PLEIN AIR

I have decided to challenge myself. My aunt (okay, she's my husband's aunt, but I feel like she's mine too) and I decided to register for the Spring City Plein Air Competition.

click image for info.

I am not sure if I am crazy or not. I just know that I need to get outside of my comfort zone once in a while to help me grow, and this seems to be doing the trick. I am very nervous. The rules are that you have 3 days to paint on location-- outside (plein air). Then on the third day you take in your matted and framed paintings (I registered to do 2), and they are hung in gallery and juried (judged). Should be interesting... I know I am not going to win, I just need to experience of showing my work and working toward a goal. I am just glad I have someone to do it with, it should make it a lot less scary.

THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT

Our family has hit some big milestones this year. I am teaching 2D Design again, my kids are back in school and I still make dinner every night, but I am also trying to adjust to some glaring differences...

I now have a daughter in college. S has moved out and is living in an apartment! Whoa! When did I get that old??

Princess P, my youngest, is now in 1st grade, so I am at home alone-- ALL DAY-- by myself. Very, very strange!

My oldest son, D, is a junior in high school and decided the day before school to join the golf team. Who cares that he'd never even played on a golf course before (just hit some balls across the creek in Grandpa's back yard)? He loves it!

And last, but not least, I forgot to sign up little C for soccer this year, so now I get to coach. That was the deal- if I will coach, then he can play. (I am a little apprehensive about this one!) Not only am I coaching soccer, but I had to quit my computer class. I just don't have the time to do it all and I can take the class another time. Ah, the sacrifices we make in behalf of our children... good thing they're worth it!

I'VE GOT CLASS

I am going to have a busy semester! Besides teaching 2D Design, I feel the need to improve my computer skills and our art department offers a basic skills class, so I decided to take it. It is a Mac-oriented class, so I can learn it all on my very own laptop!

I started last night. It will teach me a bit about Photoshop and Illustrator, plus some audio and video programs. I am very excited about it!

I am also taking a printmaking class this semester. Can you tell I am worried about being home alone too much?

Have to stay busy!

BACK TO SCHOOL

Well, it happened whether I was ready or not-- SCHOOL STARTED! Boo.

Here are my elementary kids at our BRAND NEW school! It is a beautiful building and we feel very lucky to live half a block from it.

Here is Princess P with her new 1st grade teacher-- Mrs. Whitney

Here is little C with his 4th Grade teacher-- Mr. Clark

I also have a college student (MAJOR YIKES), an 11th grader and a 9th grader. No one at home with me any more. I can't decide what to do with myself, so today I did lunch with a friend. It was great!

PRINCESS P IS 7

Here is my sweet, little birthday girl. She had a great time opening all her girly presents and dressing up in her princess dress. It was a odd year, so she didn't have a friend party, but with all of her girl cousins around, she didn't even notice.

Here are the cousins and the Cricut castle she has been begging me to make for 6 months now. It was tedious to put together, but not difficult. Another success birthday under our belt...

LAST WEEKEND

I am so sad summer is over. I don't want my kids to go back to school and I don't really want to either. I love our days of doing things on our own schedule, when we want and what we want. I hate losing that freedom!

Well, enough complaining...

Our last weekend of summer we went school shopping (with a million others, I am sure).

Here are my older boys at the mall. Such an attractive photo of them both...

Here is Princess P. Her birthday was the next day, so we went to Build-a-Bear and she got a kitty with a cute pink dress. They even painted a kitty face on her. Such fun!

That evening I went up to Sundance to go out to dinner and see the musical Big River at the outdoor theater. My sister's fiance was in it and I hadn't gotten to see it yet.

Here I am at the Foundry Grill (super yum!) with my Aunt from California who attended with my sister and I.

Here is M as Mark Twain. He did such a great job! And I LOVED the whole play! The music was great and the actors were well-cast, it was a perfect night out (not too chilly) and we just had a blast!

LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN

We had an interesting cat experience yesterday at our house. My youngest son and his friends accidently let in a stray cat and chased it into my daughter's room. We couldn't get near it. I think it might have been hurt or abused, but it stunk and we had to get it OUT! I ended up putting on my rubber gardening gloves and a thick jacket and went down to deal with it. After about 7 tries, I was able to hold on to it long enough to get it to the door. It was SCARY- hissing and clawing for all it was worth. That was quite an ordeal that I am glad is over! Anyone ever had anything like that happen to them? It was a new one for me.

RIVER TRIP ART

A sketch of the river from our camp site. Idaho is one of my favorite places. I want to move there.

A small painting from the take out on the Main Payette. Meh... that's all I have to say.

I finished this painting of my Nana's house, but it got stepped on and dirty. Bummer.

There is still one more larger painting from this trip, but it isn't finished. My family didn't give me much time to paint on this trip... :( Hopefully it will be done soon, but with school getting ready to start, I wouldn't hold my breath...

IDAHO IS FOR RIVER RUNNERS

We had a GREAT time in Idaho! I knew we would. Even with the weather being so chilly last year we had a good time. Here is a not-very-brief outline of our trip...

This year started out a bit cold, so the first morning we went and sat in the hot springs we visited last year. It was a fabulous way to start the trip.

The bummer was that someone complained about them, so the state came in and ripped them out. :( So instead of 9 nice, cemented tubs, there were only 3 lined with plastic. It was still fun though.

We went up to Cascade so that my honey could try out the new kayaking park. It was brand new and very nice! We also visited the flea market- woo hoo!

This year the slack line was a big hit. Some of my kids are pretty darn good at it too.

Then the next day it was off to run some rivers. Idaho takes care of its river runners, the boat launches are amazing!

This was the Old Swirly section on the South Fork of the Payette. It is a fun run!

Here are my kiddos. Aren't they amazing?

That evening they ran the main Payette. My younger ones have such fun in the sand and this water was MUCH warmer than the South Fork.

Every where you go up there it is BEAUTIFUL! I would live up there in a second!

The last day was the icing on the cake run on the North Fork Cabarton. I did it in my inflatable too and was a bit worried, but I made it through.

That evening was THE MEAL to end all other meals. Our friends brought PRIME RIB and we all just added everything we had. It was definitely not your ward potluck! (no green jello and carrots here!)

Here are the little girls, with their glowing jewelry...

We even invited the college kids over because we had so much food. It STILL didn't all get eaten and we fed 22 people.

This was the coolest part of the meal, though. My friend brought stuff to make homemade ice cream in a bag and we had it with our cobbler. SUPER DUPER YUM!

PAYETTE RIVERS

This will be us in a few days. We are on our way up to Idaho to do some river running. We went last year the first of August and nearly froze to death. They had MAJOR rain storms and it didn't get much above 68 f the whole time we were there. The forecast looks quite a bit better for this weekend however, so we are excited! There are about 7 or 8 runs up where we are going and we are meeting lots of friends up there too. RIVER PARTY!

NANA'S HOUSE

This is my little painting from this morning. It isn't finished, we ran out of time (it took a while to get the perspective right). It is my Grandpa and Grandma's house and where my dad grew up. If I get it finished soon, I'll post that too.

UPDATE ON THE HAND

A had his surgery yesterday and things went well. The surgeon removed the pins (the x-ray was taken before they did anything) and cut the skin graph on the middle finger and the ring finger apart. The bones are still not completely healed, but its only been a month, so that's not a surprise. The bad thing is that there is still a bit of bone sticking out on the ring finger. If you look really closely at the x-ray you can see it. That is what we are still praying for. If that skin doesn't grow over the bone on its own, they'll have to take off the finger down to the knuckle. We are praying that doesn't happen. The more of the finger he keeps, the better for guitar playing.

A BOY AND HIS CAST

Tomorrow is the day this bothersome cast will be gone. He is very grateful since it was bright green with cute blue dinosaurs on it. I have no idea what would possess a doctor to wrap up a 14-year old's arm in such a juvenile pattern, but they did and it has been hated ever since. Now it is so dirty you can't even tell the origins of the colors anyway, but still...

• No more wrapping it up with duct tape and plastic bags for showering.
• No more whining about not being able to go here and do that.
• No more claiming that he can't do jobs because he's 'cripple'.
• No more surprise bills in the mail.

Now begins the dreaded physical therapy...

SANS MAKE UP

A few months ago there was a huge surge of people posting photos of themselves without make up (including celebrities). I swore I would do it, just to say that I had and today is that day... drum roll please...

Here she is: 41-year old mother of 5. Not too much difference, I must say, because I don't wear much make up normally anyway, but there you have it... my daringness on record.

I just had to google a few photos of celebrities too and found a few I wanted to share...

I have always thought Keira Knightly is such a beautiful delicate woman- and she is, don't get me wrong. It is just nice to see that everyone fights problems with their complexions...

Natalie Portman would also be on my Beautiful List (if I had one). But look at her with no make up! I think I prefer her that way. How genuine she is!