You know, it really does a heart good to know that my clients can see a work in progress and already feel confident that the finished piece will be worth investing in. {{{{{Hugs for you, P}}}}} So Squirrely the Third is not quite finished yet (will be later today), and already has a new home. ::sniffles:: Thank you!!

That other thunderstorm hit lastnight, and by this morning the concrete was dry, but the darn yard is mush again. My family is supposed to be coming down this weekend, but now we’re watching the forecast to see if we’ll even be able to be outside for a few days in a row. Having 4 kids trapped in a house with 4 maybe 5 adults while it’s raining just doesn’t sound like a lot of fun! Even though 2 each of the kids are the same ages and they play well together, they also FIGHT well together! LOL So here’s hoping for a change in the forecast for Memorial Day Weekend!!!

The past week or so has been amazing with being able to chat with Mark on webcam! Sunday we spent a good 7 hours chatting, I broke to treadmill and Caitlin chatted with him, then Jay climbed up on my lap and chatted (pressed the buttons!), it was sweet, spending Sunday’s together is something that Mark and I feel is really important and special. 🙂

So today I finish up on the Squirrely, treadmill, have to get some bloodwork done, finish packing up another care package for Mark and getting it off in the mail, and hopefully starting the next painting. 😀

I hope you have great weather in your forecast!!!
xoxoxo

Good evening! Well, actually, it’s morning in Iraq, so Good morning (honey!) I hope you all had a good day/night. 😉 The pic is another one courtesy of Mark’s unit. Nice view, huh? It’s got to be strange for him to look at this view and think that sun is just starting to rise over here.

Today was so humid! Pithooey! My feet were sticking to the linoleum so of course I’m mopping, and Jay is slipping and falling on the wet floor, and then there’s crying, and popcorn, and nappy time (yep, I joined her!), then there’s dinner, playtime, bandaging up owie’s for the day, and bedtime. They were so good tonight it made my life peaceful for a moment.

Got some things done here, I changed out the rotating image on the front page, added 3 new oils to the oil gallery, two new inks to the india ink gallery, and trimmed the figurative & other art page – it just looked pretty cluttered up to me. So now I’m good for the time being! I’m putting my florals in with the wildlife now and grouping them more by medium, but they do grow wild, and they are plant life, so it’s all good anyway! 😉

Tomorrow will be busy, I need to get a USB extension cable, mail out some things, and get ready to go to the bank for the closing on the house refinance. I’m so nervous about that!

Oh hey, did I tell you I’m down 35 lbs now? I had a comforter bag full of clothes from ..umm…. 4 years ago? And for giggles I got a pair of shorts out of there and tada! They fit! I only have a few more to go to reach my goal. 😀

::yawn::
nitey-nite friends!
xoxoxo

These photos are phenomenal. Mark sent them over this morning, after a day of humanitarian duty playing soccer and handing out the last of his goodies to the kids there. Aren’t they precious?! They are so happy to have us, it is so nice to see something POSITIVE about our being there. These will definitely lift your spirits!!

This first one, just a few of 50-60 Iraqi children Mark interacted with today. I could just sqwish that little girl!! He said she was adorable, has the biggest puppy dog eyes and is expert at asking for more goodies. 🙂

Here’s Mark (3rd one over from the left) with some children (family?) – you can see they really are enjoying the supplies we provide, and they all spent a good portion of the afternoon playing soccer. The kids won! I asked if I could send a bunch of flip-flops or something for him to hand out, but he said that they are used to barefooting it unless they go to school. Asphalt – 160 degrees, bare feet! Definitely something we all would have to be born and raised in to be accustomed to.

This is the best. Mark with two of the kids, that little one looks to be about 6, yea? Being goofy for the camera! LOL And the older one, looks about 12’ish, wearing Mark’s helmet. That is such a great keepsake for Mark, I know that he’s wanted to rescue these poor folks since the first time he was there. Very very cool pictures, so nice to see them STILL happy to hang out with our guys!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!!!
xoxoxo

This is the back of my studio, which if you didn’t already know was just added on to our house right before winter. I couldn’t get the patio done until spring, and my father in-law helped with some a couple of months ago (see where there’s grass growing around one of them? That was where we stopped). Today I (single-handedly) finished leveling and laying the rest of the blocks! Whew. I’m tired. (ok, some of them aren’t perfect, but I didn’t do it by the book!) ;P~

That was my day! How was yours???
xoxox

Yep, I am afraid of heights. It all started when I was a kid, a tomboy of course, and I was climbing a giant pine in the front yard. I was going for a birds nest, I wanted to keep the babies as pets. I climbed halfway up the tree, had the nest in my hands, and proceeded to fall all the way down to the ground sortof like a pinball, hitting branches left and right on my way. I was fine, the birds were fine, and they made great pets in the closet of my room until I let them go because they got so stinky! LOL Yes, I know I was only 10 or something at the time, but I remember that day.

So, being afraid of heights, I was on a mission yesterday to clean the gutters on the studio and carport. I set up the ladder, climbed up to the TOP STEP, knees quivering like crazy, and cleaned the gutters. YAY ME! I did it!!

The past few days have been very busy, there is so much to do around the house that Mark always took care of, now it’s my turn. Today we need to get to the store and pick up some river rock or something to do a little landscaping. I have a hose box/reel thing that is sinking into the mud, so we’re going to fill those areas with rock and maybe plant a couple of tall colourful flowering plants in those areas.

Even better, when I finished lastnight I felt like I had been beaten with a big stick!!! I could hardly move, between climbing up & down the ladder, repairing the gutter on the carport, knees quivering the whole time, my legs had it. I thought for sure when I got up this morning that I would be hobbling for a couple of days! I was very happy when I felt GREAT! All of this working out has done wonders for my resistance. So, now I head off to my trusty treadmill to start the day even more energized!

I hope you are all having a great weekend!
xoxoxo

P.S. On the poll, one of the “other animals” suggested is a Skunk!! I will paint a skunk just for you, P! 😉 HAVE YOU VOTED?! It’s right over there! —->

This is one of the beautiful irises I have growing in my front yard. They just decided to bloom yesterday so I spent a good half hour out there setting up the tripod and getting shots of them. I will probably be painting this one within the next week.

It was a beautiful morning, topped off with yet another fabulous chat with my hubby. He’s got an awful heat rash (prickly heat?) on his back – anyone have any ideas on how to relieve it with limited supplies? I suggested baby powder with corn starch, but I don’t think they had any over there. My poor guy, it’s like 110 over there every day, which just makes it worse having to wear the uniform and gear.

I did get to mail out my fuschia daisy painting to its new owner yesterday, sent a couple more care packages off too, and just kept busy doing this & that all day. I feel like I’m still not caught up, or that there’s more to do and I just don’t know what it is?! It’s raining this afternoon so that shoots my plans to do yardwork. My father in law was here this morning while it was still nice, and he cut the grass for us. Now every time I go outside there’s more and more I need to get taken care of!

I burned a new CD too, if you haven’t been to walmart.com music downloads – it’s very cool! You pay online, pick whatever songs you want or full albums, and download them right to your puter! So I mixed this great selection and it just rocks. Music really is a huge motivator for me, especially when I’m painting & treadmilling.

Oh yea! The weight loss progress! Ok I’ve lost track of the days. I started this whole thing on Jan. 31st. As of today, I’ve lost 34 lbs., and I’m down 2 sizes!! I just ordered a few new trendy things from Old Navy (dot com) in the next size down, so by the time they arrive I should be good to go! WEE! I crave my morning workouts now, don’t feel right without them. This is really moving along so much faster than I had anticipated, and I am so excited about it!

I think that’s all the news I have for now! I wanted to put up a poll too, so I may add that here in a bit. 😀 Update: just added the poll over there to the right, under the giveaway linkie/icon! Have a vote!

I hope you are all doing awesome!!
Love you!!
xoxox

Ok well my sneaky “have other things to do post” was so out of the norm that I guess I nearly gave myself away!

I took the girls up to Chicago for a surprise Mother’s Day weekend visit to see my mom. My bestest buddy was also in town to surprise her mom, so we got to meet up a couple of times which was so very cool! I haven’t seen her in almost 7 years!

We left Friday morning in the midst of a horrible thunderstorm, but we drove out of it about 40 miles outside of town. The rest of the trip was smooth sailing, the girls were fabulous, we stayed at my Aunt’s house, we visited, hung out with my Mom (yea, she was surprised, but she says she knew something was going on because of my last entry!), and even got lucky enough to be there when my Aunt & Uncle arrived from Colorado! Yahoo!

It was a beautiful weekend. I dropped off my film (6 rolls!) today so I should have it back by the end of the week.

My tulip painting is no longer available, either. I pulled it from auction and now it is with my Aunt. I’m so sneaky! ;D

Mark and I chatted for several hours today! ::biggest grins:: That was very very cool because I missed him terribly while we were gone. I’m spoiled, talking to him just about every day now. He’s spoiled too, since he asked me not to go out of town too often anymore. :P~~

So here I am, and I need to get caught up on a ton of stuff, and then I need to do yardwork (the youngins’ have summoned the pool…rut-row..) and then, paint!!!

I hope you are all doing well and had a great weekend, too!
xoxoxo

Meet Muffin, my in-laws baby girl. We’ve been watching her this weekend. Isn’t she a sweetie pie? 🙂

Oh yes! I have to show you a couple of crazy pics I took of Jayden the other day. Caitlin had a “Lights On” program at school, evening activites and the like, and Jayden was being a little pistol. Here she is running: Jay Runnin’, and here’s another freaky deaky pic of my little chickiemonkey, Jay Runnin’ Freaky!

We’ve been doing some spring cleaning this weekend. Friday night we went through all of the girls clothes and loaded up a ton of stuff that either doesn’t fit or Caitlin doesn’t like anymore, and this morning I went through my stuff! Of course there’s a ton of stuff that I have to get rid of anyway, cause it just doesn’t fit anymore! 😀 Now I’m debating whether I should list it on ebay, or garage sale it, or give it to Salvation Army. Hm. I could use the cash to get things that FIT, but maaannnn listing everything is a lotta work!

Need to get a few more things done before we can play today. We’ll be making a few batches of brownies, packing up a bunch of boxes to ship out tomorrow to Mark, and then I’m hoping to get some painting in today.

Off I go! Have a great day!
xoxo

Yep, this is my guy. What a man. Wow. Makes me all tingly and patriotic and proud – the list goes on. Add your own adjectives, verbs, whatever you’d like, he’ll be stoppin’ in I’m sure.

::beaming with pride::
xoxoxo