Random Stuff

A kind of busy weekend. The boys both took the ACT test Saturday morning...they both had the opportunity to take it early as an assessment of where they are academically and more importantly, to get some practice taking it before the real thing. Surprisingly there weren't too many complaints about burning up 4 hours on a Saturday morning to take a test!

After they were done with their tests we packed up and headed to the farm. Billy spent a few hours at the local ski area. Temps in the mid 30's have been a nice reprieve from the bitter cold.
Eric took these pictures. I let him take the camera every now and again...but not for too long because his photos are usually a lot better than mine. :-)

My parents place is near the river. The look of the valley changes so much with the different seasons...and changes a lot depending on the light. It's beautiful no matter the season or the time of day. The view is just one of the things I took for granted as a kid.

This is Czar. I think that he might need some conditioner in his mane. :-) Have you ever looked into a horses eyes?

I think that there is a lot of mystery hidden in their eyes. But then again...maybe they are just eyeing me because they think I might have food...or a treat. That must be it.

Czar gets a little wild eyed sometimes. I think that someone told him that his eyes are bigger than his stomach so he's trying to make his eyes as big as he can. Can you tell I don't have much to say today? OK...I'll stop now.

And leave you with a couple of shots of the moon. The moon in the clouds.

And just the moon. After all, it's been almost a month since I showed you the last one!

Did you know that full moons make horses all wild-eyed? It's true. :-)

Springy

What in the world is that I see?
Don't worry Mom, it's only me! Yep, it's Billy again. And yep, he's on the trampoline again.

But these pictures are different from the other day. For one thing he isn't wearing crazy goggles. And see in this one, he's turning his frown upside down....he didn't do that the other day.

But just like before he's springing and boinging and bouncing....

...but if you look again you'll notice....

...that this crazy boy is outside on February 6th in Minnesota....

...in just a Tee shirt. I'm not cold Mom. What is it about boys? Aren't they born with a cold gene? Granted, it was almost 40 degrees, but is that Tee shirt weather? Not for me...but I guess it is if you are a springy, boingy, bouncy boy.

Hey Billy...great maneuver...now take a bow....

...and get yerself inside and put a sweatshirt on!

Boys. I don't know what I did to deserve them....but it must have been good! :-)

Someday

Someday all of this white will be replaced with green.
Someday this sidewalk will be lined with flowers.

Someday these boots will be replaced with bare toes.

Come on Spring...I'm waiting!

Just enjoying a little sunshine on my front step, thinking about warm days ahead. They're coming, I can feel it. :-)

Indoor Soccer

Winters get long in Minnesota. Especially this one. It had gotten up to around 16 degrees this afternoon...so you know what I did? I went and watched a soccer game. Yep...soccer. The High School that Brian goes to has an turf field that gets covered up with a dome in the winter. It doesn't get very warm inside the dome, but it's still a lot better than the 16 degrees and snowbanks outside. I was comfortable in my sweatshirt and jacket...the boys seemed just fine running around in shorts.
Since it was after 4:00 pm, the dome wasn't quite light enough for pictures, but I did snap a few. Brian and his two buddies had showed up for the game...but the rest of the team didn't even show! They did pick up some spare players, the game counted as a loss but not a forfeit and at least the ones that were there got to play.
Brian still wasn't feeling very well, so he opted to play goalie since he wouldn't have to run around as much. Nice Save! He had his jeans on because he really wasn't planning on playing. He hasn't played goalie for a really long time. He made some nice saves, but the other team made some nice shots and scored quite a few times. It ended up being a lop-sided game.

He was OK with that. It was fun to see Brian punt the ball. Can you tell that he's just a little bit double jointed?

It's been nice to see Brian picking up soccer again. He played for a few years when he was really little....wasn't he cute? So serious! He was about 5 in this picture. How did he get so tall in 11 short years? After a few years he decided that it just wasn't for him.

Then he started playing again with his buddies last fall. One of the nicest parts about him playing again is that they seem to have so much fun with it. See that smile? That warms my heart every time I see it....no matter what he's doing.

We gave one of his friends a ride home...and since we were so close to the lake as the sun was setting he agreed stopping at the park so I could take a picture. What a great kid. :-)

The sunset was pretty good too. Hope you got to see it.

Markers

I have a little secret. Well, maybe I should say that I had a little secret until I admitted it here on my blog. I love markers. I really do. And I'm not sure why.
Maybe it's all of the pretty colors. I know that is part of it. Maybe it's because they remind me of when I was a kid.

Maybe it's because there are so many different kinds. The markers in the pictures are sort of cool...they have a fine tip but it will spread out and draw a wide line like a paint brush if you apply enough pressure. I think that's cool. I also have a more professional set of permanent markers that have a sharp tip on one end and a wide tip on the other. They make me dizzy if I use them for too long...especially in an un-vented room. I've also kept lots of the kids crayola markers that they used to need for school. I've got colored sharpies too.

But it's not just markers. I like colored pencils and crayons and paints and watercolor pencils and colored chalk and oil pastels....pretty much any art supply. Oh...and school supplies. I always, always have to get myself some paper and other junk when the school supplies come out. I even like the smell of the school supply area in the store. Hmmm...maybe I'm sharing too many secrets. But fresh paper and pens have so much potential. Potential that I'll never meet. But don't you think that it is wonderful to have that fresh start every fall??

Don't the markers in these pictures just say "pick me, pick me"? The do to me. :-) OK, I'll stop.

You know, the odd thing about my love of markers is that I don't really use them very much. Part of it is that I don't take the time to do it, the other part is that I don't have much confidence in my drawing ability. I can do it if I really try...but I don't seem to make the time to try.

But in spite of that, there are times when the markers do come in handy. We were encouraged to do thumbnail sketches when I was in school for Graphic Design. They are small and quick sketches to get your ideas onto paper. I don't make them for all of my projects, but there are times when they really help. I work for a small company that makes banners for the street poles of little towns. My client wanted to see some designs with a sunset and a pheasant. So I did my rough sketches.

Then I scanned the rough sketches and recreated them in Illustrator. Then I sent the cleaned up digital proof to my client. She was happy with the designs and even ended up selling one right away. She will be putting the design in their Spring catalog. And since I'm sharing secrets...I will admit that I think that is pretty cool. :-)

So I guess maybe it's OK to love markers...even if I just use them to make rough sketches....and if I don't spend too much time smelling them. Ideas have to start somewhere, maybe they just come out of the tip of a pen. I think I better go and see if I can squeeze a few more ideas out of one.

Bowl of Cherries

Life is like a bowl of cherries. That never made much sense to me. But that's the best I could do for today. One boy home from school because he wasn't feeling well, my day spent puttering with little jobs and answering the phone, an early volleyball game and then grocery shopping this evening left me plum out of ideas. Until I saw the cherries at the grocery store....and I thought....life is like a bowl of cherries....what in the heck does that mean anyway??
Well...a quick google search and I found out it is from a song from the 1930's, sung by Ethel Merman. And I actually like the lyrics.

Life is just a bowl of cherries
Don't make it serious
Life's too mysterious.
You work, you save, you worry so
But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go
So keep repeating it's the berries
The strongest oak must fall.
The sweet things in life
To you were just loaned
So how can you lose what you've never owned
Life is just a bowl of cherries
So live and laugh at it all.

And even though I like the lyrics I can't help but think....what in the world does any of that have to do with a bowl of cherries? And what do you do with the pits?

A Book for Dad

Losing my Dad last fall was painful beyond words. It still is actually. I wanted to do something to honor him and the full life that he lived. I wanted to do something that would help our family make it through the holidays. I wanted to make sure that his grand kids had something that they could hold in their hands and remember their grandpa. So, I put together a book about him. A book with photos, with his report cards, with letters that he had written to my Mom when they were dating. Notes about trips they had taken, about special events in his (our) lives.
I had already scanned a lot (really... a lot) of my parents photos when I put together a slide show for their anniversary. I scanned some more to use in a slide show for my Dad's funeral. Then about a month after the funeral I took home all of my parent's photo albums and scanned some more pictures.

I went through their letters and typed up portions of them to share. I took pictures of my Dad's baby shoes and some toys. Using a template from Blurb.com I gradually put the book together. I needed to have it done before December 15th to hit the deadline in order to get them printed in time for Christmas.

I thought I had a lot of time...but so many things came up it was hard to get started. Having a sick horse to take care of set me back a whole week just on it's own. I also tend to have trouble with procrastinating...but once I start something I can usually stick with it until it's done.

After a few months of gathering things, too many 18 hour days typing and adding pictures, and a lot of tears (smiles too) the 392 page book was done and uploaded to the printer with an hour to spare.

Ten copies were delivered to our home on Christmas Eve day. Eric made a special trip to pick them up so everyone could have their gift on Christmas Eve.

I do think that the effort was worthwhile, and it was therapuetic for me. My Mom has looked at hers almost every day...she says it helps her to get through the rough spots in the day. That alone makes it worth it. The trouble is, in my rush to get the book done, a few mistakes were made. One particularly stupid one was getting my Dad's birthday wrong on the cover. He was born on October 18th, not on Halloween. It's not like it isn't something I didn't know. Just a dumb mistake. The other thing about the book is that I wasn't very happy with the finish that was used on the cover....so...my plan has been to design a new paper cover to wrap around the books. I've been planning on doing it since I first saw the mistake.

But for some reason I haven't been able to start it. After all of the time I spent on the book and going through the pictures for it and all of the emotions that I poured into it, I haven't been able to open it up and look at it since. A few more people want copies, I have to fix the mistakes, it should be easy enough...but nope. You would think that the more time that goes on the easier it would get. But for me, it seems that the more time that goes on just means that it's been that much longer since I've heard his laugh and I miss him even more. It doesn't mean that I'm not OK...it just means that losing my Dad has been really, really hard. He was a pretty special guy.

I finally was able to return to the book late this week. One of the things I wanted to do was to colorize the photo for the cover. I finished that....and now I am ready to make the changes I need to make to have it published again.

It's taking some time, but I'm getting there. He wouldn't want it any other way.