You never know...

 So I was on my way to Target, and I hit every red light...traffic....construction. I was frustrated because a 15 minute drive ended up taking 45 minutes. Did my shopping, and on my way home, more traffic. But the cause of it was a 4 car accident in the lane I normally head home on.
I decided to sit and be grateful. If it took me the normal time to get to Target, I easily could have been in that accident.

Moral of the story: bad things may happen, but there might be reason, life is too short to stress the small stuff.

I am home safe with one kitten on my lap, and one next to me...life is good.

Some more deck progress

Temp driving the 17ft truck.

Templeton and I had to rent a truck on Saturday to pick up our composite. 55 pieces, 16 feet long. The guys that worked in the yard first offered to deliver it for us, and that was a selling point to buy from Home Emporium-but then they called and said their trailer was broken, and we'd have to get it ourselves. Grrrrr...
So we rented a UHAUL, and picked up the composite. It took them at least a half and hour to figure out HOW to load it in the truck, an hour total getting it in there.

We came home, unloaded the truck with the help from the Werners. Then we got to work. We needed to start the framing. This part is crucial because you want everything level--everyone wants a level deck! Teamwork and determination got us this far, more in the coming week. It's really starting to look like a deck, and it's nice to really see how big it's going to be!

The Conference Conclusion

Me- doing my thing.

So I think things went really well. Everyone showed up, and had some extras that just wanted to watch because it was "sold out" (you had to get a ticket to attend). One thing I wasn't expecting was for people to finish their projects, but most did!
They made their own cartoon character, traced the characters on transparency, painted their characters with at least 2 coats of acrylic paint, then did a watercolor background. The transparency lays on the background and you have an animation cel!
Here are pics from the event:

They all worked, the whole time, and it was really quiet...it was kinda crazy!

In progress...

This one was a little more simple, but she definitely got the gist of it!

One of the finished products. This woman had never made a cartoon before!

 Everyone really seemed to enjoy the lesson and expressed their gratitude for a new lesson in the classroom. I am glad I challenged myself, stepped out of my comfort zone, and I think I have grown from the experience!!

VAEA Conference 2010

Today thru Saturday I am attending my first state art educators' conference. Today I went to a "whimsical clay workshop." We learned how to make cool clay heads and bodies. Turns out I ended up picking a really cool workshop with a good instructor. Here is what I made, kinda of a cross between an old school bank robber and a french dude! Obviously it's not finished, we had a very limited time, but I know I want to do something similar with my kids!

Tomorrow I am presenting a workshop on making animation cels called "Animate Yourself". I am really nervous, I get nervous about presenting in front of my peers. I feel like they are more judgmental. Plus I don't have the pleasure of running to my cart or closet for supplies I may have forgotten. This project entails acrylic paint, 3 different kids of paper, watercolors, brushes, pencils, worksheets, comic book strips, power point, and even more. I went to the room I am presenting in this afternoon, and it seems big! Here it is below.

I wanted to present to challenge myself. I feel like my lesson is fun and creative and I feel that more teachers need to have fun with more contemporary projects. Most kids are successful at this project, and all come out looking differently, so you can't lose!
Tomorrow I will post some pics of how it went!
Think of me between 1:50-3:50!!

Deck progress...putting in posts

 So this next step was to put gravel in the bottom of each hole, put the post in hand mix cement, and scoop it in.

 TE + KE 2010, had to make our mark!

Me putting in gravel and doing measurements

October weekend-Survive Norfolk, Survive Deck building

Survive Norfolk pics:

 our friend Adam who was participated, next year Temp and I want to too...

 the first zombies to chase the humans

one of the zombie chases...it was fun!

Temp and I worked on digging the holes for our deck posts. 21 holes, 16 inches deep, 8 inches wide. Phew!

Deck progress

Templeton and I have taken on a big project: building our backyard deck! We love being outside, so it needed to be done. So far, we transplanted 2 hydrageas, a golden dust plant, and a hosta. Then we measured out the perimeter of the deck. Lastly, we marked where our posts will be.

This is the drawing of what it will look like. Built in benches and planter. Steps wrapping around the front.

lunchtime!

dad and son at the bar for lunch

happy brothers

crawford in laundry basket

less than 5 min. later

peaking kitten

we saw this little head peak up while cleaning the kitchen. he's sitting on the bar stool

little buddy

midge, newly adopted

madge (seen below), his condo-mate was just adopted, midge, the gray kitty i showed a couple of posts ago. i had to give him lots of love because his buddy was gone. i love our job!

madge, needs a home!

canoeing on a friday afternoon

Bird's Eye View of MY childhood home

Templeton inspired me to look at my childhood home via Bing's Bird's Eye View program. My parents moved from this house like 7 or so years ago, so it's been awhile.  3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bath.
Here is Morristown, NJ:

date night!

Community Service

This summer vacation, one of my goals was to find a community service project that I could dedicate my time to. I tried a soup kitchen, and researched many opportunities, but nothing seemed to fit either my likes or time availability. Sal passed away and at the time, Temp and I saw nothing positive to come from it. Not to be negative, but he wasn't suffering, he was young, we just felt like we were punished with his life taken away from us.

We always knew that our next pets would be from a shelter (Norfolk Animal Care Center), and then we got Crawford and Jasper. The women that helped us thru the adoption mentioned a need for volunteers and that seemed like the perfect project. The cool thing was that Templeton was interested too! We went thru orientation and some animal handling training, and now we are volunteer staff.

Temp and I take pictures and video for the website (we firmly believe in that form of marketing because that's how we found our little guys!!) We also will hang out with the animals, play with them, clean their respective cages out, try to make them feel as comfortable as well. We look forward to special events too. So I believe at the very least, we are helping more animals find homes, and wouldn't be doing this if Sal hadn't passed, so there was something positive that came from it. Here are some of the pictures I have taken so far, hoping they will find a home soon!

time for check-up!

1st visit to the vet...good boys
all is good, kitties are healthy!

Look what I found

I heard some weird noises...looked down and found this!

Kittens make new friends!

Crawford really liked Joe!

The kitties met Sophie the dog as well, they were freaked out at first!

Jasper wanted no part

Crawford was hesitant, but started letting his guard down

Crawford felt safe near Emily

Memory Box

I had told some about making a memory box for Salvador, here is a picture of it, it really helps with the grieving process:

It includes a portrait that was made as a wedding present, his collar, brush, and favorite toys.