Our trip

This Sunday morning, we are leaving our house for our big Christmas trip. We're excited to be going through areas where neither of us have been before.




We'll start our trip traveling across the bottom of Wyoming toward Cheyenne, followed by a descent into Colorado right into Denver (spending the first night in Burlington, CO). From there, we will be headed East into Kansas.

(sorry, had to delete the cool picture because I was getting way too many random hits because of it.)



In Kansas there are a few toll roads, where I have no idea how much they will cost...do we have to have change? After our jaunt through Kansas, we turn south again and rush through Oklahoma, at which point I hope to spot Pioneer Woman or her family at whatever gas station we stop at. Its going to happen, I just know it.



We continue south until we reach Kiera's house, just north of the Fort Worth, TX area. I'm sure our kids won't mind the 20 hour trip, right? No crying or anything.

We'll be staying there for a week, after which we have decided to stop by my parents house for New Years. We're excited to try a new route, going West through the deserts of Texas and into Arizona. We then head North through the barren wastes of AZ, on a route I have traveled before but Joseph hasn't (my grandmother lives in Mesa). We continue up into a Southern Utah, skimming through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.




This bit in AZ and UT I'm a little worried about, because there are NO places to stop, and usually NO other cars. I hope we don't die. And Elora doesn't wet her pants.

Once in Utah, we turn West and head into Hurricane (the city is pronounced "Hurri-CUN" for those who've never lived in Southern UT.) From there its a short jump up I-15 to my parents house, where my three brothers will also be staying. Yay, just another 20 hour drive!
We should be returning home around the 2nd of January.

So, anyway, if you don't here from me before then...thats where we are! Wish us luck!

Us

So, I feel bad for posting a new entry after that one about our anniversary, before it was actually my anniversary. So to make up for it.... and also because I'm too busy to do a really hard post.....here is a meme about us, that I got from Melanie's blog.

Where did you meet? We met in Seattle, WA. We were in the same summer evening class at the Institute of Religion, across from the University of Washington (where neither of us were going to school.) We didn't really talk until the party on the last day of class, but we talked the whole time. I got his number from the teacher, but was too chicken to call it. We didn't run into each other again until the next year.

What was the first thought that went through your head when you met? I thought he was funny and friendly, and I liked his dimple and laugh. I liked that he was paying so much attention to me and it wasn't weirding me out... Usually when a guy seemed to like me, I would want to avoid them.

Do you remember what he was wearing? Um...pants and a shirt? Not really. But I remember the next summer when we were at a multi-ward singles activity at the beach, and I was totally flirting with him. He was wearing a gray fleece zip up...that I steal all the time now.


Where was the first time you kissed this person? On our first date. But I never did that before! We were watching the movie Return To Me at his apartment.. our date had started at 7pm, and ended around 3AM!

Where did you go for your first date? We walked the Burke-Gilman trail around the UW, then we got ice cream at Ben and Jerrys. We walked to my house but my roommates were watching a movie, so we took the bus to his apartment to watch a show there. Then later I had to take a cab home because the busses weren't running that late, and neither of us had a car.

How long did you know this person before you became a couple? From our first date to our engagement was just about a month. Like I said, I met him the year before, but we'd only started running into each other again about a month before that first date!



How did he ask you out? He called and left a message with my roommates, then called again when I came home. He was so surprised at how quickly I said I'd go out with him. He was lucky too, because another guy from church called while we were out on our date! I didn't realize I was so popular.

How did he propose? I was leaving on a week-long cruise to Mexico and he told me he was writing a story for me. The day I was leaving, he asked if he could read it to me. It had drawings and was a metaphore for the two of us. At the end of the story, the boy in the book asked the girl to marry him, and when you turned the page, he had cut out a circle in the pages, and put the ring in the book! It was so clever, I loved it! Even though I wasn't expecting it so early.

Do you and this person have kids together? Two at the moment. Elora is 3 and Josh is 18 months.


Have you ever broken the law with this person? Hmm, I don't know. Joseph's probably broken some traffic laws while I was in the car with him, but thats about it.



When was the first time you realized you liked this person? I thought he was cute when we were in the class, obviously, since I asked for his number then! Our first date, we both had a feeling we'd be together for a long time.

Do you trust this person? In all the ways that matter!


Do you see him as your partner in the future? We are married for time and all eternity, right? We fight as much as anybody (usually I started it, I'll admit) but I would never consider a life seperate from him.

What is the best gift he gave you? That is hard to say, depends on what you mean. Obviously my kids are a gift. The engagement book was very cool... he always gets me just what I wanted for Christmas. So take your pick.



What is the one thing he does that gets on your nerves? One thing? You've got to be kidding. Some days everything he does annoys me, but I think I get easily annoyed. If I list them all, it'll just make me think about it too much, so I won't.

Where do you see each other 15 years from now? Probably a few more kids, Joseph teaching school, raising our family and hopefully happy and enjoying life.

What causes the most arguments? Money, like many people in relationships. And all the things from #15 that I didn't want to list.

How long have you been together? Married for 5 years.




PS wow, I'm glad I have a nicer camera now than when all of these were taken!

PPS sorry there are no older pictures of us dating; the pics I do have are in Josh's room now while he's taking a nap, and I'd have to scan them. I might add some later. Maybe.

Christmas Drawings

Last year, you may recall that I posted some of my portfolio drawings, including two of Joseph's nieces. I drew their portraits for Christmas gift in 2004, using some photos I'd taken of them during a visit the previous summer:

Sadie

Jordan

Keep in mind that these were drawn on very textured paper which really doesn't scan well, plus the colors are totally wrong in the copy. Too bad I don't have the originals anymore, huh? Anyway, since that time, Jordan and Sadie now have two younger sisters, and their parents had expressed interest in having drawings done of the other two girls. So this year for Christmas, that is what we are giving them.
The only pictures I have of the girls are some Easter pictures of them all together, but I had fun coming up with fun backgrounds for each girl that would match the outdoor theme of the previous two drawings.
For this first one, I was imitating the nice background from one of the pieces in the Portrait Series I finished last month. I didn't actually look at it (which I probably should have) but I decided to add some blue at the top to hint at a sky. I'm not sure if it works, but the colors look nice with her eyes and dress:

Becca

For the second daughter, I wasn't sure what to do. The green color wouldn't really go with her eyes or dress, so I started out just doing a vague purple background, with the idea of doing some kind of indistinct hill, similar to that behind Jordan in the first portrait.
At the last minute, I decided to have some more fun with it. I went online and found some different sunrise photos that had the colors I wanted to use, and I found a few references of tree silhouettes. I knew that most people might not want something like this hanging on their wall, finding it too distracting from the face, but I didn't think Joseph's family would mind:

Gabrielle

I like how both of these turned out; the first one will be a great wall portrait, and I love the illustrative quality of the second. They'll go well with the others on the wall, because the originals both had strong purple and green shades.
In a lot of ways, I feel these are much better that the first two; the paper I used is more conducive to my drawing style, and it helps that I just finished so many childrens' portraits so I have had more practice lately. The first two were done after a long absence from drawing anything of the kind.
I hope they like them! I am sending these already framed, because I'm afraid that if I don't, they'll get ruined or lost before they make it on the wall.

Five Years

This Saturday is our five year anniversary! It seems like yesterday, yet I feel I've been married forever. Thanks, Joseph, for putting up with me for so long....I'll try to be really nice this weekend, because you know....I love you !



(Not that I'm not nice every day. Right? ;)

Another Doctors Appointment

Last week, we took Elora to her 3 year well child check up (a little late) and Joshua to his 18 month check up (a week early.) As always, a trip to the doctor is very entertaining.

Our adventure started in the waiting area, where the small practice has rid themselves of all the kids toys they used to have. So, our young protagonists took it upon themselves to find their own entertainment. This consisted mainly of running down the two hallways toward the exam rooms, each choosing a different direction simultaneously. What fun!

Once we passed the running around stage, Joshua enticed Elora to come stand with him at the low drinking fountain, where he splashed water all over the floor in a manner quite reminiscent of the way he does in the hallway at church every Sunday. Mom let them continue their splashing, relieved that at least they weren't running in on patients down the hall.

Then it was our turn to go to a room of our own! Elora has always loved going to the doctor, but Joshua still remembers getting shots three months ago, so he was less than excited. They weighed both of them in the hall, Elora on a standing scale, and Joshua on the baby scale that he can sit or lay in. He has feared these since birth; I think it has something to do with the crinkly paper they are covered with. He burst into tears immediately, which crying escalated once he saw the familiar room to which we were led. He wouldn't stop until the nurse left us alone in the room.

The nurse had to return and reweigh Elora; Josh started screaming at the sound of her voice, even though she stayed out of sight in the hall. Poor nurse.

This time we saw yet another new doctor (there was another young lady doctor at the practice that we liked, but she moved away just like our first doctor), this one was a man. He seemed nice enough, and not quite as dense as the one who mistook a two-and-a-half year old Elora for a nine-month-old.

Surprisingly, Joshua calmed down after a minute or so, and seemed to like the male doctor. He even started playing peekaboo behind a curtain that was in the room. Elora was very good for her check-up, and everything seemed to be going fine until the doctor started asking odd questions about her weight. He asked how she was eating, and if she was sick or if we had concerns. Then he asked how much she weighed at home, to which I replied that we don't own a scale so I couldn't say.

Then he confided that their scale showed a significant drop in weight: her two-year-old records had her at 28 pounds, and now she weighed 19. I looked at him incredulously. Did he really think that was accurate? I mean...Joshua weighs 25 pounds, and Elora is soooo much bigger than him. And healthy. After some more questions, and my insistence that their measurements were obviously wrong, the doctor took her out to the scale himself, and found her to be 35 pounds.

Yeah, you think? I recalled when we first moved here, and a nurse weighed Joshua as the same size as when he was born, even though he was two months old. They didn't think anything of it until I made a comment about it. My esteem for the nurses has now gone down as well...but with good cause, don't you agree?

The rest of the exam went without further incident....until the doctor called me later that evening. At well child exams, they ask really corny questions to assess your child's development. Questions like: "Can she jump on one foot? Can he walk backwards?" Well, it seems that this doctor had forgotten to ask me a few of these questions, and he really needed to ask me over the phone so they could have it on record.

He asked about Elora things like, "Can she draw straight lines and circles?" (I had told him she could write some of the letters in her name. Hello.) I just found myself thinking, "Okay, my kids were talking to you, and obviously intelligent; did you really need to call me about this?"

Ah, yet another exciting visit to the doctor.

Grateful

Sometimes, I find myself wishing I had something more significant to blog about, some underlying purpose to my posts that would make them more sensational. Then I stumble across blogs that are more significant.
The family that inexplicably lost a three year old girl that looks so much like Elora. The couple that has been trying so hard to get pregnant and they finally are expecting twins!....only to loose them before they are born. The parents who were tragically burned in a plane accident, or the countless others who have children suffering from cancer or other maladies.
After reading my fill, I come away from the computer with tears in my eyes, grateful that, for now, I have nothing more sensational to write about that my everyday life with my little family.

I'll Make a Man Out of You

What I love about these pictures:
Joshua's funny expressions, especially in the last one!
Joseph's face in the first picture.
How red Josh's hair looks in these!
The leftover shaving cream still on Joseph's neck.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, my brother Thain came to visit us! He goes to college about two hours away, and my parents were going to visit my grandma in Arizona, so we were glad to have him.
Elora was very excited, because Uncle Thain likes to play with her. She got so spoiled, she will probably be disappointed when Joseph's brother visits and he doesn't follow her every beck and call.

"Stay there Uncle Thain, mom's taking a picture of me."

Elora had a great time playing out on the playground with him while we put the finishing touches on dinner.

Joseph was the chef of the day, and was very proud of his turkey. He was sad that I didn't take a picture of just the turkey. Silly boy.

Yummy stuff!!

Unfortunately, Joshua fell asleep just before it was time to eat, so he didn't make it into the family picture:



He didn't seem to mind..both he and Elora loved the Thanksgiving food (surprisingly) and Joshua was especially fond of the pie selection! Thain brought Lemon Meringue, which I haven't had for years because Joseph doesn't like it. Yummy.



The rest of the day was filled with fun and shenanigans with Elora's favorite Uncle.


Since Thain was here, we decided to get our Christmas tree a week earlier than usual, so he could be a part of the decorating. Not that we have tons of decorations. In the five years we've been married, we hadn't yet bought a star...so we bought one the day after this picture. It was time.


Thain was very nice and offered to watch our kids that afternoon so that Joseph and I might go to a movie together! When we came home, Thain was even doing the dishes, as he knows I don't like to do them. Yay Thain! My favorite brother who visited on Thanksgiving!

We drove Thain home late that night. Elora was sad that he wasn't coming home with us again, but both she and Joshua were glad that he had come!

Like Father Like Son

Ever since Joshua was small, people have been saying he looks like his dad. But I couldn't really see it. To me, his almost-there red hair and his big brown eyes made him a dead ringer for my younger brothers.

Whenever people would note his similarity to his daddy, I was sure they must think that only because of the similar hairlines:



Even when their smiles would seem strikingly similar, I chalked it all up to coincidence and lighting.



But lately, as I've seen more pictures of them together....





Its started to jump out at me. Wow. They DO kind of have the same smile, don't they?



And even when they're serious, there is just something so similar....




about that eyebrow line. And cheeks, nose, and mouth. Hmmm.




What do you think?

Blog Awards Galore!

So the title of this post isn't exactly accurate: I haven't received blog awards galore. Only two. But hey, TWO...thats pretty good!
My friend Julie at Mes Bijoux just nominated me for this award:



Yay! Julie is a friend of mine from my hometown; we were acquainted in high school, but didn't become good friends 'till we were in our twenties. I'm so glad I know her.
This meme is attached to the award, so I suppose I'll do it so I can claim it. I know I've done tons of these, so...I hope I don't repeat too much.

7 things I've done before

1. Stood on a downtown Seattle street waiting for the bus at 11:30 at night, and not been scared.
2. Sang Alto in a performing choir. I can only sing Alto if everyone else around me is as well.
3. Got a perfect score of 36 on the reading section on my ACT test. (I've mentioned this before. I'm such a bragger.)
4. Took my first airplane trip at age 23.
5. Talked to a homeless person for almost an hour.
6. Visited The Grand Canyon, Zion Nat'l Park, Yellowstone, Mt. Rainier, and the Redwood Forest multiple times.
7. Sat on Paul Bunyan's foot.

7 things I do now

1. Write a regular blog.
2. Take care of my two children.
3. Watch Dr. Who, Smallville, Heroes, and in the winter, Lost.
4. Take photos of my kids and play with Photoshop.
5. Keep journals for myself and my kids, plus their baby books, plus too many photo albums, and three scrapbooks.
6. Talk to my sister and my mom on the phone about every other day.
7. Make the weekly bulletin and program for church every Sunday.

7 things I want to do

1. Be a more patient mother and wife.
2. Be a better friend, a more social person, more compassionate, less easily offended.
3. Have another cute baby someday to take pictures of.
4. Write and Illustrate a book (but not right now, I'm so not motivated.)
5. Become a more eloquent writer....and regain some of my vocabulary I seem to have lost since birthing children.
6. Become a better photographer.
7. Visit Great Britain for a significant amount of time, as well as visit all the ancient civilizations and art meccas: Italy, France, Greece, etc.

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex

1. Positive attitude, happy, friendly.
2. Ambitious..or at least not lazy and unmotivated.
3. Strong convictions without imposing them on others.
4. Intelligence, interested in learning in the world around them: outer space, physical sciences, history, social issues, etc.
5. Compassion for others.
6. Social, but not annoyed with me for not being social. (He can cover for me at parties.)
7. Clever.

7 Favorite Foods (not in order.)

1. Homemade Pizza with pineapple, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, hamburger, and cheese (Joseph's or my mom's recipes.)
2. Chicken Croquets with cream cheese, mushrooms, and spinach (a'la Joseph)
3. Blizzards from Dairy Queen...any kind with fruit, like Strawberry Cheesecake.
4. Teriyaki Chicken with rice from Nasai, (a chain in Seattle) eaten with chopsticks only.
5. Teriyaki Chicken sandwich from Red Robin (with pineapple), with Strawberry Lemonade.
6. Turkey Avocado BLT on a giant crescent roll.
7. Any pie on Thanksgiving: Pumpkin Chiffon, Apple, Chocolate, Lemon Merengue, Cherry, Banana Cream, etc.
I am so hungry right now.

7 things I Say Most Often:

1. Elora, leave Joshua alone! When he cries, it means, "Let go!"
2. Joshua, get out of the toilet!
3. Elora, don't let Joshua in the bathroom while you go potty!
4. Hi, Kiera.
5. No, you can't have cookies (candy, chocolate, treats) for dinner!
6. Elora please sit down and eat your dinner. NOW!
7. Joseph, wake up, you're missing your show. Yes you were sleeping. Yes, you were.

I am supposed to tag some people, but I really don't know who...I've tagged or others have...all the people that spring to mind. Hmm. I know this is lame, but anyone who would like to do this tag, please feel free...I'd love to read about you!

Update in Soundbytes

My brother Thain is coming to our house for Thanksgiving. Dain might possibly come too, but you never know.

I'm excited, except for the gas money to go pick up and take home, two hours away.

I don't think our oven can hold a turkey, its only half sized. How can you make a whole Thanksgiving meal in a half size oven?



I've been working on our Annual Newsletter. I always feel like a dork, because I have nothing to say..just like two sentences....about me, but there are tons of things Joseph has been doing this year.

I worry that his family thinks I don't do anything all day. (They're all boys. At least I don't have the pressure of having a mother-in-law.)

Speaking of which, Joseph's brother is visiting us the week before Christmas. I worry about entertaining him while Joseph is at work...at least he doesn't have school that week!

This brother has some different lifestyles and values than us, but he's really nice. I'm worried he'll be bored in our conservative, smaller town. I probably shouldn't worry. He's the only one out of J's five siblings that ever visits us. Though he's never been to this state before.

I'm working on two drawings as Christmas gifts. I'm trying to motivate myself to finish them.

I want to visit my sister in Texas for Christmas. We don't have enough money. But we still want to go. But we're entertaining my brother(s), then Joseph's brother (Whom we'll be picking up at the airport two hours away), and that will drain our money further.




We would definitely drive...I looked at airline tickets, just to see, and I almost died. Ridiculous.

I'm mostly excited about driving through states I've never been in. Make that nervous. Aren't all the 17 car pileups in the Midwest in winter?



I'm tempted to just go anyway, and hope it works out itself. But then we might not be able to pay our bills for December. Darn it.

Not to mention buying Christmas presents.




I'm not worried about the kids: between us, my parents, and Joseph's brother that is WAY too generous with his nieces and nephews, they will be perfectly happy for Christmas. But Joseph is a big kid, and wants good presents too.

It drives me nuts.

At least he doesn't want electronics...oh wait, I'm sure he'd like them, but he's smart enough to know its not practical.



Why can't he be happy with getting wrapped candy bars as some of his presents? My parents always did that. But then, they never spent more than $100 on each of us. Ever.

I think I should implement that policy too.

(yay for candy bar presents!)

I should remind Joseph to buy presents before December 21st this year. Boys.

Sketchbook

I have no intentions of turning this into an all art blog, all the time, but this is what I've got right now, people.

I've never been very good at keeping a sketchbook. Unlike journals, which I am fairly consistent with, I can never keep up with filling a book with drawings. I've always wanted to do one of those drawing journals, you know, chronicling some journey I go on, or sketching the people I passed at the outdoor market. If I went to an outdoor market.

I've tried several times, buying fresh sketchbooks every year or so, with grand plans on chronicling my life. Or at least doing some fantastic figure studies, so my sketchbook will be as exciting to peruse as that of Leonardo DaVinci.

Yeah, not so much. I tend to do my best sketches on scraps of paper when I'm supposed to be doing something else. However, I do have a small 5x7ish sketchbook that I actually managed to partially fill over a few years.

I dug it out the other day, so that I could do this sketch:


It is one of the reference pics I was sent for the portrait series I just finished. I thought it was way too cute not to draw...plus it includes the Grandpa that commissioned all the pictures!
Anyway, while I had the sketchbook out, I got to looking through it, and found that it really did chronicle a small bit of my life- approximately 1999-2002 . Lets see what I found.

I had drawn a few portraits of my teachers before I moved out of my hometown (Coincidentally, the man holding the baby was also a teacher of mine) :



I also had a few sketches of my siblings, which I planned on using for studies for later paintings (which would include different people):

The painting created from this was supposed to be in the style of Georges de Latour's Repentant Magdalene paintings.

Thain...a lot younger.

When I started taking the Bainbridge ferry to work every day in December of 2001, I thought it would be brilliant to sketch people and things on each trip. That lasted about a week....when I realized a half hour ferry ride was the perfect place to take a nap. So most of these are from the first week, and then a few from the very end of that year before I moved to Seattle proper. We rode the commuter ferry- which means it was during the hours that it was completely full of business people going to and from work.

My Uncle rode with me most everyday. He slept a lot. This is him, and some random lady.

Uncle's face close up. He looks like Mr. Bean in this drawing.

Uncle reading important work papers. (He was the VP of Human Resources.)


My pants are the plaid ones. They weren't as cool I wish they were.


One of our friends from church, and a lady with whom my Uncle had been riding the ferry for years. Her husband was on our bench I think.

Lots of busy people going home. I like this one, and wish I had more like it.


Maybe a late night ferry- because there are young people, and its not very full.

I did one or two drawings chronicling my work place. I wish I'd done more of these too, because in the three plus years I worked there, my work station moved several times, and everything continually changed...mostly because of our being taken over by another business, and our corporate headquarters slowly shrinking.

This was my first work area at Airborne Express.




And this is from the two horrible weeks I had to work in the collections department. I had a paper cut. I think they were trying to be nice to me, because it was a higher level department than where I was working before. But I was so miserable there, I was ecstatic when I got to go back to my old duties!

I regret all the things I didn't catch in my sketchbook: late night busses through downtown, the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is, observation decks looking out on Puget Sound, my coworkers. But I'm glad to have at least these few memories recorded.