Unseasonably Warm

The Gila Valley Temple Motif

2012-01-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

My latest completion is The Gila Valley Temple. The Gila Valley Temple is located in Southeast Arizona near Thatcher/Safford. It's technically located in the town of Central.

Of the three temples that are currently open in Arizona, it is sadly the one I haven't personally seen as of yet.

However, I have been to the area multiple times (pre-temple); the last time being in 2003.

(But I was in St. David/Tombstone/Bisbee last October. It is just located along a different highway system than The Gila Valley, so I still didn't make it passed this temple).

Actually, I have roots there as well - especially in the nearby Pomerene area. My grandmother (Ruth Western Rogers Burson) grew up there before moving to the Phoenix area, and her father died there not too long ago! When I was a kid, a family reunion of her mother's side of the family (my great-grandmother) was held near The Gila Valley. I think that trip was when I became deathly carsick on the road up Mt. Graham, so I'll stop talking about that. I also remember becoming deathly carsick on the road between Placerville California and Lake Tahoe, but there is no point bringing that up since it has nothing to do with temples or The Gila Valley.

Please excuse the quality of the photograph of the artwork. It was taken with a webcam as our good camera is back in the shop. Grrrrrr. I am going to send the artwork to with Chris to work next week to capture a good image of it on the large scanner he has at the office!

"The" Gila Valley
This image does not show that the word 'The' was added to the Gila Valley title, as it was brought to my attention after I took the above photo that The Gila Valley Temple was named that way because President Kimball always said that there is only one valley and that's "The Gila Valley".It is only one of two temples that has the word "the" in its title.

Therefore, the "the" has been added over the small "a' in Gila and next to the "V" in Valley. It's just not shown in the picture above. But I already said that.

I found a humorous blog entry from someone I don't know, but that I could very well be related to, in reference to the, I mean, The Gila Valley Temple who live in the area: None of Your Beeswax - The Gila Valley Temple.

I also wanted to share a few beautiful paintings of The Gila Valley Temple from an artist, KB Stanger, who I think lives in that area: (Click here) I don't have permission to show the paintings (okay, I didn't even ask. I figured I'd just provide the link).

Again, I don't know the artist, but hey, I could be related to this artist, as I've already mentioned that I'm related to just about everyone from that part of the state. I loved the paintings by this artist of The Gila Valley Temple as portrayed with the cotton fields.

Looking at the paintings, they inspired me to use the scriptural reference "The Field is White, Ready to Harvest" in The Gila Valley Motif above.

If I could sell more artwork, then maybe I could afford to purchase that painting! lol

Six Questions

2012-01-25T22:34:00.001-07:00

Alexander is still under the weather - sort of. Usually when I have a kid with something like an ear infection or strep, once the antibiotics get started, the fever goes away. Not Alexander. Last night his axillary (under arm) temp was 103.5. It scared me because it was more like 104.5. The Motrin brought it down again. Today he appeared to be fever free until a couple of hours ago. I gave him the Motrin when his under arm temp was 101. His doc said he might either have a resistance infection to the Amoxicillin requiring another antibiotic or he has a viral infection and there is nothing else to do but keep him comfortable with the Ibuprofen. He said that since we can't always distinguish between bacterial and viral he will call in a different antibiotic. Fun times. Fun times.

Anyway, I don't have much going on in the ol' brain right now. And for me, surveys can be kind of fun (as long as it's not too often, too time consuming or too stupid).

I stole this off Lara's blog today. That's okay, because she obtained the questions from one of her friends too, so it's not like I'm stealing her material.

Here we go....

1. How do you cope with the yucky season where you live?

Well, for me, the yucky season is from April to October.

The sun is aiming his vengeance at me.

(okay, the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts)

And well, October to April can blow as well because you have all the part-time residents here that just RAVE about how much they love the winter here and how they don't have to shovel snow like they do back in Minnesota, Manitoba or Massachusettes. Blah Blah Blah. My most hated phrase from them: "You don't have to shovel sunshine!" Ugh, SHUT. THE. $#&%@$. UP!

Sunlight gives me a headache. Plus, if you leave something in the oven too long, it burns and becomes tough and overcooked, right? Well, that's me. Overcooked. You know the scene in the Spongebob movie when Patrick and Spongebob are under that heat lamp and they're all dried out in that Shell City Souvenir Shop? That's me.

Except, there isn't a beach to escape to located right there with David Hasselhoff to take me away - like Patrick and Spongebob had.

So I'm cranky. Therefore, winters here kind of suck too, but at least we can be outside. In the summer, forget it.

But I've made it clear in numerous posts how the summers are the Devil Incarnate. To sum it up - I live in the WRONG place.

I guess I could have answered this question: "Look at my Blog Title". There you go.

2. Tell me something you like about me or my blog.

Lara, you are more devoted to blogging and therefore you have followers and people actually comment. Oh wait, that is what makes me jealous about your blog. Tee Hee! But seriously, you're creative and you also have musical skills that I admire. Plus, you embrace being a mom to three girls. I'm not sure I would do it as perfectly as you. (I mean that, I'm not being snarky). My one daughter is giving me panic attacks. Don't tell her.

3. Name a movie you can quote several lines from.

I'm a geek, so yes, Star Wars. But if I had to go the off-geek route, it would be 2002's About A Boy. It's one of my all time favorite movies. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it highly. It's based on the book of the same name by Nick Hornby.

Here are some of my favorite lines in no-particular order.

(Some lines I shouldn't quote due to content in them or language. There's no point in quoting the ones with language and censoring them, because the language is part of what makes that particular line good.)

Talent Show Announcer: That was Death Penalty Crew with "Murder for Life."

Fiona: Will, am I a bad mother?

Will: No, you're not a bad mother. You're just a barking lunatic.

Fiona: I mean, Marcus is special - very, very special boy and he's got a special soul, and I've wounded it.
Will: Oh, please, just shut up. You're wounding my soul.

Christine:... it's just I thought you had hidden depths.

Will: No, no, you've always had that wrong about me. I really am this shallow.

Will: (voiceover/narration): And there I was killing them softly with my song. Or rather being killed. And not so softly either.

Will: (voiceover/narration):It was terrible! Terrible! But driving really fast behind the ambulance was fantastic!

Will (voiceover/narration]: She couldn't stay at my place, and she didn't have a DVD, or satellite, or cable, so we were always stuck watching some crap made for TV movie about a kid with leukemia. I had to end it.

Plus, I love the soundtrack. I had three songs from it on my Playlist, but one vanished. Still, great soundtrack!

4. Least thing you like about mothering.

Potty training. I would not feel guilty if I could pay someone to do that for me. It almost worked out like that for Christian. I was doing my student teaching and then starting my K-8 teaching job at Heartland when he was in the potty training age range and Danielle's (his sitter) son was the same age, and Christian just watched Dylan and followed his lead. I didn't really have to potty train Christian. It was awesome.

No, this isn't Christian. I don't know who this is.

Another thing that is hard with mothering is the worry about them when they're sick. I don't have a problem taking care of them, but the worry with high fevers is something I can do without. If something prolongs too long without relief, I worry too much.

5. Favorite thing about being a wife

Do I have to answer that? Just kidding. Well, one of my quick answers wouldn't be appropriate (like some of my favorite lines in About a Boy so I'll skip over that too). It's a hard question to answer, because I've been a wife almost longer than I haven't been.

My favorite thing is being a 50/50 partner with my husband. That is something women couldn't say even a couple decades ago. I couldn't handle the bullcrap of husbands telling their wives what to do, wives worried about having the house cleaned for their husband, or things like husbands not helping with the kids. Hell no. As for the clean house, I worry about having a house clean, but that's all for me. I put that pressure on myself. If anything, I'm sure Chris wishes I could chill out on that so he could be more of a slob. Haha

6. If you could've majored in anything in college, without thought to what you'd do with it afterwards, what would it have been?

That's what I did! LOL. I majored in Art Education, but I loved the Art History and Fine Arts element to it. In fact, I thought about double majoring in Art History. I minored in Geography due to pure interest and I thought about double majoring in that as well. However, I settled for the Geography minor so I could get finished and move on!

I want to get my Masters in Art History and Criticism. I don't know if I can though due to the student loans just for my BA. It would be insane and expensive trying to get my Masters.

There you go!

Now, I am supposed to tag some other bloggers, but I want to post this and not think. The baby is cranky and Chris has to get to bed, so I have to stop messing around on here.

A Few Things...Forgotten Motifs, Artybuzz and Sleeping Invasions!

2012-01-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

In a drawing pad,. I found a Circle Motif from September that I forgot about!

I also found a great art site out of the UK called ARTYBUZZ! As of today, I've already uploaded 9 Circle Motifs (including the one above!). Through them you can buy a simple inexpensive postcards of my motifs all the way up to larger prints. The prices listed are the UK currency, but if you're in the US or Canada, the exchange would be made to the dollar, depending on how well the dollar is doing (the price would be slightly higher or lower). Here is the link to my artwork on Artybuzz: http://www.artybuzz.com/member-detail-view.php?memberID=10089 http://www.artybuzz.com/member-detail-view.php?memberID=10089 If you go to the homepage, the category my art is under is Illustrations.

Excuse the short post this time - my poor baby has a 102 fever today. It started yesterday. If he still has it tomorrow morning, I'm taking him to the doctor. The below illustration (not by me) also helps explain the short posts. This doesn't apply to only when Alexander is sick. It's pretty much all the time. Someone posted this on Facebook and I immediately shared it because it is defintiely our lives right now.

Tiger Lily

2012-01-20T11:49:00.004-07:00

Earlier this week was New Beginnings. New Beginnings is an annual event for girls ages 12-18 and their parents, priesthood leaders, and their leaders. In our church, girls ages 12-18 are in the Young Women program.

Mikelle is still 11, but because she is turning 12 this year (ack! I am still wrapping my head around that!), she was also part of New Beginnings this year.

This event helps Young Women and their parents learn about the Young Women program. It includes an explanation of Personal Progress and a presentation of the Young Women them, logo, motto, and age-group purpose statements and symbols. It helps young women and their parents plan for events in the coming year.

A few days before the event, we were asked to identify our 2012 incoming Young Women with a type of flower and "why". After a little consideration, this is what we submitted for Mikelle:

Tiger Lily

Like the Tiger Lily's fragrance, she is strong but can be sweet. When she was 
blessed as a baby, "strength" is what continued to play in her dad's mind. This

is a unique flower and Mikelle is unique and creative.  She can be fiery like it's

orange color,  tenacious and passionate. The Tiger Lily is a reddish-orange but it is

also spotted and there is a superstition that smelling a Tiger Lily will give you freckles.

Mikelle definitely has her share of freckles. She is definitely a unique tiger lily, 
standing out in a field of clovers.

September 2009 - My favorite "freckle pic"

Age 9

Each of these girls that will be 12 this year had that description read and they were presented with a silk flower matching their description.

Chris loved the description - especially referencing her blessing day and her "strength"..And those premonitions of strength certainly ring true. Sure, right now her pre-teen self is using that strength in examples of stubbornness and being argumentative, but I also admire that she is going through these tough childhood years much better than I did, and I think her strength is a big part of it. For me, once the awkward period hit, it hit hard. However, Mikelle is going through it exponentially better and I am proud of her and relieved. While Mikelle is struggling academically with one teacher in particular (it's a personality thing), she is enjoying Middle School and is a good friend. While she isn't a Queen Bee (whew!) or a Lemming follower, she is confident to march to her own drum. I am grateful for that.

Now to work on the stubborn and argumentative thing......I don't know where she could have possibly gotten that! ;-)

Mikelle's Blessing Day

October 1, 2000

 Age 8 Weeks

P.S. Regarding the above picture, in my best Chandler Bing voice:

                       "Can my dress BE any plainer?"

                       "Can Chris LOOK any younger?"

He's 30 there! Really, he is!

First New Motif of 2012!

2012-01-14T20:15:00.002-07:00

Here is my first motif of 2012! Look familiar? It's very similar the Moon Motif that is in the triptych at Sundust as seen in this entry. Before having the triptych framed back in September, I forgot to scan the image in for the purpose of making prints. Well, instead of worrying about it, I figured it was a perfect opportunity to make a second version of it. It's not exactly like the first one, but it's definitely in the same family. I also made the original larger - about 12 inches in diameter.

Prints are available for various sizes: 8x8, 10x10, and 12x12.

Of all the images I love to draw, the moon images are my favorite, and moons are found all over my motifs. Therefore, it wasn't much of a stress to create another motif that's moon-themed.

I'll probably have this motif framed alone and have it in the gallery's outlet - as it won't be large enough to price it at the dollar amount level for it to be showcased in the regular gallery.

Of course please excuse the copyright backward C's. They won't be present on the original artwork or any prints from it.

Please leave a comment and thanks for looking! If you haven't yet, please go to my Facebook Page: Circle Motifs by Jill Henrichsen and hit the "like" button!

The Sun-Moon-Stars Motif (September 2011), currently available at Sundust Gallery:

Be the Parent, Not the BFF

2012-01-10T13:50:00.002-07:00

I try to keep my blog light and somewhat humorous, but when something really gets to me, I can't hold it in sometimes.

As a mother of a daughter who is coming of age (which I am just "thrilled" about, by the way. Ack!), and a high school teacher, this recent story out of Colorado has had me seeing RED in so many ways.

I am trying to put my thoughts together, but it's difficult with so many angry feelings flying around about this.

18 year old Sydney Spies is a senior at Durango High School. She has submitted a senior photo to her high school's yearbook that was rejected because it was inappropriate. (I'm not going to give these photos more publicity by posting them. Just click on the link if you want to see them)

So they were rejected. End of story, right? Of course not. Sydney, like any teenager who doesn't get their way, is upset.

Sidney is one of those teenage girls who clearly does not have it all together yet regarding the difference between "beautiful" and "cheap". She hasn't been appropriately taught the concept that there is "conquering the world and being pretty while doing it" verses "using a misguided sense of what is beautiful and conveying cheap sexual messages." Anne Kingson, a Canadian writer put it best in her 2010 article, "Outraged mom, trashy daughters": How did those steeped in the women’s lib movement produce girls who think being a sex object is powerful?

Sure, that happens. The world is full of sexually explicit images and it's easy for teens (whose frontal lobe of their brain hasn't fully formed yet) to deal with confusion. THAT IS WHAT PARENTS AND DECENT ROLE MODELS ARE FOR. We are to lead and direct our children. Please read "The Teen Brain: It's Just Not Grown Up Yet." The frontal lobe "is the part of the brain that says: 'Is this a good idea? What is the consequence of this action?' It's not that they don't have a frontal lobe. And they can use it. But they're going to access it more slowly." (from the article) This is all the more reason we as parents need to be role models and leaders - NOT their BFFs! Too many parents out there have missed that concept along the way.

In this case, Sydney's mother, Micki Spies, has dropped the ball in that regard. Her mother is assisting Sydney in the fight! THAT is what has this story taking me to new levels of anger and frustration. Sydney could still use some growing up with her frontal lobe, but Ms. Spies, but what's your excuse?

When Sydney's inappropriate photos (to quote Star Jones, the photos looks as if she's "20 minutes off the pole") were denied by the high school yearbook community, it didn't end with a typical teenager venting, whining and complaining that she didn't get her way. Nope. Not only is Sydney's mother clearly not doing her job, but she is leading the fight with Sydney to hire a lawyer and run to news outlets with their misguided outrage, which I suspect is their attempt to have the pictures seen by many and obtain the publicity. Yep. Great parenting there, Miss Spies!

Mom has used excuses such as "she is covered" and "read the law" to defend her daughter's desire to treat the high school yearbook like it is Cosmo, Playboy or Maxim. Being a high school art teacher (thank goodness for the breather I'm taking by staying at home with X-man), I've dealt with parents like these in different ways, and it's a sad state of affairs. But I digress.

The yearbook is not a fashion magazine, Miss Micki Mom. Different venue - different publication - different OBJECTIVE of its publication. There is a time and place. The yearbook is a not the place. Teenagers try to push the envelope all the time. That's what we as parents, teachers and administrators are for to give them freedom of expression to become who they are, but also know when to draw the line and provide and ENFORCE BOUNDARIES. Have you not heard of boundaries, Micki Spies?

The yearbook committee did the job her mother failed to do. Mom calls it an "abuse of power." I almost feel sorry for Ms. Spies' misguided logic. If Sydney wants to go pose for a publication like Playboy or Hustler, she can have at it. Sadly, the world glorifies all kinds of portrayals of Boobs and Booty Without Brains.

No wonder Sydney is confused! With examples like Kim Kardashian and Jersey Shore's "Snooki" all over the place, and the money these subspecies of women make for doing....well....nothing, it's easy to scratch our heads sometimes.

The argument about Sydney being covered? Weak argument, at best. There is more to covering all the "goods" to justify the image as appropriate. I can be wearing a turtleneck (but I don't - yuck), but if I'm licking an ice cream cone as if it's something else and making orgasmic noises while doing it, clearly it doesn't matter if I'm wearing a turtleneck and nun's habit! The message has become cheap and sexual. The way Sydney is posing in the photos with that "come do me" look on her face negates the argument that "everything is covered".

That is NOT for a high school yearbook.

Another argument - law of free speech of free publication. Mommy said, (in her comments below the Colorado News story out of Denver), "Read the law. She has the right to publish. I did not want this photo chosen but since it was I support my daughter 100%"

Mom and Sydney do not understand the law. The law isn't to give Sydney rights to publish. It gives the PUBLICATION (in this case, a high school yearbook) rights and protections under the law. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the yearbook chose not to publish under its own rights. The student yearbook committee and adult staff members have the right to accept or decline what is submitted for the yearbook. And while we're at it, Mom, if you are supporting your daughter 100% to have this photo published, you do want the photo seen. Don't tell us you didn't want it chosen. You're loving the publicity.

Also, even if something is protected by the law, that doesn't make it appropriate. Sheesh, so many unsavory, immoral and obscene things are protected by laws! Look at the KKK's rights to spout their racist messages! They're protected by the law to do so, even though what they are saying is deplorable. Look at Nevada - prostitution is legal is many parts of that state. Does that make it okay? No. It's just legal. Do high school yearbooks in Nevada have ads for brothels? I'm guessing NO.

Another argument - Sydney is 18. Great, she's 18. Congratulations. She can do what she wants as an adult with her modeling career. One thing she and Mommy forget is, a four year high school has more than 75% of its students under 18. If Sydney wants to go to a community college and try to have the photos in their publications, at least it's an adult educational facility. High school is not.

A similar controversy erupted a few years ago with a tattoo page in a local yearbook. There was parental outrage about the page featuring students' tattoos (among other things that I won't get into now to digress even further). Sure, many high school students have tattoos. I saw them all the time. I had students show them to me and ask me what my opinion was (and I gave the opinion of the tattoo itself from a pure artistic and professional standpoint, not my personal feelings on tattoos themselves). But since one has to be 18 to obtain a tattoo (that is the law, unless there is parental consent), and more than the high school campus isn't 18, it probably wasn't the best move to have a tattoo page in the yearbook. Just saying.

The point is, there is a time and place. The yearbook isn't that place.

I love Durango. It would be the perfect place for me to live. It's beautiful. It has a great climate and a fun bohemian culture. Unlike here, the color green exists there. The summers can get pretty warm, but they're manageable as opposed to the heat lamp I live under here. And even if it does get too hot, minutes up the road the elevation climbs to crisp cooler temps and even more beautiful places like Silverton and Ouray. Below is a beautiful picture of a girl in Durango that adds to its beauty. It's Mikelle along it's Animas River Walk in 2006. Sure, she was almost 6 and not 18 (I'm in no hurry for her to be 18), but this still captures the kind of beauty our daughter's should portray.

Common Household Issues

2012-01-09T11:08:00.001-07:00

Issue #1:

As a homeowner, you cannot just call a landlord to fix a problem. You OWN the problem. Well, I wouldn't call this a problem. It's more like an adorable obstacle.

The Dishwasher Blocker:

Plus, even if we did rent, I don't see what the landlord could do about it anyway.

The blocker likes to prevent dirty dishes from entering the washer. And it occasionally removes the dirty dishes before they've had a chance to wash. It also likes to unload the dishwasher for you, but it doesn't prefer to place the dishes where they go. These said dishes are usually found in other parts of the house, along with packs of Ramen noodles. Yes, the dishwasher blocker does not restrict the applicance attacks to the dishwasher. It can strike pantries, drawers, cupboards, and while we're at it, just about any part of the house. It is also known to rip off its diaper and pee in your bed less than 48 hours after you put on clean sheets.

Issue #2:

This one also doesn't matter if you own or rent. You give your husband a "honey-do" task before bed, but instead you find this:

Convenient Sleepage

There are both pros and cons to a scene like this. Pro: The baby is also asleep and therefore, more around the house can be accomplished. Con: Not only does the husband get out of doing a task, but the baby gets out of going into his bed. This is especially difficult when he is very tenacious about sleeping just about anywhere except his crib. And like the Dishwasher Blocker, the issue is too adorable to get too upset about it.

Issue #3:

The House Shark. This is similar to the Landshark that struck unsuspecting SNL cast members in the 1970s, but this type of land shark does not attack people. It attacks things (see Issue #1).

House Shark

And like Issues #1 and Issue #2, the issue is too adorable to really worry about it. Just pretend you live at Hogwarts and things are bound to move and change (or be pee'd on) at any given moment.

Bi-Polar Days

2012-01-08T23:46:00.000-07:00

No, technically I'm not Bi-Polar. That said, we have our bi-polar moments, don't we? I've had some bi-polar weeks. While I enjoy staying home and the huge burden of a broken educational system that I no longer have to directly deal with (teaching) is lifted off of me, I am frustrated that I am not working. I don't want to be away from my kids, especially my X-man (who is home all day). However, I don't feel I'm pulling my weight.

Chris insists that I am putting too much pressure on myself and I'm not supposed to worry about that right now. Well, I am. I didn't obtain a college degree to just wait for Chris's payday to roll around. Also, I'm disheartened that while highly complimented and regarded, none of my work is moving at the gallery.

Logically, I realize it's tough economic times and there's a difference between liking art and liking it enough to buy it, but it's still frustrating. My dream would be to make a living at the creation of art and not having to go back to a broken educational system. I can be at home, yet create, sell and have that flexibility! That is where most of my mixed feelings are. When teaching, I love the students and the relationships that I build. But on the flip-side, I hate the games and lack-luster administration. And when you have the one demon kid with a loud-mouthed parent that wants to throw you under the bus for simply doing your job, a crap administration can really cause some gray hairs. It really takes the satisfaction and benefit out of something that is important to the majority of the students.

Sure, if you have a good administration - great! But if there's a bad one, it's bad. I hear the new principal at the high school I resigned from last May is great. I would have stayed on, but it was more important to stay home with my X-man.

This is rather accurate!

However, when or if I do go back to teaching, will it be better? Will there be more funding for supplies? Teaching art is great, but when you don't have the supplies, it is a real challenge. And that's putting it lightly. To make it worse, they were supposed to collect fees for supplies, but the incompetence at the time didn't follow up on that. But I digress. I know, I know. I need to think forward. These are just things that concern me and I worry about facing if I do have to go back to teaching eventually.

Next comes the "where" I would return to teaching. Will it be Wickenburg? We have been wanting to move there for some time. Chris's commute as it stands is just too much. I know I should be happy that we have the land in Wickenburg and it's a step in the right direction. We walked the land again yesterday and while I was happy to be reminded again that it is "ours", it just seems so out of reach to be able to start building and ending up where we need to be. It just feels like it's not going to happen. Then comes the feelings of "not pulling my weight" again in order to contribute financially and the frustration of not selling any artwork and how great it would be if it can take off and how much it'll help take us where we need to be. It's a vicious cycle.

And since I don't want to end on a "bummer" note, this is just awesome. I completely agree with this:

Back on the Blades

2012-01-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

When we were away on our Tri-State Christmas Family Tour, I really missed my roller blades. I finally found an exercise that I LOVE, so I was sad that i couldn't just take them with me and exercise like crazy while we were traveling (that would have been a feat in Wyoming in sub-zero temps, no sidewalks, icy roads, hills and snow banks).

That said, when I got back on them upon our return to hell, I mean Arizona, one of my worst fears were realized: gravity. However, it couldn't have happened a better way (well, it not happening at all would have been the better way, I know): A) The baby was not with me in the stroller, B) Christian was with me on his bike C) It was Chris's day off so he was home. All three of those were lucky occurrences.

While I love rollerblading, I can't really do it without the jogging stroller. It's a balance thing. Plus, I stop and slow down easier with the jogging stroller. This previous Monday (1-2), I rollerbladed with the the jogging stroller (sans Alexander) to Walgreens to get a couple things (the jogging stroller could hold the bag, in addition to giving me the balance I need) and Christian came along on his bike. Well, I didn't know that the front wheel on the jogging stroller had previously come off (that would have been important and useful information).

As we were coasting back home adjacent to the busy road, the front wheel of the stroller came off and I was suddenly on my butt and elbows, and yes, in pain. Not to mention, with it happening there on the sidewalk parallel to a busy street, I wonder how many cars whizzing by got the entertainment of Suburban Mom Biffs It On Side of Road.

What I probably looked like, just before biffing it.

No, scratch that. THIS is what I looked like as I was biffing it.

Christian returned on his bike after he realized that I wasn't behind him anymore. I can't remember if he asked me if I was okay or not, but he did get right to work fixing the wheel. Somehow, despite the pain I was in, my cell phone was in reach and I called Chris to come get us (aka scrape me off the pavement). I was in bad shape. Christian, being the gadget genuis, fixed that wheel right up and informed me that it came off a few weeks prior when they had a babysitter and she took the kids to the park. Yeah, that would have helped to know about at the time! Anyway, by the time Chris arrived, he and Christian were able to push the stroller and put in the truck, and I was promptly escorted home where there was a sofa and Ibuprofen.

My elbows were all scraped and bruised and my tailbone was not happy. I thought that was the extent of it, until I woke up the following morning. I found out the muscular pain and injuries were more than the tailbone and elbows. It went all around to my mid-section and down to the legs. I also found and felt bruises that I was not aware of previously.

What also wasn't fun from a purely superficial standpoint, was I weigh myself each day, and I had jumped up 3 pounds the morning after the accident. I knew it was from the muscle swelling and the water retention as a result, but a higher number on the scale is a higher number on a scale! That is even more troublesome, especially when you're coming off Christmas and a New Year's Eve party and having a helluva time getting the weight to go in the down direction again from a mere "Christmas Survival Maintenance".

I went to "officially" weigh in today and while I'm still sore, those three "injury" pounds were mostly gone. I described to Nicole, my consultant, what happened to me and showed her my elbows. She said, "you have got to the be the 5th client this week who has gotten hurt!" That may be, but mine isn't the result of a New Year's Resolution that I can bet the other chicks were. I started Rollerblading last Fall.

Anyway, I put the baby in the stroller today and rollerbladed up to the elementary school to pick Christian up. My legs still hurt and my tailbone voiced its displeasure, but it was certainly not as bad as the previous few days had been. Now let's see how long we go until the next biff.

But as you can see, I got back on the blades today and it turned out okay!

Yeah, if anyone for a moment thinks that's me, I suggest an eye appointment. I obviously DO NOT wear elbow pads, though I should.

But you weren't looking at her elbow pads, were you?

Christmas Isn't Over Yet...

2012-01-06T11:26:00.062-07:00

How do I know? Well, most of my decorations inside are put away, but the Nativity is still up. Also, the front yard still has our Nativity and two reindeer in the yard. Actually, the lights in the outside tree and the house are still up too.

Also, I finally got to see the pictures of the 8 grandkids (on my side) that were taken on Christmas Eve while we were staying with Aunt Becca in Wyoming.

And of course, if you have 8 kids from the ages of 8 months to 11 years, you won't get Anne Geddes perfection (unless of course, you are Anne Geddes). However, you will get accuracy and reality!

Awww.....Alexander is sad....

And My Goofballs.....

And her sparkly shoes!!

"And another thing..."

Framed Arizona Mesa Temple Circle Motif

2012-01-03T17:29:00.004-07:00

My father in law and step mother-in-law just sent me this picture of their framed Arizona Temple Circle Motif!

PART III Tri-State Winter Whirlwind....

2012-01-01T19:21:00.046-07:00

PART III: Our Winter Whirlwind Consisted of Birthdays, Babies, Bows (on presents) Boots, Blue (toes, noses, etc), Below Zero, and any other alliterative way to describe our Tri-state Winter trip!

I wish I could have completed our trip re-cap in the December entries, but when you return home late on the 29th, it's a miracle I even fit in the first two parts!

PART III - Utah Leg
We arrived in American Fork the evening of December 26th. It was sad to see such an absence of snow, as the same time of year, I recall seeing more of an abundance, but the area is still beautiful.

The kids' cousin Aubrey just returned from his mission to Germany, and we quickly went to the Pizza Pie Cafe in Highland with Chris's sister AnneMarie, and also cousins Maren and Carson Hatch. That place spells diet death, but if you're going to "mess up", that's the way to do it! The picture above is from the interior of that particular location. I meant to get a picture of it when Chris and I visited in March, so I made sure to get it this time. I want that sign for my kitchen.

The next day, 12/27, we met up with Chris's sister Susie, and went to the Salt Lake IKEA with her and all the female grandkids (Maren, Jacy Taylor, Hana Taylor, Megan Taylor, Mikelle). I think Christian and Alexander were the only boy cousins to go with them. It was "Kids Eat Free Tuesday", so it was a madhouse of an adventure in the IKEA restaurant. Still, those Swedish Meatballs are yuuu-uuumy.

I also realized that even know IKEA is addictive to me, when you have to consider the prospect of driving home 600 miles whatever you buy and wondering how you can put it in an already full car full of stuff, it's easy to resist!

Also, Wyoming did a number on our car. And we couldn't find a car wash in Wyoming to save our lives. Well, there was one in Evanston, but it wasn't working because they said someone drove through the door to the entrance. So our car was happy to get a wash after IKEA. As we are waiting, we saw this sign. What do you think I thought it said at first?
I don't blame them for not washing grandmas. That sounds like a huge liability issue.

I mentioned in PART II that there are 8 grand kids on my side of the family. On Chris's, there are 16 and Alexander is the youngest. Here is a few pictures of 12 of the 16 grand kids plus Mikkel's new bride Lise. Mikkel is the oldest of the 16 and kids hung out with him down in our neck of the woods last September, as mentioned in this entry. He just got a married a few days before this and he and Lise drove to Utah from Texas on their way to Rexburg Idaho to start their Spring semester of school. He is the one on the top with his arm around Lisa. Aubrey, who just returned from his mission, is the top right. And Nick's grin just cracks me up. (Nick is to the left of Lise and Mikkel).

And we got a smile out of Mikelle! (below)

Of course, AnneMarie, having her youngest (Maren) already in her teens was reminded of her baby days when Alexander went to town in her house. I don't think we caused any permanent damage (I hope). Here he is with his cousin Aubrey's "Welcome Home" balloon, and wreaking havoc on the upstairs Christmas tree.

With his Aunt Susie

The next day, December 28th, we were due to leave that evening. However, we were excited to see our niece and cousin Isabelle arrive from Texas, who was also stopping in American Fork before heading up to school in Rexburg Idaho, just like her brother Mikkel and new sister in law Lise.

We all went out to lunch at Zupas (yum!) and then afterwards, Chris, myself and the kids took a stop at the American Fork Cemetery to visit the kids' other Uncle Gary's resting place (Gary Hatch).

Uncle Gary's bench has the Christmas wreath next to it.

The back of the bench (below).

Alexander in front of the bench (below) of his middle namesake. We were still in the first trimester of his pregnancy when Uncle Gary passed away. We hadn't really announced his pregnancy yet, but we did so in a low key way when we went up to American Fork for his funeral in May 2010.

When we went back to AnneMarie's (well, Chris and the kids did first - I stayed at the cemetery and jogged/walked back. Any exercise that could be commenced during so many Holiday food indulgences is a good thing!) we met up again with Isabelle and as we were preparing to leave that night, we made sure to get pictures with Isabelle and the other cousins who were there. Alexander still had some trouble acclimating to so many new people, but he seemed to really take to Isabelle.

And here he is with his cousin Aubrey. Boy, Aubrey sure does look like his dad!

Christian (on Aubrey's lap), Alexander and Isabelle.

Left to Right....Maren Hatch, Carson Hatch, Aubrey Hatch (holding Alexander), Isabelle Deal, Mikelle and Christian.

After we packed the bulk of our stuff in the car, here we are chilling at dinner before hitting the road.

That night, we drove to Cedar City. We weren't about to do the whole 600 mile trip all night. We stayed the night in Cedar City and then headed home on the 29th. We said "bye bye" to the bulk of the snow once we headed out of the Cedar City area. There was a little bit on the mountains northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada and then Kingman, Arizona, but the evidence of snow on the ground was gone once the elevation diminished south of Cedar City.

One thing that was sad to me was whether in Idaho, Wyoming or Utah, I didn't see one falling snowflake. It is a such a peaceful and beautiful sight that I looked forward to, and yet the precipitation schedules didn't cooperate. Oh well. Not having any snowfall did make for some safer driving conditions.

That is our Family-Visit Winter Whirlwind Tour of 2011! Happy New Year, and here is to a brand new year!

Alexander's First Year!

2012-01-01T14:46:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create a gorgeous, high quality wedding photo album at Shutterfly.com.

PART II Tri-State Winter Whirlwind....

2011-12-31T09:55:00.033-07:00

PART II: Our Winter Whirlwind Consisted of Birthdays, Babies, Bows (on presents) Boots, Blue (toes, noses, etc), Below Zero, and any other alliterative way to describe our Tri-state Winter trip!

Christmas Eve Babies
There are 8 grandchildren on my side. Here are the 4 youngest. Earlier on Christmas Eve, official pictures were taken of all 8 of the grandkids, but those pictures are not ready yet. Stay tuned! Alexander is on the left, then Skylar who was born just a couple of weeks before he was, then Truper who is two, and then Caleb who is 8 months.

We read a Christmas story about the Nativity from Luke 2, and we had the kids act it out. That was quite interesting. I think at one point Alexander hit the baby Jesus doll with something. We did get it on video but we haven't viewed it yet.

Christmas Day 2011
Christmas morning the kids managed to wait until 6:30 to get up. It's a blur for me, but it consisted of a lot of wrapping paper flying around. It was a Sunday, so we then got ready to go to the one hour Sacrament meeting down the road in Etna.

Alexander was quite handsome if I do say so myself!

After church on the way home, we stopped to be "touristy". I am not happy how blurry these pictures look. Something must have gotten on the lens. It was still below zero too.

Here is Mikelle, Christian and their cousin Garon:

Other Star Valley sites that day:

Down to Utah 12/26/11
The next day, we did another caravan with Becca and Gary and their litter (kidding Becca, you know I'm just playing) from Star Valley down to Utah.

We would have gotten out of places much quicker if Chris didn't park himself inside Maverick and Chevron convenient stores and take forever to come out. (this is how I'll know if Chris ever reads my blog) Seriously, Chris needs someone behind him with a whip to keep it moving when he goes into those places (Lara: if you're reading this, this was the kind of thing that made it so we didn't make it Vegas in a timely manner when we were meeting up with you and Joel). After 17 years, you'd think I'd be used to it, but when you're on vacation with three kids, and are also carvanning with others and don't want to hold them up, it is quite irritating. Therefore, patience isn't quite there anymore.

Afton, Wyoming. This is where Gary works.

I was excited for the roadtrip adventure, but a little sad of how ugly some parts of the way were. I didn't expect that. Sure, it was all snowy, but the southwestern corner of Wyoming was so "blah". I didn't expect that. But anyway, backing up, the route was confusing to Mikelle. We go into Idaho for a bit, then back into Wyoming, then into Utah for a bit, then back into Wyoming before you hit I-80 in Evanston (yuck, by the way) and then go back into Utah permanently.

After Evanston, Becca and Gary went onto their Utah destination and we headed to American Fork for the Henrichsen side of our family-visit tour!

Stay tuned for Part 3!

PART I Tri-State Winter Whirlwind....

2011-12-30T18:55:00.036-07:00

Our Winter Whirlwind Consisted of Birthdays, Babies, Bows (on presents) Boots, Blue (toes, noses, etc), Below Zero, and any other alliterative way to describe our Tri-state Winter trip!

Alexander's Birthday 12-22-11
Mom and Alexander flew to Idaho Falls on his birthday, 12/22/11. We met up with Dad, Christian and Mikelle in Rexburg and celebrated Alexander's birthday at Pizza Pie Cafe! Then we went back to Grammy's house in Rexburg for cake. It was cold, but it is refreshing to have a white and cold December!

Birthday Boy At Pizza Pie Cafe
December 22, 2011
(Yes, that's a U of A jacket. Yes, Chris and I went to ASU. The jacket was nicely lent to us, and

we appreciate the gesture, so who cares that it's a U of A jacket!)

Birthday Boy At Pizza Pie Cafe. Is he the cutest in that winter hat or what?!

Alexander and his cousin Brisa

Birthday Cake for everyone else...

Alexander's First Birthday Cake - Still intact!

Birthday Boy, all stripped Down, ready to tackle that cake!

And Bye Bye Cake, Hello Bathtub!!!

That same night, we did a caravan with Becca's family from Rexburg about an hour and half east to where they live in Star Valley Ranch, Wyoming.

Jackson Hole and the Tetons 12-23-11
If it was cold in Idaho, it was colder in Wyoming. Below zero was a norm, and I don't remember it being two digits above zero. Still, on 12/23 we had fun heading up to Jackson ( I saw a Blad Eagle in the sky on the way up!) and seeing the Grand Tetons. Sure, it would have been nice if the sun wasn't so intense, but the sun likes to follow me around like that intense spotlight cops use for interrogations.

All of Us - Chris was taking the picture

All of Us - For Real!

After the Tetons, we saw some real buffalos on the side of the road, and then headed to Jackson to mess around. The guys took Mikelle, Christian, Garon and Brisa to see the movie Tin Tin. Becca and I got eyebrow and lip waxes only to find that Grammy disappeared from the parking lot. I actually didn't feel that cold as we looked around the Smiths Parking lot, but that wore off quickly. Maybe it was my bare lip realizing the fur was gone. Who knows.

Then after she and I got Grammy back with our three kids that were with her, we headed back to Star Valley.

Stay tuned for Part B!

Winter Solstice Means Birthday Time!

2011-12-21T14:38:00.014-07:00

...for AleXander! It makes me cry that an entire year has passed. He will be one year old TOMORROW, 12/22/11. This picture to the left was taken today. I caught him mid-step before he yanked the hat off his head. Too adorable, I'd say!

Even though his birthday isn't until tomorrow and that is also when most of the celebration will take place, last night he did open one present early. Technically, it was from Mikelle. And so far, he really likes it! (and also, in the future, we will NOT use Christmas paper for his birthday presents. This year we figured he wouldn't mind....This year is the "trial run")

BIRTHDAY TREE
This is also our first annual "Birthday Tree". I always wanted to do more than one Christmas tree, and Alexander's birthday is such a wonderful reason. The irony though, is the birthday tree was our "only" tree this year, due to his intense mobility. Sure, he still will be into everything a year from now, but he'll understand better about "not touching" at age almost 2, then he does now (though I'm sure we'll still be challenged by him! lol). Nevertheless, our large tree will come back out next year.

There is a tiger ornament on there because he was born the Year of the Tiger. I also saw a cute Cupcake ornament and had to make it part of the tree as it had that birthday "feel" to it. Mikelle and Christian made some fun little crafty ornaments too. I love the idea also of having two trees, because the birthday tree can have all kinds of ornaments and colors on there, and the big tree can keep the blue, silver and white theme.

Well, Alexander has come up with a new way to get my attention: Take off all his clothes including his diaper. Therefore, it's time to step away and deal with silly goofball tiger boy.

Second Time is the Charm!

2011-12-17T09:17:00.013-07:00

Last week (or something like that), the improved Gilbert Temple Motif was completed. This is one of the available prints.

New motifs for the New Year:

Moon Motif (similar to the one in the original Sun, Moon, Stars Motif currently available at Sundust Gallery)

Phoenix/Peoria AZ Temple

Gila Valley AZ Temple

And Speaking of "Second Time", here is the other Santa Picture from 12/5. Mikelle didn't dress to coordinate because she told me she didn't want anything to do with the Santa picture. If you recall to this entry a year ago, just having her get in for that really took some doing. However, this time around, Santa's helpers really laid it on thick and talked Mikelle into getting into the picture. And yes, that's Alexander's shoe falling off. However, his smile makes shoes unnecessary.

Ages 11, 7 1/2+, and 11 1/2 months

Why "Circle" Motifs?

2011-12-14T21:14:00.018-07:00

I'm frequently asked Why Circles? Good question. Since as long as I can remember, I've always loved to draw and always been a doodler. No matter how much I enjoy painting with watercolor, acrylic, glazes on ceramics, and creating with other fun art mediums, I always come back to drawing.

Last March, about a month after I returned from maternity leave, I presented a project to my Basic Drawing Classes on Mandalas. At first, it was just another class art project that had plenty of history, multicultural and geographical integration. To make a long story short, the students were assigned 3 different types of Mandalas which pushed them to try different techniques while having plenty of artistic license.

This link is another good one about Mandalas.

However, through our Mandala Unit, I discovered that my usual "doodling" and drawing really took a different turn when I put them into the circular shape. It especially took hold when I was showing one of my students a fun way to use pen and ink in one of their "free design" Mandalas. I also showed them this YouTube in addition to my demonstrations. I soon found myself addicted to using the circles.

I never thought it would take me to where I am in just a short amount of time, but here we are!

The Mandalas on this entry are from March-May when I began using the circles.

Tuck the Traveling Turtle and Framed Flemish Favors

2011-12-10T17:36:00.007-07:00

Okay, the second part of this title isn't technically Flemish. It's actually Dutch, but Dutch doesn't go alliteratively with "framed".

Tuck the Traveling Turtle
Anyway, back to the Traveling Turtle. Friday, Christian brought home Tuck the Traveling Turtle from school. Tuck is a stuffed animal that comes home for the weekend with different students in Christian's class. This time it was Christian's turn! During the weekend, the student writes down what they did together in a journal that came home with Tuck and even add a picture. What is also funny, is we have the exact same turtle. It was given to Alexander when he was born! We added these two pictures to the journal. Tuck is the one with the red and white Arizona Diamondbacks shirt. It's a good thing, because otherwise, we wouldn't be able to tell these two twins apart.

Therefore, here is one of Christian's entries:
Friday December 9, 2011
I've got good news. Right now Tuck has an identical twin! Now Tuck can have fun even if no one is around.

Tuck is going to have fun this weekend with his friends! (his twin and Christian!)

Alexander, our Turtle, Tuck the Turtle and Christian

Framed Flemish Favors
As for the Framed "Dutch" Favors, here is an example of one of the locale Circle Motifs beautifully framed! This one is of the Holland Tribute:

Alexander's First Time Seeing Santa

2011-12-07T23:05:00.009-07:00

Even though this won't officially be Alexander's first Christmas, being that he was 3 days old for his first one, this passed Monday was his first experience seeing Santa Claus. He sat on his lap with his big brother Christian (who will be 8 in March).

Mikelle, being 11, didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, so I didn't insist she coordinate her clothing for the picture. However, the Santa's Helpers did talk her into getting into a picture. I have gone online to order that particular picture, but I bought this one first because it captures the first time Alexander saw Santa Claus.

He was a little hesitant, as in the last couple of weeks, Alexander hasn't gone to other people as easily as he did before. However, he noticed Santa's beard and really focused and studied it.

After Santa hung out with the boys for a bit and talked to Christian, Christian wrote a letter to Santa (to put in the mailbox there). I took a picture with the cell phone, so it doesn't show up very well.

His list said he forgot to mention a few things he wanted for Christmas:

1) Ink Cartridges - color and black and white 2)A Wi-Fi network that will hook up to the whole internet 3) An Electric Scooter 4) A DSI with 10 cartridges.

If Christian's letter to Santa isn't amazing enough, today he got out a screwdriver and fixed the baby proofing latches on the kitchen cupboards (I DID NOT ask him to do this). The ones from when Christian was a roaming toddler (and the term roaming really means pillaging and destroying) have long been broken off and ineffective. Christian got a screwdriver, changed them out for new latches that were sitting in the package. This kid is 7!!!

First Version....now onto the NEXT one

2011-12-05T12:01:00.003-07:00

Well, I finished the Gilbert Temple Circle Motif, but it just isn't right. I already started a new one for the Gilbert Temple.

The temps around here have been perfect for winter time! Yesterday is barely cracked the mid-50s and the day before was the same with winter rain. And luckily, it's going to stay in the 50s and 60s this week!

Sadly, despite the seasonal weather, it's not so seasonal inside. No Christmas decorations are up. Part of it is AleXander is so very mobile. It's already been difficult with the "usual" things. He is one curious and determined little guy! Therefore, the big tree won't be going up this year.

However, we won't be tree-less. Because he was born on 12/22 we're starting a tradition of having a small "birthday" tree. It's a 4-ft tree that we put in the office/den. I know, why there? Well, that's the room blocked by the baby gate. The office needs to straightening up so it's not so office-like in it's clutter. Having the festivity in the room is certainly a lot of motivation to get the office to a more worthy appearance for the little birthday tree!

In the meantime, stand-by for the improved Gilbert Temple motif, and hopefully around here we'll have a much happier looking office!

Clever, but NO.

2011-11-30T14:04:00.005-07:00

Monday I received this e-mail from Mikelle (I let her have her own e-mail account, that I monitor):

ok mom, i should have a phone because if there is an emegency i can call you as soon as possible. plus when i am babysitting i can call if i need help. you can also call and check on me just to make sure everything is ok. also, i can be texting my friends and playing games instead of fighting with my siblings or bugging you. now since this would be a good choice i suggest you do it.

Cute, but no. Maybe high school. And that's a BIG maybe.

Part of my issue is being a teacher for four years, I am sick to death of kids breaking the rules with cell phones and the whole "entitlement" attitude that came with it. What was worse, was the way the parents acted when their precious little Kendra or Kenny had their phone taken away (gee, thanks for the help with the "entitlement" attitude, helicopter parents!). And don't expect administration to actually follow through on the SCHOOL RULES (gee, thanks for the help with the "entitlement" attitude, so-called "administrators"!).

I fantasized about putting all their phones in a big box and running over it with a semi.

I longed for the days before cell phones. We all survived. Mikelle will too. You can call me a mean mom, but it's my blog.

(and in interest of full disclosure, yes I have a cell phone. But I fought it and didn't get one until I had Mikelle. I was in school 30-40 miles away, so that's why I got it. But if cell phones went bye bye forever, I wouldn't lose my marbles like so many other people would.)

How to Cook a Turkey

2011-11-28T18:46:00.015-07:00

Christian brought home his school papers last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. However, I didn't notice this in his folder until today. I was laughing at his thought process. This is the kind of thing you keep forever and I can't wait to show it to his fiance and children.

I love how you can use a knife or "bone arrow" to kill the turkey. However, you take the feathers off the turkey before you kill it. I know the whole thing speaks of torture to a poor turkey, but how can you not laugh?!

And the temperature on the oven at 95 degrees and only cooking for 20 minutes? That's nothing. I would cook and prepare the turkey (not the killing and de-feathering) if that was the case.

With the pictures, I was following until I saw the "ink" part. What was that for? Mikelle said, "The ink and feathers go together." You know, like the old fashioned ink and feather plume?

LOL!

This year, not only am I thankful that the turkey is already dead and de-feathered by the time we buy it, but we continued our family tradition of ordering the dinner already cooked by the grocery store (because it's usually just our family since all our immediate family members abandoned us - I mean, "moved away" 5+ years ago). The prepared meal came with yummy stuffing and amazing mashed potatoes and gravy. It takes about 2 hours to prepare everything (warm up, etc), but it's so much nicer than slaving for hours cooking a turkey from its frozen de-feathered state.

I Think I'm In Love with Shutterfly!

2011-11-27T22:27:00.004-07:00

Our Very Merry Moments Christmas Card

Alexander Walking

2011-11-27T18:50:00.002-07:00

Alexander started officially walking the day he turned 11 months on November 22nd. And strangely enough, he did it within an hour of his birth time. Mikelle took a cute video of him doing that on Thanksgiving, but here is one from this morning (Sunday November 27th). Since videos don't like to upload properly here, here is a public link of it on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150415235949568&set=vb.763629567&type=2&theater

Festival Photos, Tornadoes, Tears and Turkey!

2011-11-23T21:10:00.023-07:00

How's that for a weird combination?! First of all, in honor of the new Muppet movie starting today and Thanksgiving tomorrow, see image to the left. :-)

Onto the festival. It was quite the experience and I hope enough people that took one of my postcards and saw my array of prints are interested enough to return to Sundust Gallery or contact me. As for selling things on the spot at the festival, that wasn't very successful at all. I wasn't the only artisan who had little to no success. I can accept that. However, what I have a hard time accepting is the gust of wind that took the glass out of my London-Paris-New York Triptych:

Pictured Pre-Wind

Therefore, this triptych is not available inside Sundust yet because it's having the glass fixed.

Then, if that wasn't enough, a second gust of wind blew this (below) down and broke the frame. I put an 8x8 Sun print in a 12x12 frame for display purposes and the second gust of wind took that out. The print survived.

Pictured while the frame was still intact.

I will admit that the wind damage is what kind of pushed me from being strong about the little success to all out exhaustion and visible frustration. It was something like an "Injury to Insult" situation. Okay, I didn't really sell much and traffic was slow. Okay. That happens. But the gust of wind to destroy stuff? Seriously?

Other Festival Pictures:

Sundust Gallery pictured from Main Street

One of my large Circle Motifs in the window:

My Largest Circle Motif at my booth. The second gust of wind that killed my Sun frame did knock this over, but thankfully it was saved:

My Sun Motif poster:

My other work inside Sundust:

Luckily, preparing for the festival had me gather up an inventory of prints to provide to the basement outlet at Sundust.

Tornado Boy
You would think the gusts of wind from the festival was the "tornado" part of this entry. Actually, that had nothing to do with it, but it does make for an interested segway.

I've often referred to Christian as my "Tornado Boy". So who would have thought that my Tornado Boy would have to dress like a "Tornado" for the 2nd Grade Weather Show yesterday! His whole class was all "windblown" in appearance and had leaves put in their hair! Other 2nd Grade classes represented other conditions like sunglasses for sunny weather, warm scarves and hats for cold weather, etc.

Tears
Yessterday didn't only mark Christian's tornado experience, but also AleXander turned 11 months. And it was also the day he officially walked. Sure, for the last little while he's taken 1-2 pseudo steps. But yesterday he took 10 consecutive steps. Yes, I cried.

Holland Motif and Family Pictures 2011

2011-11-17T18:18:00.017-07:00

The SunDust Arts Festival is this weekend! I'm nervous but excited! I have a new Circle Motif to add to the prints I hope to sell. This print (left) is more personal, but I have no problem spreading the Dutch joy! After Christmas, I'll add more details/explanations behind this particular Circle Motif. The original may stay with me for a bit, and I may make a second Dutch Circle Motif and have them framed together for the gallery. Any prints that don't sell at the festival (this one or other motif prints) will go in the gallery's outlet.

Family Picture 2011
About two weeks ago, we had our yearly family picture taken. This time was special because it was the first official family picture with our X-man! I am still struggling with weight loss (in this picture, I had made it to the "20 pounds lost" mark, with about 20 still to go), but I wasn't going to postpone the picture any longer. This weight loss project is s l o w, but it is happening. Slowly.

Anyway, along with AleXander's inclusion, it was important we have the photos taken because it was just a few days away from our anniversary (17th!) and it's a bit of a tradition to have family pictures taken around our anniversary. Also, since our anniversary is in November, it's great timing for Christmas cards and if we give any pictures for gifts.

I love this image of AleXander. He is so adorable, I can just eat him up!

The Three Goofballs!

Mikelle (growing up too fast!)

Christian (can you believe he'll be EIGHT in a few months?!)

LOVE THIS ONE! And AleXander is already "toying" with walking. I think we've seen two steps so far....

Technical Difficulties

2011-11-15T19:35:00.004-07:00

...So our main computer has a problem that we haven't been able to diagnose yet. Let's just say uploading pictures (anywhere, but especially here and Facebook) is impossible and it runs slower than if it was 1995 on a dial-up connection.

I'll be updating with pictures of the latest Circle Motif and a preview of our family pictures, but it has to be done with some extra steps (because the pictures are on the main computer and I have to upload them from the second one) in order to keep the blog up to date.

Arizona (Mesa) Temple Circle Motif

2011-11-07T15:51:00.008-07:00

I finished the Arizona (Mesa) Temple Circle Motif! I don't think I'l be putting this in Sundust's Outlet portion of the Gallery (downstairs, below the main gallery) - at least not yet. I want my art to reach a huge demographic, and by adding this one, it would narrow the field down. We'll see what the future holds.

I do need to get some smaller pieces in the outlet, however. I only have the 5 large ones in the main gallery, and for those that like my work but cannot afford the larger pieces, the smaller ones in the outlet would be a perfect alternative for them. That is my goal by the end of November! Build up my Outlet rack of prints and a few small originals.

This is actually my second Mesa Temple Motif. I added a lot of the bricks on the first one and I wasn't happy with how it turned out. Therefore, I then decided to do another one. I'm much happier with the results of this one.

This image below helps give an idea of size. The original is about 10in x 10in. I'm offering 10x10 prints for $25 and 12x12 prints for $32. The prints won't have the digital copyright images of course.

AleXander tried to yank the picture away just as I was taking it. He's pretty fast - especially since my camera isn't very cooperative and it wants to "think" about taking a picture even though I asked it to.

New Page on Facebook: Circle Motifs by Jill Henrichsen

2011-11-03T11:50:00.008-07:00

I have launched a Facebook Page (<--click here!) focused on my Circle Motif art! Please head on over and "like" my page! Along with this entry, once at the Facebook, there is also a link there to the web gallery where my work is currently available at Sundust Gallery. (<--click here to see where my work is available at Sundust Gallery!)

"All Hallows Eve" 2011

2011-11-01T21:45:00.017-07:00

It's now November 1st and it would be REALLY NICE if Summer could end. Actually, in a couple of days it looks like it might be over for good. They're predicting highs in the 60s by Saturday. Now that's what I'm talking about!

Halloween
Another "first" for AleXander has now passed. He had his first official Halloween and he was a big hit as the cutest caveman. At one time, he drew a crowd because he was dancing (bending his knees and going up and down) to the music as he held on to a hay bail. I wish I had the video camera for that moment. It was adorable!

He's not walking yet, but we're right on the cusp! I saw a couple attempted/pseudo steps today. It's happening. No matter how sad I am to see my little baby turn into a walking toddler, it's happening!
His Aunt Becca made cute furry shoe covers, however the shoes themselves wouldn't stay on. This kid's feet are an enigma. Shoes are either too small or they won't stay on!

Something scary on Halloween (frightening if you look at the picture up close - far away it's fine...)

Earlier that day, here is Mikelle in her 2011 edition custom painted Halloween Jeans. It is tragic that kids aren't allowed to wear their costumes to school on Halloween anymore. That was such a big part of our memories as kids. The 21st Century has really brought on the trend in funsuckery! Therefore, to keep the spirit of Halloween alive int he classrooms, Mikelle and I have painted Halloween jeans *almost* every year.

Rear View:

And here she is in her Button Ensemble:

Button Girl with an Attitude:

Of course we cannot forget our other Cutie Caveman!

Protect your brother!

Earlier that evening...our X-man was ready to party!

Since this entry is pretty random in order of photos and captions, here are some recent Facebook entries of mine to wrap up the Halloween theme:

Saturday October 29, 2011:
Watched some of "Zombies: A Living History" on the History Channel. Interesting historical stuff, but laughing at the ominous narration of what really could happen. But I did have to change the channel after awhile. I got a little creeped out.

Sunday October 30, 2011:
You know you love your kids when your 7yo announces to you at 7pm on Sunday night that he needs a pumpkin for school tomorrow and you take the evening tour with him around your town (and a little into the neighboring county) to every grocery store in order to find one.

Today, November 1, 2011:
AleXander doesn't "explore" different parts of the house on his own that much. He wants to be near me. However, this time he disappeared for longer than usual. I quickly found out his motivation - the Halloween candy on Mikelle's bed. lol

And this is just awesome. A doggie costume as an Imperial Walker! I've got to get me one of these! (a Greyhound AND that costume!)

Halloween B.C.

2011-10-30T22:52:00.013-07:00

Tomorrow is Halloween! Yay! One of my favorite holidays EVER! It's also a special one because it's AleXander's FIRST. The kids wore their costumes the other night at a ward Trunk or Treat. I was grateful for the pre-Halloween event because it helped reveal any kinks in the costumes that could be remedied by tomorrow. Here is AleXander in his Caveman outfit. I've avoided trimming or having his hair cut so it could be all messy for the festivities.

I wanted to let Christian's hair grow out too, but it doesn't really grow "down". It's more coarse and grows "out". About two weeks ago, I couldn't stand it anymore and I had it cut. Hey, I love Halloween, but I'm also impatient! He looked adorable anyway!

LOVE Christian's face and X-man's hair in this shot!

More Primitive Poses....

Where is Mikelle in all this? I haven't forgotten her. She just rebelled against the Barbaric theme, so for this entry, she had to wait until I was done with the cavemen. Actually, the good picture I took of her in her costume turned out to be out of focus, because my nighttime eyesight is horrible (when the picture was taken) and I didn't realize the camera wasn't on auto focus! Ugh! Therefore, she'll get a really good (focused) picture taken tomorrow night. In the meantime, here she is with her brothers:

And because he's just too cute, here is more of X-man to close this Halloween preview.

More Halloween fun to come in the next entry! Happy Spooking!

Catching Up With October

2011-10-26T13:11:00.030-07:00

Dang…I got way behind! So much has been going on this month! I’ll try to bring things up to speed.

I am about to bring a new Circle Motif (below) to SunDust and a new Triptych is currently being matted and readied for the gallery (also below). None of the motifs have sold yet, but I hear they make quite an impression to those that come in the gallery.

Sorry about the Copyright C's. You can't trust anyone!

And here is the Triptych currently being matted (in a vertical frame with three separate circular mattes). It's Paris-London-New York theme. The times on the clock are not significant, but the times are in synch with the time zones for each city.

While the kids were on Fall Break, their cousin Mikkel came to town. We had Chinese with him and a buddy of his. Mikkel is the oldest cousin on the Henrichsen side and AleXander is the youngest! The pictures are not the best, We took these with the back-up camera and apparently it was on a less than stellar setting.

During the kids’ second week of Fall break, Chris was working crazy long hours which occurs bi-annually. I’m never happy with the October one because it hits while the kids are on Fall break. At least when it hits again in April, the kids are in school (Spring Break is in March). This time was even more difficult, because the week before, Chris was sent to Orlando, Florida. I told him to not let them send him on a trip right before the week of the insanity ever again. However, I just loved the Thing 3 T-shirt Chris brought back from there for AleXander.

Therefore, with Chris being mostly MIA, the 3 kids and I went on a little escape. My friend Billie from student housing days lives in St. David with her family. St. David is in Southeast Arizona near Tombstone. We crashed her place and spent one day at Tombstone and the next day in Bisbee. Bisbee is a fun artsy little town and I would love to go back. Tombstone was fun as well. We need to go back and see the actual O.K. Corral and do the touristy tour part of it. That is one thing we didn’t get to on our little trip.

Here is Alexander enjoying Fred the Snake in Tombstone:

Mikelle and Christian, near the O.K. Corral.

Hilarious sign in Tombstone that I couldn't help but photograph. I just loved sharing kisses with this Military Macaw (Tombstone)

Petting Zoo at Tombstone

Alexander turned 10 months 4 days ago! I’m relieved he hasn't started walking yet. The way he was going with the pulling up on things and standing (by 7 months) I thought for sure he would be walking by now. Thankfully, he hasn’t. I’d like to see him wait until 11 months, but if it happens before then, it’s not too terrible. But still, he’s my baby and he’s in such a hurry to grow up! (cry)

10/22/11 10 Months Old!

Chris and I went to a Halloween party the other night. We decided to go as Hippies and we brought Granola. I don't think many got the Granola connection with the treat we brought, but oh well!

Road Trip and "Official" 9 Month Pictures

2011-10-01T15:20:00.034-07:00

This week has been quite eventful. First of all, AleXander and I accompanied Daddy on a business trip. Where, might you ask? The beautiful beach? A mountain resort? Sadly, no.

Primm, Nevada.

Where in the hell is that?!

Primm is on I-15 on the Nevada/California border. It's about a 1/2 hour SW of Las Vegas.

We stayed at one of the three hotels there on the surface of the moon - I mean in Primm. No, I'm not complaining. Really, I'm not. I've just realized that yes, I might live in what I call hell, but it's not the center of hell. There is at least vegetation and some color and scenic views in the Phoenix area. Not so in Las Vegas or Primm. Therefore, I live in hell's outer rim. However, even though Vegas and Primm is uglier it's still a few degrees cooler than here. Go figure.

It was an adventure in our typical hotel room with a baby. Yes, he fell off of that bed too. He is a quick and determined lil' guy! Christian was too, but falling off beds wasn't his issue. However, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, we arrived in the late evening and we met Chris's friends from work at Hofbräuhaus. AleXander quickly woke up from being in a car for hours to a lot of noise of people having a good time and a band playing just feet away. Here he is with a mini-stein. (Hey, there is nothing in it! The table next to us gave it to him because they thought he was so cute!)

Mom and her X-man
(he's looking at the band)

Who says Vegas is just for Grown-Ups?

The next day was marked with more Primm stuff (not much you can do there if you don't drink or gamble, but there is an outlet mall there). Here is AleXander exploring the room's bathroom. Notice how clean it was at first.

The aftermath (yes, we cleaned it up)

Of course, you have to get to know the room's A/C unit:

On Tuesday, we decided to drive home from Primm instead of going through Vegas. I'm so sick of the road between Vegas and Kingman. Well, while it was different doing the NV-CA-NV-CA-AZ way home, we discovered that you don't want to be on I-40 between Needles and Kingman right now. The interstate is supposed to be the fastest way, but not when they're doing construction and it's all down to one lane.

However, the craziest thing that happened was on the way home in Wikieup. If you don't know where Wikieup is, it's on 93 about an hour north of Wickenburg.

(this is a good map, though I don't know anything about Dazzo's Restaurant)

It's pretty much one of those towns in the middle of nowhere and only has a few houses, gas stations and dive restaurants. Coming home, and trying to make it home quicker than we were accomplishing, we stopped there and I had to make a bottle for my X-man. I come out of the bathroom and a young lady is standing there. She askes, "Do you remember me?" Well, she looked familiar, but it was out of context (I mean, this was Wikieup, AZ!) and I felt like an idiot not knowing her. She said she was one of my students at Heartland. (In Coolidge, well over a hundred miles away, probably 200 miles away). Her name was familiar, and it all started to come back to me. 4 years ago (2007-2008 school year), she was one of my 8th graders. I began to remember more about her and that class.

It's so crazy how it's a small world sometimes. I also feel bad for not remembering her at first, but that's what happens when you have hundreds of students per school year. It was fun reminiscing for a few minutes. I wanted to stay longer and talk, but we were already behind schedule returning home (we still had a good 2 hours to go) and relieving our friends who adopted Christian and Mikelle for those three days. If we already lived in Wickenburg, we would have cut off an hour and a half getting home! haha

Official 9 Month Pictures

2 days before AleXander turned 9 months, we had his official pictures taken. We already knew he was adorable, but just in case you didn't think he could get any cuter, check these out!

Nine Months Already!

2011-09-23T11:36:00.016-07:00

Yesterday AleXander turned 9 Months. He's now been around as long as I was pregnant. I swear the pregnancy lasted longer because it wasn't nearly as pleasant. SLOW DOWN X-MAN! Stop using your Growth Accelerator Powers! He's also cut his teeth (bottom two) way earlier than his brother and sister. Sure, he cut his teeth when other babies do, but way early in this household. Mikelle was 12 months and Christian was 11 months.

He's now into EVERYTHING. Childproofing is a must. In some cases, we have to childproof what we childproofed. I was also worried his early standing skills would yield walking by now. Thank goodness that hasn't happened. He can't even stand alone yet. Let's hope he continues that trend!

Last week Papa and Grandma Georgia came in for a two day visit. They went to Mikelle's school to have lunch with her on one day and Christian the next. The night before, we went to San Tan Flat for dinner. This is where we took the pictures below. I love the "goofy" picture, because even AleXander participated!

And Mikelle and AleXander:

Mikelle, Christian and AleXander:
(11 years, 7 1/2 years, almost 9 months)

I love this picture of my X-man because he looks so much like his brother!

I finished another large Circle Motif for SunDust Gallery. When I took it in to the framing spot to get matted today I realized I made this one too large for the frame size I use! When I was completing this motif, it felt as if this particular circle felt more challenging when I did it. However, I thought it was just because I only had one contact lens in the last couple of days and my eyesight was really paying the price. But no, it's because I measured the circle wrong (and yes, my eyesight was cranky the last couple of days). This just means I have to buy a larger frame for the matte they cut. Therefore, it means I have to watch the frame sales again. Oh well.

Circle Motifs at SunDust Gallery

2011-09-15T14:55:00.010-07:00

This week I dropped off my first four pieces at SunDust Gallery in Downtown Mesa. I didn't expect to make it into a gallery so soon! Therefore, I am quite excited and having a hard time believing it's happening! While I love color, and love using watercolors and acrylic paint, these pieces deal primarily with pen and ink motifs on paper of various designs. My official artist statement pertaining to these specific methods and medium is:

A fun way to describe the approach to this particular type of artwork would be “Doodles on Steroids”. However, there is certainly more meaning behind the designs than random doodles. I am attracted to the realism of certain objects, but I cannot stop there as I’m pulled towards the various ways to explore different arrangements, shape and value and “tweak” otherwise simple and mundane things into whimsical combinations with various rhythms and some repetition to give unity to the composition. Taking this approach with these arrangements, I also experiment with some color, while leaving the black and white dominance. I do attempt to plan out some designs, but then they ultimately prove to have a mind of their own and take off into other directions. I am always surprised at the end result, because it is never what I envisioned when I began.

The other large circular motif, followed by the "triptych":

Details of the Triptych:

Two more large circular motifs (like the first three) are currently in the works!

“Christian, for one, welcomes our future computer overlords."

2011-09-03T15:06:00.009-07:00

Yesterday in his second grade class, Christian had a worksheet about a story of a "Big Hog's House". He answered the questions about the story and the last question was: "On the back of this paper, write a paragraph about your home."

This is what he wrote (I won't include spelling and grammar errors):

My home has 2 computers and both have different kinds of Windows. 1 Computer has Windows Vista and the other computer has Windows 7 and a network that is wi-fi (wireless) and ethernet (local - has a wire) in the second one.

If robots ever take over the world and the human race become slaves and subservient to the robots, Christian will be one of the reasons why.

Head-Bonks

I am quite concerned for AleXander. When babies become mobile, it's normal for them to fall, and occasionally "bonk". But my X-man is constantly hitting his head. This is yesterday's goose egg. Normally, I don't plop him in front of Baby Einstein where he becomes hypnotized, but I am tempted to do it often because it means he'll remain still and won't constantly be on the move to get hurt! If you click on the link below and watch the video on Facebook, you can see why I may be tempted to use the Baby Einstein tool often for his own protection!

Baby Einstein Hypnosis (from July - about 6/7 months) on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jill.henrichsen#!/video/video.php?v=10150254798559568

And lastly...

To the older lady at JoAnn today: Yes, I know how to take care of my baby. You may not believe in the 5-second rule when they drop their bottle but this is my third kid, I'm 36 years old and I do not need you to critique my parenting. Besides, I was busy looking at the Halloween patterns! Halloween is a sacred holiday and I was trying to figure out my baby's costume. The 5-second rule applies in these matterns. Thank You.

This has been a Jill Public Service Announcement.

8 Months and Turbo Crawling and Standing!

2011-08-25T10:52:00.003-07:00

This little show-off turned 8 months old earlier this week! I wish he would slow down in how quickly he's progressed in crawling and now standing. He's my baby!

August

2011-08-19T20:21:00.014-07:00

OMG...I know I'm being the evil mean mom. But it's been a long day.

Christian, YOU DO NOT NEED TO MAKE A POSTER TO KEEP CATS OUT OF YOUR ROOM. We have no cats. No cats have come in the house. And even if they did, they wouldn't read your poster. And even if they could read it, they wouldn't care. THEY'RE CATS.

Okay, I got that off my chest.

Today is Chris's 41st birthday. Money is tight. I wanted to go out to dinner, but that wasn't a good idea. Therefore, we grabbed some "Hot n Ready" pizzas from Little Caesars, made a cake and we presented Chris with this funny T-shirt:

And thanks to the Kohls clearance rack and a "save $10 on $30 purchase" coupon, I helped dress him with some classy tops.

Mikelle had an enjoyable birthday 12 days ago:

And it's clear we're celebrating a "Summer in Hell" birthday, just based on AleXander not needing clothes (as pictured with his goofball sister). And by the way, I had NOTHING to do with the cake. Christian and Mikelle insisted on making it themselves. If you think that one is um, interesting, you should have seen the one they made for their dad today. Hence the first picture on this blog entry.

11 Years Ago Today...

2011-08-07T17:54:00.027-07:00

This tiny beauty came into our lives. She had dark blond hair and quickly went from tiny newborn to pudgy cutie who had no problem moving along in life. Her independence and strong spirit was evident.

When she was 5, she started sprouting Henrichsen-side freckles.

She received the gift of blue eyes from both her grandmothers.

She grew before our eyes and she was not to be stopped.

Now she's a gorgeous tall young woman.

Happy Birthday Mikelle!

Brief Trip Out of the Oven....Part II

2011-08-06T13:23:00.018-07:00

...(continued from Part I) Continuing with the trip re-cap, on Monday August 1st, AleXander and I went to Yaquina Head Lighthouse north of Newport. It is such a beautiful place! Christian and I went there too in June 2009 when he and I were there. The weather was so beautiful - a little too sunny for my taste, but the air temperature was perfect. It was also breezy.

View from back of the lighthouse.

AleXander and I next to the lighthouse. Can't you tell?

After we left Yaquina Head, we headed down to the market area in Newport where Papa, Grandma Georgia and the rest of the group was and we went to Mo's! YUM! And afterwards, right next to the restaurant, we watched a guy catch a very large crab! Cool!

Mmmmm......Shark!

The next day 8/2, around dinnertime, we all went down the beach for hot dogs and S'mores. YUM! The sun was intense. AleXander borrowed Mackenzie's hat. I love the beach. I love Oregon. I love the climate. I'm not a fan of sand. AleXander sure enjoyed it though. Thank goodness for Grandma Georgia's bathtub later. The next day, 8/3, AleXander and I headed home. :cry: At least we had a beautiful drive down to Florence and then over to Eugene. Look how gorgeous and misty it was. Bye Oregon! I already miss you, tons!

Brief Trip Out of the Oven....Part I

2011-08-05T10:38:00.016-07:00

For about five days, AleXander and I took a trip up to the central Oregon Coast to see Papa and Grandma Georgia. I had been craving Oregon since the last time I was there, just over two years ago in June 2009. That time, it was just Christian and I (this link is the start of those posts: there are quite a few of them!). Papa and Georgia weren't there. They were in Wisconsin seeing Aunt Susie and her family as a finale of their cross-country bike odyssey, that time from Baton Rouge up to Milwaukee.

However, this time, Papa and Georgia were there, just coming home from their 18 month mission to South Africa ! The picture above is AleXander at Governor Patterson's beach just down the road from Papa and Georgia's house. It was his first time to the beach!

Along with Papa and Georgia was Georgia's son Alan, his wife Jeanie, Georgia's son David, his wife Angie and their adorable three kids. Another fun tidbit? Georgia's kids are my third cousins. Therefore, Georgia's grandkids from her kids are my kids' 4th cousins. The easiest way to explain it is my grandfather Carwin "Buck" Elwood Rogers and their grandfather, Donald Fish Sr were first cousins. My grandfather's mother and Donald Sr's mothers were Tanner sisters. It's a fun heritage to trace. We're also related to N. Eldon Tanner and Hugh B. Brown, LDS General Authorities.

July 31, 2011 We had all just returned from Papa and Georgia's branch where they spoke about their mission. I have lost 15 pounds since last month, but it sure doesn't look it in this pic. Yuck. AleXander was asleep. AleXander and Grandma Georgia, the day we arrived. July 29, 2011.

Anyway, enough of that "related to who" and "so and so begot so and so" for now. I can get out a white board and I would have fun with that with all kinds of flow charts, but not everyone would be all that interested. Haha

Playing with David and Angie's kids was a lot of fun. I'm really going to miss them. And boy was AleXander on the move! He had been crawling a little in July, but by the time we were just days away from the trip, he was turbo boy. I must say, I loved visiting Oregon, but with AleXander's energy, I can't really say it was relaxing. However, it was SO NICE to have the option to take him on a walk OUTSIDE (can't do that here in hell this time of year), and I found I have more patience and I'm a lot nicer when the temperatures are in the 70s, 60s and below.

Just like in my blog entries from June 2009, I took AleXander to the same little neighborhood park Christian and I went to. It is right in the middle of the neighborhood, but looks like it's in a thick wooded forest! And the green and breezes was so nice on our walks, and just about every second of the day!

This Oregon re-cap will have to be divided into two entries, as I have turbo boy and we also need to get out the door - even though it's 110 today. Back to reality that is the 5-month conflagration.

First Day of School 2011

2011-07-28T13:44:00.012-07:00

First of all, I can't believe it's 2011 already. I thought 2000 when we had Mikelle was still just a couple of years ago. Now we have a SIXTH grader. Here she is on her first day of school yesterday. She wanted to wear her "French" Fry shirt. She's also wearing the necklace her Papa and Grandma Georgia sent her from South Africa. She's worn it every day since she received it.

And Christian is a second grader. That blows me away too. If I post these kinds of pictures for AleXander I know I'll cry. It's just not fair how fast time flies. Christian loves his Mario Brothers shirt so much he tried to wear it again today! To celebrate the end of summer vacation (but certainly not the end of summer. It is only the end of July here in hell), the day before we picked up Mikelle's good friend Katie and went to the Mesquite Junior High aquatic center in Gilbert.

And here is one showing more of Mikelle's personality.

Here is Christian and AleXander in the water.

Here is Mikelle (being goofy again) with Katie and AleXander.

And here's one I tried to get of Christian and Mikelle with AleXander.

Of course there are plenty shots like these.

Another Brothers shot. A little hard to see, due to the shadows. I tried to tweak it a bit.

7 Months Old Today!

2011-07-22T11:57:00.009-07:00

There's no point in going on and on about how fast time flies. I've already mentioned that in other milestone posts. If only time can slow down for the pleasant things and speed up for the not-so-pleasant things.

Sweet Big Sister pics! AleXander was cranky and tired. Mikelle helped him relax with a bottle.

I tried to post two videos of AleXander on here, but they wouldn't upload. They said they were uploading, but they never did. Therefore, those videos can be found on my Facebook page. One is of him crawling, and the other is another cute one where he is practically hypnotized from watching Baby Einstein.

Final Two Summer Classes - Ice Cream and Watercolor Pencils!

2011-07-21T10:51:00.039-07:00

(I wanted to have an entry for each session, but I soon fell behind on updating. Therefore, this will be a longer entry including the third lesson of Session III and the fourth lesson of Session III.)

Lesson 3, Session 3:
I really wanted to bring out different paints then the watercolors, but it was so hot outside (where some of it would be completed), that we just stuck with watercolors indoors.

First of all, most of the bookmarks were finished. Each student completed 3 or 4 bookmarks using watercolor, the salt technique, stamps and even ink pens. I had them laminated at Staples and punched a hole in the top, and then the students strung the ribbon through. They made the bookmarks for themselves or as gifts for others. Their choice.

We began the second part of the palm tree silhouettes, since their backgrounds were dry from last week:
We then began "The World's Tallest Ice Cream Cone" This project also helps students with size and building on their paper. I gave the students a long tall piece of watercolor paper and they drew out their cone and scoops. I encourages them to use the salt techniques and other watercolor techniques on different scoops to add variety. Eventually adding a background color was also essential.

This is where that lesson ended, about mid-way through the ice cream project! We also used intermission times with drying to practice a fun seran wrap technique. The only problem with the seran wrap technique is it requires a lot of time to dry to get the best effect and it needs a heavy book placed on the project while it dries.

You get some fun effects once it's completely dry and you pull off the plastic. I love this technique!

Unfortunately, it requires more patience than other techniques. Still, if you put the heavy book on the plastic and place it outside on the hot porch here int he summer, it certainly dries quicker. Just make sure you don't forget about it on the porch in the event of summer dust storms and thunderstorms. Ack!

I used the technique on the top scoop of my ice cream cone:

Lesson 4, Session 3:

Last session of the summer! Time to finish those ice cream cones!

The last of the bookmarks were also completed:

I then introduced them to Watercolor Pencils. They're like regular colored pencils, except they're made with Watercolor Paints. Therefore, after you draw the design, you wet the drawing with a tiny brush and water to "activate" the watercolor look.

We did a "complete the picture" project with their first try at watercolor pencils. The students went through a magazine and cut out a face or another picture. They glued it down and then used watercolor pencils to "complete it". Here is Mikelle's that she did previously:

And I demonstrated to the students with this one:

The choice of what picture to cut out and complete certainly wasn't limited to "people".

The blue and green areas on this camping one still need to be activated with water:

With the time remaining, students were able to use the watercolor pencils and see what else they could come up with the effects. One student certainly enjoyed it and completed one picture after another! And all the food stuff certainly made me hungry!

So that was the 2011 Art Lessons! Thanks for a Creative Summer!

Last Session, Lesson 2: Watercolor Salt Effects and Silhouettes!

2011-07-14T21:24:00.015-07:00

We covered quite a bit on this day. We continued with the salt effects and added a few exercises. Then we turned the salt project into making Bookmarks! (more on that later).

First, my student that wasn't feeling well on Monday was able to finish his Concentric Circle Watercolor inspired from Wassily Kandinsky:
Then we tried a different formula with the Watercolor salt project, making it more simplistic then how we began on Monday.

The way the salt technique works is the salt is sprinkled on to semi-wet paint (not too wet) and the paint is drawn to the salt as it dries and leaves crystal shapes dotted throughout the wash of color. It adds fun textural elements as well as other visual interest to the painting.Because watercolor involves some patience associated with drying and then removing (brushing off) the salt, we simultaneously began our Palm Tree Silhouette project. Using these examples here, we discussed what a Silhouette was and how we were going to use it in our next Watercolor painting, using the palm tree as our theme. We only got through the first portion (background) of that painting, so awesome results to come next time!

Meanwhile, in between stages of drying, we began making Bookmarks! Before class, as I was trying to find something fun to do in incorporating the watercolor salt technique, I found an awesome project on this blog. I knew it was perfect project for my group!

A lot like the Watercolor Discovery project, the kids added the watercolor onto the paper without anything specific in mind. They just used the color to create fun mixtures and patterns. Then they sprinkled the salt on the paper as we did with the other salt paintings.

Then after that sheet was dry and the salt brushed off, we cut up the sheet to 3-4 bookmark sizes. I then used my corner rounder and brought out my stamps and black ink pad. The students added the stamps to their bookmarks. Some made designs, some spelled out their names or names of their friends that they wanted to give a bookmark to. If I had the stamp available, it could be used. The black Sharpies even came out in some cases.
I'll then take the bookmarks to Staples to get laminated. Then we'll punch a hole on the top and string a ribbon through. Voila! Bookmark! Some examples of finished bookmarks can be seen on the link I added above, as my group isn't quite there yet. Some awesome results from the Bookmark project and Palm Tree Silhouette will be revealed Monday!!

Final Summer Art Session, Lesson 1: Kandinsky Circles!

2011-07-12T22:31:00.011-07:00

Monday began the first lesson of the last art session for the summer. I'm not sure if I'll be doing it during the school year. I'll have to see if there is a demand/interest for it.

This is a smaller group compared to my other two sessions. We began with a look at Wassily Kandinsky's work with a color study involving concentric circles (top, left). It is an interesting composition to use the circular relationships and create different color combinations to create various effects and color relationships. For this particular lesson, I followed the lead from this posting: Kandinsky Circles.

I was able to acquire a lesser-quality camera, but helpful to get the job done and have as a backup in the future.

Ahead of time, I put Mikelle to work on this project, using six sectioned off areas, so I could use her results as an example closer to my students' ages and skill level:

Here are the results from the class. One student wasn't able to finish because he wasn't feeling well, but I have no doubt he'll be able to catch up with no problem.

Beautiful color combinations!

After this, we moved on to another project using watercolors as well, but a fun "salt" technique. They had fun, but I quickly realized I started the lesson with too broad of instructions. I'm going to pull in it a bit as we approach it again tomorrow. I'm sure the results will be quite impressive!

My Gerber Baby!

2011-07-12T15:54:00.006-07:00

Last month I entered AleXander's picture for the Gerber Generation contest. Now the voting period has began!

If you feel so inclined and you agree he is just the cutest ever (can't you just munch him up?! I can!) then please go to the link to vote for him! If you're having trouble with the link, please comment on this entry so I can get it fixed.

http://apps.facebook.com/gerberphotosearch/entry/30500/alexander.aspx

You can also vote for him again the next day! Therefore, don't forget to come back and vote!

You never realize what you've lost until it's gone!

2011-07-08T20:19:00.004-07:00

I'm not going to go into detail of how crazy this week was, because I'd like to keep foul language off my blog.

However, of the 5,000 things that went wrong this week, my beloved camera going ka-put was one of them. I never realized how much I depended on it. I'm not a big lover of "material things", but because my camera is so closely connected to capturing the moments of my children, life and art, I am feeling a huge loss.

It's in the shop right now, and it's not a cheap fix and the time estimate was a couple of weeks!

I don't know what to do because my final session of summer art classes starts Monday and I have no way to capture the art in progress and masterpieces upon completion!

Therefore, there's the explanation for this lull. Maybe I can find someone who will lend me their regular digi camera for those couple of days. In the meantime, :cry:.

Art and America, Session II Lesson 4

2011-07-03T08:49:00.038-07:00

Being that the last day of Session III was the Wednesday before the Fourth of July (Independence Day) it seemed only appropriate that we have an American theme with our projects.

I also found it important to teach them about symbolism in terms of the 13 stripes, what they represent and of course the 50 stars. We also talked about the colors of Red, White and Blue and what they stood for.

Independence Day falls right smack in the middle of the summer, therefore kids aren't in school to learn this information specific to the birth of our country.

I showed them a map of the original 13 colonies compared to the map of the United States now. I also introduced the American symbol of "Uncle Sam". Most of the kids saw the picture of him before, but didn't know who he was or what he specifically represented. It was awesome to see their eyes light up when we talked about the connection between the "U" in Uncle means United, and the "S" in Sam means States.

Now that the kids knew a ittle more about American and American symbolism than they did when they arrived, we commenced the American Flag project.

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For those that finished their flags early (even though there was no rush), there was the Uncle Sam project that was reminiscent of Picasso's Cubist style of the Three Musicians from the first lesson of the session.

We even had an eagle in the works! How awesome is that?

Here are the results that would blow away any American Art Gallery!

Watercolor Fishies with a Collage Twist!

2011-07-01T14:04:00.016-07:00

For the third day of Session II, as per the run-through the night before with Christian and Mikelle, I had my little student artists going to town with the Watercolor Fishy project after we introduced Watercolor to them via the Watercolor Discovery project. This is an awesome project because of the variety of colors and styles of fish the students come up with.

The results were quite a fun "school of fish"!

Session 2, Lesson 2! Plus a fishy intro.....

2011-06-25T09:22:00.035-07:00

The second art class of session II was interesting. I learned that no matter how many projects you have planned, some of the kids will blow through them so fast, you're left with ample time to figure out how to keep them occupied. I should have known this already from teaching K-8, but those classes were 50 minutes each, not two hours like these summer sessions at home. I also learned that with this session I need help. Thank you Lauren for being an awesome teaching assistant!

I presented Matisse's "Beasts of the Sea" (top, left) and how it was going to be used as inspiration using collage techniques with tissue paper and colored construction paper.

Putting together their own composition:

And the fun results! Seriously, if these could be framed and hung on a wall, it makes such a beautiful addition! I'll consider having Mikelle and Christian make a few more of these and we can get them framed and mounted for a fun area of the house in Wickenburg (when we build it of course! By then I'm sure AleXander can contribute!)

Tomorrow is Lesson 3 of Session 2, and Watercolor Discovery will make its way back PLUS, a colorful watercolor fish project. Despite some emotional crises, I had Mikelle and Christian going to town on this one.

You start with a black crayon and fill the surface of the watercolor paper with a fun profile of a fish. Put in fins and sections. Here is Christian's:

Then using watercolor paint, artist fills in the sections with vibrant color as demonstrated by Christian and Mikelle:

After it dries, the artist goes over the black crayon sections again.

Then cut out the fishy with a white "bubble" around it. (Yes, Mikelle is a lefty!)

Select a colored piece of construction paper and glue it on the colored paper:

I did this project with some of my elementary school students back at Heartland a couple years ago. Here is their impressive "school of fish" on the wall of the classroom. As you can see, some collage or just simple drawing elements can be added for more sea-life emphasis!

6 Months Today ....Wow!

2011-06-22T20:27:00.009-07:00

I'm not a fan of how fast babies grow. It just doesn't give us enough time to really savor the fleeting time in their lives.

AleXander is 6 months today. This was taken today to commemorate the event. He's not crawling yet, but he gets around plenty! He loves to roll! Roll roll roll roll roll roll roll. He is also so inquisitive of how he looks interested in other objects and how he reaches for them.

Magazine Goofing
While taking some 6-month snapshots of the baby, Mikelle and I were also cutting out facial features from magazines as part of today's art lesson. She began to play around with them and one of them was pretty scary! There's too much of a realistic appearance it gave!

Then she tried to get AleXander involved. It was a little more difficult concerning his tenacity to reach up and grab things.

And before we close this entry to move on to today's art lesson, we have to end with this "moment of Chritian" from two nights ago.

Christian: Mom! Mom! Mom!
Me: What?!
Christian: Your Ipod is fully charged.
Me: Thanks. So are you.

Session 2 Kick-Off! Collage with Picasso and Matisse!

2011-06-21T21:40:00.025-07:00

Monday was the first lesson of Session 2. We began with the concept of "collage" and the students were told about Pablo Picasso. Picasso was famous for many innovative techniques, including the use of collage in mainstream popular art. His 1921 work "The Three Musicians" was to be the inspiration for our first project.

I love the "Three Musicians" Collage lesson because it works with all grade levels. I've taught it with the young grades and modified it for high school. This link takes you to an older blog entry that shows my elementary school musicians and click here to see some of the high school students' Three Musician Collages from Fall 2010.

Music influences us all and in different ways. Therefore, a piece of artwork from 90 years ago can still speak to us today, because music is still a part of our lives and will be in one way or another. That is another reason I love this project so much - this lesson in art history doesn't feel like a stuffy art history lesson. It really inspires students (all grades) to come up with their own musical "composition" in collage.

And quite the variety of musical results!!!
kjkj

Matisse-Inspired Tissue Paper Collage

For tomorrow's lesson, we're taking the Collage approach into more of an "abstract" direction with bright colors. Our artwork of inspiration is 1950's "Beasts of the Sea" by Henri Matisse.

Tonight I had my own personal art subjects (age 10 and age 7 offspring) work on this project.

Taking Matisse's composition as inspiration, the transparent colorful effects are achieved with tissue paper in squares or rectangular shapes. They can be arranged however the artist wants, but some overlapping is encouraged.

On top of the tissue paper are the swirls and other shapes.

Once the tissue paper is glued on a large portion of the paper surface and the artist is happy with the composition, the swirls and other shapes are added.

And here are Mikelle and Christian's final results of their Matisse collage!

Last lesson for first Summer Art Session! Mixed Media Cityscape: Masking, Splattering and Oil Pastel!

2011-06-20T22:26:00.029-07:00

Ack! I'm behind on getting the lesson updates and masterpieces posted!

The last lesson for the first session was last Wednesday. It had its interesting moments.

This lesson uses some "spattering" methods, so we talked a little about Jackson Pollock (for more info on him, go here).

Then we would move on to some oil pastel (same medium we used on our funky cats). Therefore, this was a mixed media project to end the session! First, the artist starts with two pieces of paper. One piece is a colored sheet of the artist's choice of a background color - the other is white.

On the white paper, sketch a light "cityscape". It can be modern, whimsical, geographically specific - it's up to the artist!

Then the white cityscape is cut out.

The cut out cityscape is placed on the colored paper. It's not glued or taped down. Rocks or other heavy but small objects can be placed on it to keep it down.

On a newspaper or other covered service outside, the artist begins to splatter the sky area with paint (in this case, we used washable school paint) with an old toothbrush. It's important to get splatters densely around the top of the cityscape as well.

When the splattering is complete and DRY (very important!), the artist removes the white cityscape sheet.

Oil pastel is then used to add the highlights and cityscape details.

Two of the major issues that we ran into with this project on Wed was one, some of the students struggled with being able to splatter effectively. Unlike Jackson Pollock, we weren't going to throw the paint across the room onto a huge canvas (unless they wanted Ms. Jill to have a heart attack). It took some trial and error to use the toothbrush and get the hang of the splattering. The second major issue was when the wet spatter was sitting on the hot porch to quickly dry, the sprinklers came on. It turned into a helpful accident on some (the water helped reveal the unmasked area), and not so much on the others.

However, in the end, we did have a fun variety of colors and cityscapes! I think the kids enjoyed it!