Clever, but NO.

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

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!

Our Very Merry Moments Christmas Card

Alexander Walking

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!

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

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

...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

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

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

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!)