Caitibug brought this* home from school yesterday. Marked by the teacher “A” and “very good, serious questions!”

“If I could talk to a President, I would like to talk to George W. Bush because I would like to ask him when the soilders will come home. I would also want to know if he will make the soliders go to war again and if he will will he make it a lot shorter then one year.”

She’s ready for daddy to come home too, huh? I think she’s also a little tired of the unknown date of arrival. Ah well, for security purposes, I’d really rather not know!

*spelling not corrected.

THE MAN finished his LAST patrol, is back safe & sound and will start doing all those other odds & ends that will lead him to the plane and on his way home! Whew. I know for all of you guys it’s “gone by pretty fast”, but uh, no, it hasn’t! Not at my house! LOL I feel like I haven’t seen him in ten years. Alright, six. Months. But still, it’s a long time not to see your other half. And when I say “see”, I encompass every other sense as well.

😉

Boy have I got some painting to do! I’m going to start this morning with Sheeba’s background, I’d like to have her blankie finished and fully dry when I start working on her furry lil self. You can get a refresher on all of the paintings in progress right here. You can also do a “search” in my lil search box and pull up all of the entries that refer to any particular pet and see the whole work in progress! (I just tried that yesterday. LOL)

I spoke with THE MAN lastnight, he is (unofficially) on his LAST patrol!! When he’s finished with this one, they’ll start turning things over to the new team. HOLY CRAP! (See Holy Crap Level Indicator™)

It’s so strange to think that the time is really drawing near now. I keep flash-forwarding to the day we’re getting ready to go pick him up! How surreal is that going to be!? Whooowie!

Getting back into the groove, I was on the treadmill really early this morning, ran an errand, showered and now I’m getting ready to head out to the studio for a day of painting. I’ve been bad about getting my morning walk in, and lately I’ve really been needing the energy boost.

Check the webcam, I’ll be painting!

We’re dogsitting for my in-laws, this is their baby Muffin. I got the girls ready for bed tonight and Muffers stood in line for her pajamas, so being the spoiled little fluffball that she is, she got her pajamas. LOL

(I failed to take appropriate heed to Grandpa’s warning that Muffers enjoys eating undergarments. How was I to know she would rifle through my stack of laundry?? It’s not like I leave them strewn about the house. First, iew. Second, don’t wake me up at 3AM because you’re gagging on things you shouldn’t be chewing on. Third, iew again.)

I’ve just created what I will excitedly and lovingly refer to from here on out as my Holy Crap Calendar™.

The HCC™ can be found on my Artsy Skin (the default blog design) top center, and will be a daily indicator of the current (known) days remaining before our Holy Crap Reality Reunion™. You can also find out how I’m doing by taking a quick glance at my Holy Crap Level Indicator™.

Be advised that known days remaining are based on current information obtained by multiple sources, none of which are 100% reliable. Only the plane (and its pilots) will really know what’s going on.

NOT FOR SALE:

One tall, swanky & handsome man.
Perception range: 1000+ miles.
Knows exactly what you need and when you need it. Great around kids. Does dishes, laundry, light housekeeping and takes out trash without prompting. Enjoys yardwork, a good cup of coffee and nag-free environment. Great listener. Knows what to say and how to respond calmly to over a million possible situations.

One of a kind.

Yep, that’s him. (I made that up, in case you’re wondering. Didn’t snag it from anyone. Any similarities are purely coincidental.)

Sorry about yesterday, folks. The day just took of and started running while I was still sleeping. Jay was up sick after I finished painting Monday night, so I got a few hours of sleep before she was up again. Then I snuggled with her feverish lil body until noon, the day had almost completely escaped me by then. I did housewifey stuff, took care of our lil chickeymonkey, and didn’t even have the energy to paint lastnight.

Thankfully I scheduled Luke & Ella’s portrait over a period of a few days, and I don’t think it will take more than one or two more painting sessions to finish that one, so I’m still running on schedule. I’ll be painting later on today, and update my webcam status (which I failed to update when I completed painting the other night, WAH!) so check back this afternoon if you’d like to watch!

What a great hubby and daddy, sending us a beautiful bouquet on Valentine’s Day from Iraq! They’re beauty-full!

Good mornin’! How are you today? (I say this as if everyone will answer me. LOL) I think I am finally caught up on things. No, not those things, the other things.

The lovely eye candy for the day is what you’d see if you were driving the distance between my house and the Chicago burbs. Oh fun! We do somewhat enjoy the trip though, and let me tell you why. We took a trip up this weekend to do some things, and I kept a tally on the drive of the wonderful wildlife we saw out in its natural environment. It is so cool, probably one of the coolest things I could ever hope to witness, to see these big beautiful creatures behaving as though we’re not around.

We are always aware of them and look for them, this time I kept count on a lil piece-a paper I stuck to the steering wheel:

9 Red Tailed Hawks
3 Eagles. Yes, eagles. Sitting on the ice of a small pond, fishing.
1 Doe, a young one, feeding under a tall pine tree.

I didn’t count the cows, horses, and other birds, just the ones that are a rare treat to see and made me gasp.

We got to visit Paige, my bestest buddy who is overseeing the care of her mom while she’s (still) in the hospital. We ate Maciano’s pizza, which has to be some of the best pizza I’ve ever laid my lips on, and we delivered Antoinette to its new home. (Insert mommy-like boo-hoo’s, I miss my baby!)

The drive back was (if you were paying attention to the photo) BORING. Add rain, and no visible wildlife eye-candies. Yawn. We got home, and I napped. Then I got up, and before long, I was sleeping again. I’ve been wondering if I have a case of the flu, only a really mild one, because since last Thursday I have not been able to keep my energy level up where it usually is. Today will be better, I can feel it!

I am going to be finishing The Horse this morning. I will start my next piece today as well, Luke and Ella. A dog and cat combo on 12×12 canvas panel. I’m going to attempt to get the sketch and underpainting both done today.

I also ran into another dear friend of mine who gave me a few minutes of her expertise to fix my “skin” selector (just above the calendar on the left), now it will be much easier to add new skin and not hog up a bunch of space. But if you defaulted back from your previous selection, this is why. Just pick again! Firefox users should also see an improvment on my stylesheet loading, and if you don’t give me a holler ok? Grazie.

So, I’m back, I’m alive, I’m still an artist, and I’ve gotta get painting!

I turned my webcam on, I’ll be painting for a little while tonight.

I went ahead and booked our hotel for our vacation, completely oblivious to the sum of 3+7. Three being the number of days Mark will be home before he reports back daily for 7 more, then we can leave. I booked our room as though it equals 7, which would probably result in just a smidge of trouble with his unit. What was I thinking? I’ll be the first to admit I’m terrible with math, but that’s one of those really easy ones. Doh. I’ll use my calkeelater next time, and pay for my miscalculation by sitting on hold for another 1/2 hour to change the reservation!

We (the girls and I) went shopping lastnight. Usually we “go shopping” by sitting on the floor flipping through catalogs. This time we were online, at Old Navy. Both of the girls have new spring & summer wardrobes now, they’re growing like weeds. Cute weeds, but still, weeds. I bought the Chickeymonkey 3T’s for Christmas, and they’re above her ankles already. Caitlin had 6x shirts that still fit her in the fall, and now she looks like the young female version of the Incredible Hulk. Of course while we were there, we stopped in the Women’s department so I would have a couple new things to take on our trip, and we even picked out a few things for Daddy! All in all it was fun to do that with the girls pointing at the monitor picking what they like, and I didn’t realize that my 3-year-old monkey had acquired such discerning taste already.

Me: Clicks on adorable little frilly girlie-girl floral print shirt in a pretty spring green. Exlaims “Ooh! Jay! That’s would look so pretty on you! Would you like that one?”

Jay: (shaking head with eyebrows raised) “Uh-uh mommy, no I don’t like that one!”

Me: “But whyyyy? Why don’t you like it?”

Jay: “I don’t LIKE green, I want PINK!”

Now you can imagine what color her little wardrobe is going to be. Caitlin wasn’t easy to persuade into trying other colors, either. Her main staples are light pink, dark pink, and a couple of things in blue. Hey, at least everything will match, right?

Update on Mom2 (aka Paige’s mom), she pulled through surgery with VERY positive news, the doc doesn’t believe that it is cancer. They removed 2 large tumors and some lymph node and will have those test results in about 2 weeks. She was alert earlier today and is doing well. Thanks for thinking of her!!

In other news, I took a nap today. I should have gone to the grocery store, I needed to go to the pet store. I have many paintings to scan and paperwork to complete. And I took a nap. I must have been pretty tired!!

Alright I’ve gotta get back to the studio, John Mayer is waiting for me. Oohlala. (Hear him sing for me to Come back to bed. Sigh.)

Jeez, see how I am, I’m so obsessed over John that I forgot to show you Mark. He sent this pic this morning, he’s displaying his Purple Heart certificate and medal.