Rough Day

These past couple of days have been rough on Ruby so tonight after May-May went to bed, her and I had a goof off session with her favorite thing - PhotoBooth. Here are some highlights.

I've been tagged.

Six Unusual Things About Me:
1. If you play me a song that was played on the radio during the years of 1960 - present, I can tell you the name of the song, the band and usually the year it came out, all within the first couple of notes.

2. I have had many “psychic” experiences. I should blog some of them. They'd give you goose bumps!

3. When I was 13 I violently assaulted a kid for making fun of my friend after a swim meet. I brought him to tears and his mother had to pull me off of him. He went on to being one of the biggest jocks at our high school.

4. I have extremely vivid dreams. And they almost all involve me living in some kind of communal living type situation.

5. I can imitate people pretty well.

6. Before I got pregnant, I could barely smell a thing. When I became pregnant with Ruby, my sense of smell became hyper-sensitive, I could be standing next to a person in the elevator and smell their dog on their clothes. My pregnancy induced bionic smelling sensibility has stuck with me ever since then, much to my dismay. I liked it better when my nose was ignorant.

Tag You're It:
1. Katie
2. Natalie
3. Emily

Look-alikes

The only celebrity I have ever been told that I look like is Brett Butler from the 90's sit-com "Grace Under Fire" and I was in 9th grade when I was told that. That piece of information was not taken well. "Great, I look like a 40 year old angry Southern woman", I thought. And really, I don't know why I thought that because I don't remember ever watching the show so how did I know she was angry and Southern? I probably walked into my parents room while my Dad was watching it. The man will watch anything. Cops, Le Femme Nikita, The Three Stooges, Hannah Montana, Reno 911, One Tree Hill, Grizzly Adams, Saved by the Bell, Real World, Cheaters, Las Vegas, The Little Rascals, Party of Five, That 70's Show, Friends, Boy Meets World, Wild Fire. The list goes on and on. I believe I have even seen "7th Heaven" cross his TV screen. And for those of you who were introduced to Gilmore Girls by any member of the Garlock family, you have my dad to thank for it. But I digress. So apparently in 9th grade I looked like Brett Butler and looking back I probably did due to the Eyebrow Tweezing Mishap of '93 that I was still recovering from a year later. Eyebrows take a long time to grow back in, just in case you were wondering and if you were that means you've never had a plucking fiasco as devestating as mine, which you should thank your lucky stars for right now. Someday I will blog the history of my eyebrows. It will be rivoting, let me tell you. Hilariously sad, really. Anyway I have really foxy friends who get told they look like celebs all the time - Julia Stiles, Drew Barrymore, Meg Ryan, Elizabeth Berkley, Cameron Diaz, Evangeline Lily, Kirsten Dunst, etc. (you cute little punks know who you are.) And my darling husband gets told he looks like actors all the time as well.
Before we were married, there was a gaggle of girls who lived in the Colony Apartments who called him "Sunshine" from "Remember the Titans." A big part of that was the hair of course but more recently, he's gotten Heath Ledger from "Brothers Grimm" which I TOTALLY see, Brad Pitt which I see a little bit sometimes and then some guy that was on a WB (or should I say CW) show that was cancelled but I can't remember the name of it. I should ask my Dad; he'd know. There was one time when Go and I were up at Sundance during the film festival and we went Adolf's - a deliciously shmancy restaurant that his uncle was graciously taking us to, which is a great memory to this day. When we walked in, there were several tables of people who turned around and wouldn't stop jabbing each other and staring, particularly at me. Go was convinced they thought I was someone famous which looking back now, we were still newly dating then so he was probably just saying that to win me over but I'd like to think that they thought I was an indie actress. But most likely they probably thought Brett Butler had just entered the building.

Drunk blogging

I saw an interview with Zach Braff (J.D. from Scrubs) and he was talking about drunk blogging, comparing it to drunk calling. I guess I was drunk blogging last night, minus the alcohol. I was drunk on sleep deprevation. I don't worry like that all the time, just at night when I can't sleep. And the answers to all those questions that swirl around in my head all night long are so much more clear during the day. Such as "am I happy?" The answer is "yes." Because I am for the most part. There are some uniquely tough elements about my life but I think most people can say that about their lives and I really don't want to be the "woe is me" kind of person because of how blessed my family and I have been despite the health issues, quasi-single parenthood, etc. Anyway, I just get the winter blah's big time and then insomnia on top of it, my world starts to look pretty bleak. But after the snow melts, the sun peeks out and warms the air and its springtime, suddenly all is right with the world and I start sleeping like a normal person again. So I just have to make it through March and a little of April and I'm good to go. Reading my blog from last night depressed me and I don't want to be a downer so here's a cute picture of May. I don't know if you'll be able to see them, but I put pigtails in her hair and they are so so cute - they stick straight out. Not only is she super cute, she is truly a joy and captures the hearts of everyone around her. She has half of our ward here wrapped around her little finger. No matter how weird I get in my head, when I think about her I can smile.

INSOMNIA

I don't sleep at night during the winter. I worry. Will Ruby end up with all ten toes, will May feel overlooked, what about my other kids, will I ever feel like I could have more kids again, will I wait too long, will my kids get along when they're older, will I be older when they are older, how old will I be when my parents die, how old will I be when I die, will Go die at a young age, will I be left alone, how will I support myself, would I want to get married again, who would even marry me, how will I convince Go that we need life insurance, why don't we have any money, what will happen when we finally have money, will we change, should we just give it to the poor, why are we so poor, why did I do art in college, why is art the only thing I can do, why can't I do other stuff, why aren't I better at things, why aren't I a better person, why am I so mean all the time, if I were less mean would I be less funny, why am I so negative, did I make my brothers the way they are, why are they like that, will they change, do I want them to change, would they have to change to be happy, would I have to change to be happy, am I happy, why is it so cold outside, why do I care so much if it's cold outside, why do I always live in cold places, why don't I have neighbors with kids, why don't I have more friends here, why didn't I have more friends in Iowa, was I a good enough friend, why aren't some of my friends married yet, will they find spouses that are good enough for them, am I good enough for Go, what if we had never met, what if I were still single, would I be fat, why couldn't I have met him after med school and residency, why did I encourage him to be a plastic surgeon, is this the life I want, will he have the relationship with my kids that I had with my dad, will I have the relationship I want with my kids, am I a good mom, are they in the gym day care too much, is my bottom getting bigger from spinning, is my schedule too full, is my house clean enough, am I cooking good enough food, am I getting all the laundry done, are there wet clothes in the wash, what's that weird smell in the bathroom, do I need to change the shower curtain liner, why does the tub take so long to drain, why does the downstairs toilet never flush right, will Go smash his hand when he puts down the floors tomorrow, will he never get to operate due to his crippled hand, will I have to go work at Kinkos to support our family, would I have to wear a polo shirt to work, why didn't I get better grades in college, why did I act so dumb back then, why do I act so dumb now, why don't I care about politics, what would our country be like if 9-11 never happened, what would I be like if I hadn't had been there, why am I scared all the time, why wasn't I with him the day of his surgery, why did I come a day after, why didn't I sleep there at the hospital with him, why wasn't I worried then, why do I worry so much now, why can't I go to sleep, oh yeah, because I'm too busy worrying.

Freecycle.org, I love you.

Collages, Shmollages

I've always liked collages but have never done any. I guess, way up high on my fine art degree pedastool I always looked down and thumbed my nose at them as a real form of art. But lately I have had a change of heart. I'm sick of painting things that look exactly like the object. What's the use of painting something life like when you can just take a picture of it? Isn't art supposed to express, not just represent? Anyway, my cousin just got married this past weekend and I've been wanting to do some kind of art work for her. She was always really supportive of my art back at BYU and was always into whatever assignment I was doing - no matter how horribly bad it looked. She was very supportive of anything I did - art related or not. I took her for granted back then. She was one of my biggest cheerleaders and I was too prideful to fully appreciate how great she was to me. Since I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog, I'm blogging my wedding gift to her - my first attempt at collaging. My brother, who I never thought of as artistic at all made some collages a couple of years ago. Looking at them almost brought me to tears because a) they were really good and I was so proud of him and b) I was the one with a 4 year art degree and those collages were more imaginative and experimental then any still life or portrait I had ever painted and I was jealous. Who did he think he was, my goofball brother making such beautiful things on a whim? Things that I doubted I could make myself. But I'm ready to face my fears of incorrect proportions, askew lines and glue.
Here are a couple of collages that I'm kinda ripping off. This artist's work is too cutesy-wutesy for my taste so I will be putting my own flavor and using her idea - with people's xerox'd heads, etc. I'm going to use their engagement picture which isn't ideal but I want it to be a surprise so I have to work with what I have. I've been thinking and thinking but haven't come up with a theme that I like well enough. It makes it hard since I don't know the guy she married. Anyway, this should be interesting - I'm not good at stuff like this, but I'd like to be so I have to start somewhere.

Collections

This is one of Ruby's "collections of goodies." You can find displays such as these tucked away in the pockets of our house laying on paper towels, small blankets, washclothes, dish towels, etc. until I find them and make her put all the stuff away. I've just discovered, though, that most of the goodies haven't been properly put away - they've just been put inside of a big mitten that I found yesterday in the basement.
Most of the time her collections are made up of weird random stuff that should have been thrown away in the first place - she'll search at the bottom of my diaper bag, inside the jar of writing implements in the kitchen, etc. to find her "goodies." Then she finds a suitable surface to display them on, and arranges her goodies just so. Depending on what goodies are in her collection she'll come find me and request that I "pick something." If one of her goodies is something she knows she's not supposed to play with, she'll hide her collection until I find it or May finds it, brushes everything off of her "display surface" and sits on it. May likes to sit on things.

Princess Pants Head

As I child, I never really got into the whole princess thing. I wasn’t obsessed with Disney movies, I didn’t have princess dress up clothes (just some of my Mom’s old night gowns and some boots) and my Dad called me (and still does) “Bean”, not “his little princess.” Actually, that’s not true: when I was 3 or 4, I stole some dried flowers from a lady while at a church Halloween party and when she confronted me about it, I lied to her and told her I didn’t know where they went. My Dad drove me over to her house after the party, had me apologize and give them back. On the way there, he said that I was his princess and princesses don’t lie and steal. Maybe that’s why I never liked princesses—I preferred to lie and steal.
Anyway, it came as a surprise when Ruby started getting into Princesses. She’s not bonkers over them like some of her friends are, but every now and then, she’ll get her “princess outfit” on. Note the bow clipped to her neckline—it has to be clipped on at a very precise angle.

Complete with her “princess socks and shoes.”

And sometimes her “priness halo.”

Then she dances “like a princess.”

She picked these out:

And this. She prefers things to be pink:

And just when I start to get nervous that she’s so girly and maybe she’s someone else's daughter, she calms my fears by bringing me May’s snow pants and says “Hey Mom, could you put these on my head?”

Redecorating on a budget

This is what it looked when we walked through the house for the first time when it was for sale. NOTE: THIS IS NOT MY DECOR! I REPEAT, NOT MY DECOR!


Then we moved in, painted and this is what it looked like for awhile.


See this lovely lovely chandelier hanging down? It had to go.


This is what we put in. Ah, much better.



Then after 6 months of barely tolerating the light green, I repainted with the color I should have gone with all along.



Then a month later, Brandon, much to my delight, decides he needs a project and rips up the carpet and linoleum in the eating area/kitchen. I would be utterly estatic about this, but considering he's doing the work in small spaced out chunks, because that's how his free time is divied out, my floor will look like this for awhile.


But here is the Brazilian Cherrywood (Jatoba!) that will be on the floor when he finishes...I can't wait. He layed some out just to see what it would look like and it was beautiful.

Snow day

Yesterday Go got home around 4:30 which probably has never happened before (but still an 11 hour day, ah such is life as a resident.) It had snowed all day so he and Ruby went sledding down the big hill in the park behind our house. They had a blast. And as you can see, he was very proud of his tapered jeans with the flannel lining. Because of the snow, my Primary Presidency meeting for that night was canceled, too. Maybe snow isn't so bad.
Ok. I wrote this before I went out to shovel our driveway for the first time ever. My neighbors keep doing it for us (we don't have a shovel or salt yet) and I was guilted into going out and doing it with them. They are such nice people. Anyway, here is the aftermath of me shoveling the driveway (without a hat or gloves - don't have those either) while it sleeted outside. Check out my nasty battle wounds. My hair, which has never looked so lovely as it does in this picture, is frozen stiff and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to have some toes removed. I take back what I said earlier. Snow is evil, just as I always suspected.

Serendipity

We went to Philly today to meet up with Brandon's brother who was in town for an interview for business school. After devouring cheesesteaks, we walked the streets of Philadelphia. Stood there while the boys spoke Tagolog with some dude. Went to Whole Foods. Drove around the U of Penn campus-very cool. Got another shot of some tennis shoes thrown over telephone lines. I have a whole series now; I should do something with them. Saw this marquee saying who was playing at that particular club tonight and had to snap a pic for Johnny boy.

Wistful sighs

I needed to get the family of Seventh Heaven off of my blog as the first thing you see, so here are some pictures that I've taken in the past year or so that do not have my family, my artwork or my house in it: (yes, they do exist.)

San Francisco. My FAVORITE city. sigh.






Downtown Harrisburg. My not-favorite city. sigh.




Vegas. My MOST not-favorite city. sigh.





Hawaii. Again someday. sigh.





PA in autumn-time. A nice time. sigh.