken by the phone ringing....I should have been up already so of course I answered like I'd been up for HOURS....

"'lo?"

AND, on the line was Richie, calling from work. Immediately, I feel guilt at having been asleep while he was already at work.

Then, he tells me that they received their packet of information this morning telling them that their division of Verizon (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont) is officially being SOLD.

Yes, S-O-L-D.

It is supposed to be final at the end of the year and they are not supposed to alter their union work contracts until they expire in August of 2008. Hmmm..... Let's hope they are telling the truth. But still.....huge influx of acid dumps into my stomach. UGH.

At least we have a year to get our debt paid down and put a little into savings....hopefully. STRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssssssssssssss.......

As I hung up the phone, my brain was churning....I HATE thinking about money. Then I remembered that I needed to get off my duff and get to the post office today. My altered book was supposed to get into the mail on the 15th

(YESTERDAY!!!)

but since it was a holiday there was no mail pickup. So, yeah it is late. And on top of that, I have to mail it to Canada. I looked up the mailing info on the usps site and apparently not only do I have to pay thru the nose to mail it to another country, I have to fill out a form for customs. SO I have to DRIVE to the post office. I can't just pop it in the mailbox. Which really chaps my hide because I have to mail the book I receive in the mail each month to this same person that lives in Canada. So, every month for a year I'm committed to driving to the post office. Frickle frackle frack.

So, um....not particularly cheerful today. ARrrrggghhh.....

Sunday In Maine...

This first square of pictures were taken after the meeting yesterday. When Richie saw the upper right picture of Mia, he was like, 'why did you add THAT picture? She is making such a weird face," (or substance thereof). Well, I will tell you.....

I like that expression ...

because she is suspiciously watching one of her little friends that likes to take our her frustrations on her because she is smaller. That is the look of caution. Kind of like you would watch your pet snake. You love your snake because it is your pet and thus your friend. But you still don't look away too often just in case it decides it's hungrier than usual and that you suddenly look tasty. LOL

(The lower right picture of that square I added because I really liked Bella's onery expression.... . She has that look of having an ace up her sleeve.... )The second square of pictures is of Richie helping the girls walk out to the van in the slippery snow yesterday afternoon. It's a bit hard to tell under their jackets but they had on little matching purple gingham dresses.

Then after that we went home, the girls napped and then some friends came over and played dominos. Mia looooved "helping" Lisa play.... LOL

GIVE ME WINGS....inside front cover

Here's what I was finishing up this weekend....The inside front cover of my altered book....
inside the little paper cabinet on the right hand page are directions for the others who will be working in it. The 'doors' are attached with little metal swingy things....what are those things called anyway? My brain won't tell me at the moment. Then there is a little metal doo-hickey in the middle of the doors that I attached to hold the doors closed.

Off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of OZ

So Whaddya think of my new format? Richie says it needs more coffee because coffee is what I'm really about. But I think the coffee colors and the pic of beans gives it enough subconcious coffee flavor. Plus I'm really hooked on little fat birds lately.....

You know how you go through phases (maybe YOU don't, who knows??) where you are totally gung-ho on stuff. EXAMPLE: for years and years I just adored giraffes. I had giraffe picture frames and little stuffed giraffe toys, a giant giraffe couple rubber stamp to decorate stuff....you get the idea. THEN the big thing was PARIS. I have eiffel towers and pictures of paris all over the house. Seriously-- in the bathroom, livingroom, bedroom, kitchen, diningroom....EVERYWHERE.

Well, apparently I have now graduated from Paris related paraphernalia to fat little songbirds.....they have filled my kitchen and are extending out into other parts of the house...I have a little motion-activated songbird (it really sounds like the real thing too- i love it!) in the playroom so that whenever someone walks by my craft table, they are serenaded. Hee hee

ANYWAY.....today is the weeks' grocery shopping day. This week is a lean week as a bunch of bills are due this week. DRAG. SUCH A DRAG. But a couple of my rubber stamps on ebay did fairly well so I may have a little bit of extra change jingling in my pocket today. You know.....just in case.

And last but not least,

SOMEONE FINALLY LEFT A COMMENT ON MY BLOG YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY !!!!

Nothing worse than one-way conversations, man!

TICK, TICK, TICK.....

Time seems to be a reoccurring theme for me lately......it keeps coming up in conversation how time is going faster and I am going slower. I used to be on time or super early EVERYWHERE i went whether it was the meeting or a job interview....even meeting a friend somewhere! I would bring a book with me to pass the time because i was always early!

Nowadays ...
I can't even get out of my own way! I'm late everywhere. I look up at the clock and then I look again and more time than I think has passed and there I am LATE AGAIN! I was discussing this on the way to the meeting on Sunday (late, of course) with Richie. I think my INTERNAL clock is broken. You know how we all have an internal clock/ circadian rythms? Well, mine is running slower than reality. What I think has been 20 minutes is ACTUALLY 35. It is the weirdest thing. I used to have a really accurate handle on how much time has passed. I'm starting to wonder if my brain is ticking slower..... and then just viewing reality at it's own speed. EEK!

And thus, the kids are growing up so fast and my wrinkles are setting in so fast and I have not enough hours in the day to get everything done 'cause I AM MOVING SO SLOWLY!!!!

Monday

It's Monday here....after the most AMAZINGLY beautiful weekend! It got up to almost 70 degrees on Saturday. I didn't wear a coat most of the weekend. And this is January in Maine, go figure!

I uploaded a page from my altered art book. I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. Now I just need to finish a few more pages in it so I can mail it out to the next artist to work in! Coming in to that home stretch now because it is almost finished! YAY!

The calendar that I did a couple pages for is currently being auctioned off for charity on ebay and is at 51 dollars so far with still another day to go. Very cool!

Over the weekend, while dressing Mia, we realized that she had grown more than we thought. Most of the dresses in her closet at the moment are too tiny. Time to bring more down from the attic and pack up the ones hanging in her closet still....seems like I'm always moving clothes around...if not the too big and too small clothes for the girls, then the too cold and too hot clothes for myself. Well, I guess that is one downside to living in a region that has actual SEASONS....you know....as opposed to california where you can pretty much wear your clothes any old time....Except hmm.....they have been swapping weather with US lately....warm HERE and freezing there....maybe instead of packing my clothes away I should be boxing it up and mailing it over there.....HAR HAR HAR

Toodles!

Bella, the artist

Bella brought me this picture a few minutes ago that she drew of her daddy. She pointed out to me that he had a "big love on him" (the heart). I was very impressed, personally, at the level of detail paid to his glasses. Hee hee

Making Changes....

So...I'm fiddling around with the layout of this blog....colors, fonts, etc....I messed with the html code here and there, which frankly is kind of experimental 'cause I hardly know what I'm doing but I really am not happy with ANY of the templates they give you here and I can't stand having my blog look exactly like thousands of others. Ick....

So sort of a work in progress here....I think next I need to change the overall background color but there is no option for that on the template which means I need to 'experiment' with the html color codes.....so bare with me.....(bear with me?)...it may be looking a bit odd....

Hmmm.....more on this later....

And just as an update....currently have some auctions going on ebay under the ID: Bohemiandreams if you are interested in some art supplies cheap....

Collaborative Calendar

If you are interested in seeing the collaborative calendar that I worked on in its completed form (or bidding on it), it can be seen on ebay (it is being auctioned off for a charity) here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260072127187&fromMakeTrack=true

Or I believe you can click on today's title to go there directly. I did July and September pages. I'm so tickled that it is getting a good reception so far!

-sondi

Monday, Monday.....oh darn! It's Tuesday already!

Today may not be Monday but man does it feel like it! We had a busy weekend. Richie had some brothers over to play computer games yesterday and Saturday and Sunday night we went to someone else's place for a yummy ham....I had to fight with Mia just to get food off of my own plate. I think she is growing again because she is eating NON-stop!

Let's see.....what else.....

On the 24th, I finished up a bunch of ATC's .....I uploaded my favorites of the bunch above. I have an altered book that I need to finish up really soon. It is due to the next person in line to alter it on the 15th and they live in Canada....who knows how long the mail could take to get it there. Yikes. Like I said, i need to get a move on and get it done. I need to get the pages scanned into the pc as well because you just never know when the mail will go POOF!!! and never be heard from again.





I really want to get some art supplies listed on ebay too. I have organized the majority of my rubber stamps and took out a bunch to get listed. So that is next (after finishing brewing my cappuccino) on the list of things to do.

Of all the friends that I do circle journey books with, ONLY two regularly return them. One more is fairly good at it not getting lost.....and all the rest of you bums are really bumming me out. What is up with that???? You've had the book for

Y E A R S.

It's 2007 people! It's mine and I want it BACK ALREADY!!!! Arrrrggggghhhhh.....



Okay, so that is my note for now.....lots to do...I took a nap this morning and then BLAMO!!! the morning was gone. I would say 'wasted', except that I was mightily tired and I did at least feed the girls first. But now I am ready to be up and at 'em and the list of things to do in my head is growing faster than my ability to complete it. Eeek!

Cheerio and Toodles!