Please? C’mon over! Floor Guy is on his way, after my morning of appointments and errands, now I’m sporting my home makeover apparel and I’m ready to get dirty and gross this afternoon! I will be so relieved to have it done.

In other frustrations, I didn’t walk yesterday. After a long day of mindbending coding and getting the New Gallery Layout completed, I hit the showers and passed out cold. Can ya blame me? That’s a lotta thinkin’!

This morning I thought I’d send out an announcement to all of my buyers/clients about the comment feature and new layout, so I spent a good 45 minutes gathering e-mail addresses only to LOSE them all when I tried to copy and paste them into the BCC to keep everyone’s info private. Gr! I had to take off for my appointment so I didn’t get a chance to redo it. I’m hoping to get that done yet today.

Ok sorry no eye candy, you can look at the ice pics from yesterday though!

Yep, you heard me right! I will be painting on webcam shortly.

Today started out pretty good! The girls and I had a slumber party lastnight on the couch. We stacked up pillows, blankies, and shoved the ottoman into the corner to make a big cozy spot for us all to crash. We watched The Abyss, flipped through a bunch of really crappy stations for 2 hours, and fell asleep before midnight. As usual! LOL

Now this morning I got up and moving right away, and decided that I’m going to do better in holding myself accountable for meeting my 2-month goal, not much time left!

DAY ONE
Today’s Walk
Time: 30.02 min
Dist.: 1.56 mi.
MPH: 3.3
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Finish Line
March 5, 2005
GOAL: 128 mi.
To Go: 126.44 mi.

I’ll be changing my “Studio Webcam” status in the left side menu when I get started, so check back around 11AM CST!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today’s entry painstakingly brought to you by Home Fashion Timber Series #94507, WD4018, Run GY.

By 9PM CST Wednesday, I had relocated our dining room into my Studio (like that ours/mine thing? heh!), moved the laundry room and furnace room contents into our bedroom, and swept the floors.

I woke up yesterday and began pacing! The Floor Guy (said in a deep commanding superhero tone) was not due to arrive until mid-afternoon. Here I am, prepared to pace for a good 4 hours, and there’s a knock on the door just after 10AM!

You know what I really like about Floor Guy , he kinda looks like Tim McGraw. Ok I know he ISN’T Tim McGraw, but I can just think so, that’s ok, right? Ooh, bonus, he’s a Conservative Imitation!

He decided that he would just tear out the dining room first, and come back to do the kitchen and laundry/furnace rooms. By 1:30PM, Floor Guy was on his way, scheduled to return next Monday or Tuesday.

Then it was my turn.

The leveling job he did created more work than I had anticipated! I spent a few hours just knocking back ledges and lumps and ridges, wet sanding. Ug. Once that was dry though, I marked my center and started a-peelin’ and a-stickin’, all night long!

I finished around 10:30 lastnight, and ended my day with a nice warm Turkey-grilled cheese, cheddar chips and a tall glass of Blackberry Merlot. And a shower. Peeee-uuuu!

Here’s some pics, before/during & after!

I’m standing in the doorway of the studio, gazing at this gigantic Viola, studying it. Where am I going to begin, blending colors in my mind, selecting brushes and all those things that I think about before I start a painting session.

Suddenly, Caitlin and Jayden are singing along, loudly, to Jay’s new Care Bear trike. Squealing and giggling between pressing it, again and again and again. “Care Bears are coming to your town, they’ll lift you up when you’re feeling down, they’re watching you from up above, filling your days with caring and LooooOOOooove!” Yes I already know the words. Good grief.

They tire of the bike – 40 minutes later – and now Caitlin has composed a variety of melodies that she is humming at the top of her little 8 year old lungs, while creating a new mess on the table. The melody she’s got going right now is taking me back about 20 years, I can’t quite put my finger on it, oh yea! It’s similar to the chia-pet commercial tune. You know, the one that resonates even louder in your brain and just starts making your ears go ‘thud-thud-thud’. Yes, that’s the one.

Either they are especially noisy, knowing that I am trying to concentrate, or my ears are hyper-sensitive today.

I will wait for the peace and quiet that I enjoy after 8PM to get back to the studio. This piece requires a lot of attention to detail, architecturally speaking. I want it to be perfect.

I’ll be back and let you know when I start!

Change of plans, the floor guy is coming over tomorrow to tear up our kitchen & dining room floors & underlayment! Probably not a good idea to have a wet painting collecting dust and junk. I’ll be laying the floor myself (yes I’m a dandy handy girl), and I’ll work on Antoinette after that project is complete. It’s gonna be a fun one!

Thank you all for being here for us this year. I can’t express in words how much I appreciate your support and presence.

Special thanks to those of you who sent along beautiful and heartfelt cards, I will treasure them.

Merry Christmas!
Much much love,
Leanne & family

Good evening everyone! It’s the day before Christmas Eve! Are you going out of your mind yet? Yea, me too. 😉

We chatted with Mark for quite a while today, which was nice. Things are getting pretty intense over there, so don’t forget about our guys in all the hustle and bustle this next week. They really need our support and prayers more than ever right now.

We piddled around the house for a bit, and then I decided to take the girls out for dinner. We went to a Chinese Buffet. Nummm! I just have to show you my fortune cookie.

Ain’t that the truth? I nearly cried when I read it. Mine was different from both the girls, they got the standard cookie fortunes with the lucky numbers. Theirs were great, and I’ll post those too, but this one kind of caught me as different, and maybe more like it was meant for me to get it.

I also received a fabulous pressie from my sweet friend Erikie. She was in the Philippines not too long ago and was having some wrist pain, and someone directed her to these bracelets. It’s magnetic! All of the pewter looking beads are magnets, and when you start wrapping it around it just kinda takes on a mind of its own and adjusts to the nearest magnet. It’s very cool! She knows that I also get some pretty intense wrist pain from time to time so she picked one up for me too. Bonus, it’s purple! What a thoughtful, wonderful gift!

I received another package from my bestest bud in the Universe, Paige. Now this girls thoughtfulness can’t be beat. She sent gifties for both the girls, one for me, and one for… get this… MY BIRDS! No, I don’t have birds in the house. Paige has been subjected though to numerous phone calls about the beautiful and unique birds I am seeing in my backyard now since the studio was completed and I have a zillion windows. My in-laws brought me several feeders this summer, and I really love sitting out and just watching them (and the squirrelies, too!)

Paige handmade this wonderful seed-wreath, she will have to stop in and give directions on how to make them. Donned with berries from her own yard. This is the neatest thing! I told her I had to show everyone before I hung it outside and it was gone in ten minutes, so here it is!

I still have more blogwork to do, and I will get more of that accomplished tonight. But hey, it’s good huh? You likey so far?

Have a great evening!!

To all our friends,

I want to thank each and everyone of you for the support, prayers, and love you have given to me and my family during my time deployed in Iraq.

During this holiday season I would like to pass on my best wishes to you and yours, and I wish you continued happiness and success in the upcoming year.

This year for my family had been a very long and stressful one. We have survived and with the strength of our love and the blessing of our children and family we will make it to the end of this deployment which hopefully will end in the next few months.

Once again thank you for your continued support during this holiday season and during my time of deployment in Iraq

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mark

Hey there! I hope you had a great Friday, you know most of us parents are going to spend the next 3 weeks going nuts entertaining our children while they’re off for “winter break”! Yes, today was the last day of school for many of our kids. Feel sorry for us, ok? Thanks. 😉

Sheba will get her varnish and scan tomorrow. So will the Sock Thief. I’ll post them both so you can have a looksee, they’ll get their own entries so you’re gonna have to scroll a whole bunch! Our friendly PHP Surgeon is in the Operating Room as I type, so the blog will have her new facelift very soon!

I’ve started my next piece, a DOOZIE! This one is an 18×18 Gallery wrapped canvas, TWO kitties KISSING! They are so sweet. Well here, I’ll just show ya their sketch ok? Ok. Meet Talis & Meowface, owners of a gal named Lisa (Just a girl). I will be painting the background on webcam tomorrow!

There was something else I wanted to say, but now I’ve forgotten.

Mark, I know you’re going to see this after I’ve gone to bed, so {{{{{huge hugs}}}}} and you know if the rooster crows enough I will wake up! Love you hugely! I’m sorry the satellite was so crappy the other night. (The man tried to get and stay online for over 2 hours before duty, and he is not the most patient man!) My sweetie pie of a hubby, just a few more weeks to go and we’ll be curled up on the couch watching CSI! XOXOXOX

Ok the rest of you, go blow your noses and check back in the morning for some photorealistic and surreallistic scans, and a webcam session update!

P.S. is it just me, or are you all singing “Strangers in the Night…” after seeing the kitties pose? :P~