Last year, my hubby was just home from Iraq. I was looking this morning for a photograph I took last spring and ran across some entries that I thought I’d share on the anniversary of his Homecoming:

A Must Read : My thoughts on his impending arrival, and thanks to a bunch of people I pink puffy heart (and still do)!

Boots on the Ground

Riley’s Portrait : Part of a vacation donation special I ran to fund our Disney trip, Riley’s portrait was still wet when Mark arrived home.

Thor & Oz were still wet, too. Man I love that piece. Birds are really difficult to paint, I pulled that one out in a rush – and it rocks.

This is the last monochromatic I did, right before we left on our first ever family vacation, a purple monochromatic portrait of an artist friend of mine, Tigerpixie. I need to do more of these, they’re a lot of fun!

A Thank you from my Hubby to everyone.

Last, but not least, what I was looking for. Snow on March 23rd, and I caught it with my (then) new camera. The snow has fallen once again this year, after Spring has been “called”. I am not fond of snow. Not one little bit.

I’m all done reminiscing now, a year has passed since he returned and we’re all good. He’s still serving in the Army National Guard and we’re still doing what we do, only now we’re planning our second vacation! I’m thankful he made it home safe & sound, and I’m grateful he’s not the only man – and we’re not the only family – willing to step up to the plate when we’re needed and sacrifice whatever we need to sacrifice to help people in a much less fortunate situation. I’m also grateful for the people of Iraq who appreciate our mission. These are much louder voices – and very real faces – to our men & women who tough it out over there in conditions we would never tolerate even for the poorest of the poor here in the States. My thoughts & prayers continue to go to all of them.

Happy Homecoming Anniversary to my hubby & his unit!

Crusty wants to know “how do you package your art for mailing/shipping?”

This one is easy. I keep a supply of 2 gallon freezer bags, peel & stick clearbags, and 8 1/2 x 11 precut cardboard mat in stock. Most of my paintings are small, and they go into the freezer bag. I keep and store the airbags from my art supply shipments, so I have plenty to pad my packages with. I really just make sure that my paintings are protected from water damage, pad them so they don’t shift in the box (or ship panels flat with extra cardboard on top & bottom). I haven’t had one painting damaged in transit.

Jen asked:

I’d like to know the first thing you can remember wanting to be when you grew up.

Veterinary Medicine was my passion when I was a kid. “The science and art of prevention, cure, or alleviation of disease and injury in animals and especially domestic animals.” If you are looking for a great vet with amazing staff for your animals then visit Pharr Road Animal Hospital

Oh how I love critters! I want to hug them and squeeze them and love them and call them George.

It wasn’t long before I turned my first double-digit that I was smacked with the reality that not only would I get to handle critters that I love and help them, but I would also have to handle critters that I don’t like so much, that I’d have to put some to sleep, and that I’d watch some die on my table. I didn’t like that very much, so I decided I wanted to be a graphic artist instead.

I suppose you could say that was what turned me into a realist.

Since then, there have been many occasions that I know I made the right decision.

1. When I had actual bats flying around inside my house back in the early 90’s.
2. When I developed allergies to my two kitties and had to leave them at the no-kill shelter.
3. When we caught one of our bats and took him to the county animal control, and watched them drown it. (rabies, you know)
4. When I developed allergies to everything else animal related that touched my skin.
5. While watching Dirty Jobs, an episode aired on horses, and it had to do with putting your arm where the sun will never, ever shine, and my tummy did rather large flips, and a few flops.

I think that about covers it!

Pamibe asked:

What kind of books do you enjoy reading, and why. If in fact you can find the time to read.

The latter part is correct – I don’t get too much time to read – books, that is. I do have an ongoing fascination with the Left Behind series. I’m all current on the 12 in the series and have the two prequels (at the top of that page) and finished one of them a few weeks ago. I really enjoy that series because on one hand it tests my faith, on the other hand they’re just really well written and very gripping. If a book can suck me in in the first couple of pages, I’m good to go.

I also have art books, but they aren’t really for reading, they’re more for instruction. Mastering the Art of Drawing is my most recent purchase.

The most recent book I’ve read? Body for Life. Obviously, it’s a self-help book, and I think it has had a huge impact on me. (Just look at my P2G log!)

I even purchased some classics last summer that I had intended on reading, and they’re still waiting for me. I guess I’m more visual than literary.

Erikie said:

Speaking of kisser, I want you to describe your ideal kiss.

I want to see how your planter in front of your house looks these days.

Dawn said:

I would like to see “your” spaces… studio, favorite corner… home decor type…

Oy. You know I spent hours cleaning for these shots, so I hope you left your shoes at the door, and you better have clean socks on!

Here’s a little intro, some eye candy from my studio:

Shelli said:

Alright. I’ll be the first to bite. Who was your first love? Was he a good kisser?

I’ve been thinking about this one since you asked, Shelli! I was really reaching far back, too. I thought about Doug, in 2nd grade, who I thought was the cutest thing ever. He had a chipped front tooth, bright blue eyes, and mussed up hair. I thought about Rob, the little freckle-faced redhead that chased me around the playground in grade school until he caught me. He tried to carry me around but I would always kick him hard in the shins until he put me down.

Then I moved on to middle school, where I encountered the boys from another town, namely Tim. Tim, ohhhhh Tim. He was blonde, big brown eyes, he had braces at the time. He was one of those “cool” kids. I had the biggest crush on him throughout all of middle school and high school, but he would never say anything more than “hi” to me in passing. Years later though, he did speak to me. In fact he seemed kinda interested in me, but it was during a really hard time in my life when alcohol was my only fluid intake, and it wasn’t long after I turned him away that he commited suicide. That broke my heart. I found out later all of the trouble he had been in since graduation and I wished I hadn’t turned him away, and I still wonder if my choice impacted his decision to end his life.

I digress.

I don’t remember any other boys in middle school, I was a nerd. High school, however, had me much more interested in the opposite sex.

First, I remember Kevin. I met Kevin as a freshman, he was a senior. He was big and buff and drove a hot red car! Whoowee! I loved hanging out with him, had fun at my first Homecoming with him, and hated that he went around and told everyone (including my brother, also a Senior) that I “gave it up”. Blech. Jerkhead.

My mind wandered from Kevin to a boy named Michael that I met while I worked at Old Country Buffet. Michael was a dishwasher, and he was just adorable. He had black hair, big brown eyes, a beautiful smile, and hm. He’s a fond memory! I really liked him, and we went for a walk one night just after dark. I remember the stars twinkling, there was a glow from a streetlight nearby, and he kissed me sweetly in the middle of the street. My heart fluttered, and I couldn’t get him out of my head for weeks. He quit working at OCB not long after that, and I never ran into him or heard from him again.

I obsessed over another boy, Rob, who I didn’t know well at all. He played football, he was really nice, but we didn’t even know eachother. He was a boy in the hallway that I thought was cute, and I wanted to get to know him – and I tried, but we never did hit it off. We passed notes, and I adored him, and that was it.

Greg. Greg was another dark haired beauty. He had braces and a football jersey, what more can I say? We passed notes, he winked at me and gave me a special grin, he had beautiful handwriting. He also smelled really nice, and gave me his jersey to wear on game days. I pink puffy hearted Greg! He kissed me under the tree in my front yard one night, but the braces were awkward and it was kinda messy. Then I found out how much he liked girls, because I was not the only girl he passed beautiful notes to, winked or smiled at. Boys.

Scott and Erik both fall in the “too good a friend to spoil it” category. Scott doted on me for a long time, he called me all the time, he walked a mile to my house just to hang out on the front porch. He was adorable and all I wanted was to be his friend, because I’m an idiot.

Erik was my best guy-friend. We tooled around in my car when I got my license, drove really fast down country roads to see if I could get my hunk-o-junk to go airborne. We ditched school together, we went fishing and got sunburned together, we played pictionary together. Erik, now Erik was husband material. He had potential, but Erik made one final, drastic mistake.

Taba said:

i want to see Chloe!! now! :yahoo:

Now you have me wondering if you’re going to do a nice big painting of her for me since you love me so much and didn’t send me a Valentine? Is that why you wanna see my pup? Hmmm.

I just snuck up on our old girl, Chloe. She’s around 12-13 years old (people years). She has trouble with her eyes sometimes, and she’s losing her hearing, so she didn’t even hear me when I took this pic:

She woke up to the flash, though! She has a mattress (she’s gone through several), that she digs a hole into where she curls up and sleeps. Usually she faces the space heater but as you can see, she tucked her lil nose into herself lastnight. She was confused when she woke up and saw me standing there with my camera, so she started to stretch and stepped outside to get some fresh air.

This is the one that I’ll paint her portrait from, I love how her eye coloring turned out, and it shows her demeanor. She’s a calm girl, our protector.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, she’s part Shepherd, part Rott.