2nd Generation

How did we get to be old enough to become parents of not just babies, but children? (Of course I'm not one of the parents, but still...) With Dani and Micah here for the holiday all of us Washingtionians got together for the afternoon. It felt so good to be with everyone. Even though the time we spend together is few and far between the friendship and love is still the same. I don't think I ever took it for granted when I was younger, in fact I was very proud of my large close friend circle, but now that it has become a once a year thing, if we're lucky, I realize how deep our bond is. This bond is despite each of us going in a different direction in live and making different decisions.
It was so much fun to watch little Micah (Hudson) and little Landon (Connor) play together. At first they were shy, then they fought, but in the end they were best buds. I love the imagination of children. They were camping the Tim and Noelle's basement, making trains of Katie's decorative rocks, and racing trucks with pillows as steering wheels.
As soon as Gardner and Janet came back from their weekend, the group was complete and we decided to get a picture of all the kids together. What a chore. First I have to applaud the parents from our group. They are loving and patient and great parents. As a single person without children, just thinking about the things in this world they will face with the children is enough reason for me to think of never having children. But I'm confident they will be able to handle it. Anyway, the poor things were tried and exhausted from the day and that of course led to crying and risings tempers. So to appease them candy was given. :) Here is what came of that.

Thanksgiving

I admit that last year's turkey was frozen. For those of you that remember we were very glad that we had another meat to eat that Sunday. So this year I was pretty scared to try again. Cooking poultry is scary and letting a whole turkey sit out for days defrosting is even more scary. But everything turned out fine. I got to spend all day at home cooking. I felt like my mom except for the kids that she had to yell at every couple of ours. Having a retail job makes holidays a little more difficult to spend time with the people I'd prefer to spend them with. But there was another coworker that was going to be by herself for the holiday so I invited her over for a low key Thanksgiving. It was great to spend the day with another person that was away from home. It made the day comfortable and relaxed.

School work

I've been painting for my current class, so here it is. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm taking an art class (required) for college. I like the class and I was excited for this project (and nervous). I had to pick an artist and emulate him. Not copy his painting, but take his focus and technique and do an original work. So I picked an infamous artist that has a painting in the Minneapolis Art Institute. He seemed to love the sky and most of his focus was on the light and sky. He was also self-taught, so that was appealing. This is my studio. :) I really wish I had an easel. But to spend the money wasn't an option. I have a picture of the artists work and a sheet of paper with focus words like "light" "organic" and "balance" on it to remind me of what I was trying to accomplish. Then there are pictures of clouds because that's what I wanted to paint. My boss at work gave me acrylic paints and brushes that she had used for a project of hers. I didn't even need to pay her for them!! Also thanks Katie for letting me take over the living room for a week.

This is the first draft. I wasn't happy with it. It doesn't say what I was trying to say. It's more abstract and violent feeling. Believe me it looks better in the picture. The colors aren't blended and the light beams are broken. I wanted to paint clouds and light because I like them so much. Especially when the light beams shine behind the clouds. It's that picture of God you get when your little, because of Sunday School and children books.
Things I found were difficult were trying to get the right color and enough paint on the canvas. Also drying time was a problem. I had to work fast enough to be able to blend them together without losing the original desire, but still not look choppy.

The final product. So I have so much more respect for artists now. I am an artistic person, but nothing like what it takes to paint. I'd kind of like to take a painting lesson or too, but I have no time. I'm really happy with my clouds. The light beam still aren't what I wanted, but they serve the purpose. My prof thought it was good, so that's good. Hopefully I'll get an A in this class, we had 3 tests and I hate tests.