Saturday, December 25, 2010

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Avery's winter recital

Avery is in the back row in a white shirt with red pinstripes. He starts out at what looks like the 3rd from the right. And below is Curran pretending to be Santa :)

Color themed...


So for my birthday I got a plethora of red ornaments for a gothic tree, but as black ornaments have been super-hard to find, it ended up being a super ruby red tree!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Geek at heart...

What do radioactive atoms watch during the holidays?


"It's a Wonderful Half-Life"

LOL! I'm so sorry :)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Learning a new tool...

This was the result of some playing around with the software Anime Studio Pro 6 that I got for my birthday. Hopefully it will get much much better! (In the program the first video is on loop so it looks kinda like flapping.) But this is some serious professional level software, so there is a lot for me to learn. And I can't help but laugh thinking that the second butterfly seems to take off like an airplane...


Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Pick your pose...

Some votes have already been put in for this one --->
Still taking votes :)















Sunday, December 5, 2010

The weather


It's been so dry! And not just in the 'I need lotion' sense, but in the lack of precipitation sense. And I know logically I should be happy it's not precipitating, because at these temperatures we'd just get dangerous ice on the road. But I'm having a hard time really getting into the holiday spirit without something falling from the sky :(
I feel like I'm in a creepy limbo land, stuck in between seasons.

We had a small chance of snow today according to Yahoo weather, so I stuck my head out the door just now hoping to see a sparkling dusting of snow. Instead I got a nose full of sulfur from our local factory. Ug. Not the cheeriest day ever...

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Will it never end?


So we had a marvelous time visiting our friends in Missouri! We saw an awesome cave; the Devil's Icebox. Played lots of games with much fervor :) And I even got to satisfy my sushi craving (as at home I have to make it myself).

Avery's cough went away finally. Then of course this morning he wakes up complaining of a sore stomach. I figure it's just from having junk food on the road, but and hour and a half later the school nurse calls to tell me he "lost his lunch" and he needs to go home. Two hours after that he's curled up in a ball with a fever over 101. My only guess is he got some stomach flu at Sunday school. Poor dude. I want us all healthy for the holidays!

I'm even going to the doctor today because my ears have hurt the last couple of days and my throat is still achy. *le sigh* Wish us luck!

Update: Avery's fever hasn't gone up anymore, but nothing stays in his tummy but a bit of water. Poor guy's head is killing him, but he can't keep the medicine down :( I swear after all this we better have one big "get out of illness free for a year" card!
Doctor gave me antibiotics. She thinks I have a throat infection that is bad enough to reach up and make my ears achy.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Costume base...


Here's the start of Avery's minotaur head. Please note the very even stitching around the horns (hehe, it took a long time and a few finger pricks). The cow face is supposed to arrive today, then all will be covered in black shaggy fur. The kilt's done already. Just gotta find laces or ribbon to make his sandals go up to his knees.

Of course we also have to get both the boys healthy now so they can actually trick-or-treat on the big day!

Friday, October 22, 2010

A notable day:

Avery has his first loose tooth today!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Avery wanted to share...

These are pictures of Bakugan brawls in case it's not obvious ;)

Friday, October 15, 2010

Fancy pics

So here are links to some portraits:

1. The family
2. Aric and I

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Avery's 1st informal recital


This is after one month of classes. He has a yellow stripe on his shorts and stands near the middle or right in the second row for a lot of the dance. It was to the "Eye of the Tiger". And yes, he was the last one on stage. Poor guy had to perform after 8pm, he was quite tired, but he really enjoyed himself :)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Inventory 2


The sets to the right are (top)real garnet and (bottom) stone beads which have a wonderful weight to them. The bottom left necklace has some lovely filigree-detailed beads.












Friday, September 24, 2010

Inventory


Some bookmarks and jewelry I made for our craft faire. You'll probably have to click on the picture to see them properly. The wooden one has very nuanced shades of wood in browns and greens. It's quite lovely if you have a better camera (user) than I. :)








The display


I take pleasure in the small things, like this roughly color-themed set in front of my kitchen sink. There you go sis :)

...it looks better in person...

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Random gathering pics..


To the left is Curran with our dear friend Nick and to the right is the boys with their cousin (some number removed). If you can't tell they had lots of fun with the family!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

If I ever...


If I ever make candy apples I want them to look like this!!!
http://mattbites.com/2009/10/13/adams-scary-apples/

Preschool begins!

Here's Curran all ready to go for his first day of Preschool! Wish him luck! Even with all the toys, I'm not sure he's totally convinced that today will be fun...

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Postcard flowers

The blue hydrangeas are from a botanic garden in Vancouver, Canada. What an amazing plant!

The yellow roses are from the international rose garden in Portland, Oregon.

Boogie woogie boy


Curran just watched this video with me and said, "I'm a good dancer, huh?"

We went to Curran's preschool open house this morning and he was very excited. He dismantled their kitchen area in two minutes flat. Tomorrow will be his first day.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

A cute pair...

These two like playing together, and she seems to enjoy sunglasses just as much as Curran does! This picture was taken a month or so ago.

Mother-son collaboration


Tuesday, June 22, 2010

A little passing...

Found a bird just sitting on my lawn today; it didn't move when I got close. Seems it was hurt somehow, so I put it in a padded box on my porch since we expect big storms tonight. I let him alone for an hour to two so he could calm down after being handled. I went back out and Curran thought we should sing him a song. We sang Twinkle Twinkle, and the bird started moving a lot and opening his beak. Curran ran off, and I picked up the bird, hoping it wouldn't have to stuffer too much longer. I sang a lullaby and oh-so-poetically, in the last line of the song, it stopped breathing. Talk about a bittersweet moment.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

For your amusement...

My first attempt at poetry in quite a while, and written while sick and trying to fall asleep. So don't be too harsh :P

Why I Love The Night


The silent dark of evening
Is like being surrounded by subtle mirrors
Where you see reflections too dim to perceive in the day

When we look in these night mirrors
We start to remember the right questions
We don’t ask “Do I look pretty?” we ask “Am I happy?”

In the quiet hours of our day and of our minds
We find ourselves - like adored stuffed animals
Temporarily lost under a pile of dirty clothes, schoolbooks, and the day’s dishes

As we find ourselves again
And contemplate these hidden reflections
We start to remember priorities and passions

In the dark the possibilities
Are only limited by creativity and imagination
Instead of time and money

The midnight hour blessedly conceals complications
So our spirit can soar over chasms of “How”
And speed past deserts of “When”
To any place at all


(copyright Stacia A.C.)

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Copyright Stephen Vincent Benet

THANKS

For these my thanks, not that I eat or sleep,
Sweat or survive, but that at seventeen
I could so blind myself in writing verse
That the wall shuddered and the cry came forth
And the numb hand that wrote was not my hand
But a wise animal's.
Then the exhaustion and the utter sleep.

O flagrant and unnecessary body,
So hard beset, so clumsy in your skill!
For these my thanks, not that I breathe and ache,
Talk with my kind, swim in the naked sea,
But that the tired monster keeps the road
And even now, even at thirty-eight,
The metal heats, the flesh grows numb again
And I can still go muttering down the street
Not seeing the interminable world
Nor the ape-faces, only the live coal.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Some doodles



So here are some sketches that I did (without touch-ups) from "how to draw" books. If you actually want to see them you can click for the larger image :)





Tuesday, May 11, 2010

We'll see...


So this picture is for fun and not related to:

I had a job interview today for a teaching position in a preschool. Turns out it would be a real teacher position not an assistant teacher post. That would be an upgrade for me! It also turned out that ten people were interviewing me, not one. *look composed, look composed* Cross your fingers...

Monday, May 3, 2010

New shoes finally..

To those concerned we got new shoes for the boys today. Avery is now size 12w and Curran is size 7.5 regular (or wide, depends on shoe). Avery got the even more garish version of this for his sneakers (read: more neon green) and sandals kinda like these. Curran got the same sneakers as Avery, but with more silver. They were Slime Monsters (like the shoe name) all evening! Curran also got brown leather sandals, but the stuff we get at the outlets isn't online anymore.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Weird things..

So there I was making apple cheddar muffins on a whim, when Avery out-whims me and makes potato chip muffins. I kid you not. They were cheddar muffins like mine, but with cheesy potato chips instead of apples. ...They were actually pretty tasty :)

Friday, April 30, 2010

Movin' kids

So here is the video of the Circus at Avery's Kindergarten. (The video file's pretty big, about 3 minutes, so loading could take a min.) He could have taken his own glasses for his costume, but he said he wanted to use his teacher's... Now I know why. He wanted the shiny glasses.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

New springtime 'do

My hair was down to the middle of my back, so I was ready for a bouncy kind of change :)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The back of Avery's schoolwork...

This week Avery's tests/schoolwork came home with a series of Star Wars scenes on them. We haven't watched them in months, so I'm surprized at some of the details!

The top part of the picture to the left is Han frozen in the block and Leia beside him saving him. The bottom part shows Luke throwing a rock to bring the gate down on the pit monster trying to eat him.


To the right is poor Jabba getting choked by Leia's chain... I wonder if his teacher looks at the back of his papers...



The last picture is Luke fighting Vader while standing on the grate where Han was frozen. I'm just impressed at his detail and ability to re-create scenes (for a 5 year-old). Oh yes, he also aced his tests :D

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Project

So this is the stole I made for our friend Doug, on the event of his ordination, yay!

The design was Aric's idea, I was simply the executioner. Thanks to help from Eddie's embroidering sewing machine, Eddie herself, and Chip the sketch artist, it is finally finished. Not to the perfection I'd like of course. But I learned a lot about embroidering, new fabrics, and how many needles one can break trying to go through too many layers of fabric :P

If you click on the picture, you may be able to see more detail, but it looks better from far away anyways! It is supposed to be the dragon from Revelations.

Let the soccer/football begin!

So here is Avery (on the right-hand side) going
for the ball in his first soccer game. He knows many kids on his team and the other teams (there are like 10 teams in his age group!), so that makes it fun. Though he seems to enjoy the social hour just as much as chasing the ball!









Curran had some fun watching, but of course his favorite part is playing on the playground at Optimist Park. Though he did ask to go get the ball a couple times, so I think he'd have fun if he was allowed to play.
All the soccer games are on the field right by the park.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter!















The morning started out with basket explosions. They both got kid gardening gloves, mini pots, and seeds as part of their gifts amongst candy, stickers, etc. In the second picture, Curran was the only kid who had to stop and drive the "car" at church before he went to look for more eggs.

Below is after they finished finding eggs at home. We learned that Curran didn't really understand exactly how gently he needed to put the real eggs into his basket. Let's just say that several of them were... dented :)

Monday, March 29, 2010

South Dakota - More giant carvings
















Here's my boys looking at the Crazy Horse Memorial. We didn't get to go up close, but boy do we look forward to how it will look in 20 years! With the newer technology the next stages of work should go much faster than the first 50 years. My favorite thing? That case is full of jars and jars of beads! See below: