Painted Faces

When I was a little girl, my dad would paint faces on pumpkins. He would paint faces on pumpkins for his school classes, the church, his friends, or me. One year I was really into Miss Piggy from the Muppets and he painted a pumpkin for me that looked just like her. He constructed her blond locks with yellow construction paper. He curled her hair with a pencil. I LOVED IT.

As the years have passed, I've attempted my shot at painting faces on pumpkins. Of course, mine will NEVER be as good as my very artistic Dad's, but I think it is fun just the same and I have enjoyed sharing that creative urge with my kids, every now and again. This year, Ashleigh wanted to carve the pumkins I grew in the yard over the summer. They are really too small to be good Jack-o-lantern pumpkins so I told her that we could paint a couple and that she and her brother's could take the rest to their Dad's to carve for Halloween, since they will be with him this year.

This is the end result of my creativity. It's not the best, but I enjoyed spending the time with my little girl to do something that she has been begging me to finish.

After a rough dinner, Ashleigh asked if she could paint her pumpkin since I had painted the whites of the eyes on them two nights before and they were beginning to get moved around and looking like they wouldn't get finished. We couldn't find any decent brushes and I was beginning to get a little frazzled. I decided to just let go and use what we had.

This is Ashleigh's version of her creation. I didn't do the regular lesson that my Dad would do when building the face of the pumkin, first because I needed to get Luke moving on finishing his homework so he can get better marks in school, and secondly because I cannot remember the lesson that he would give while painting the face. I just let her go all in and do it the way that she wanted.

I think that she did a pretty good job on a pumpkin face for a little person that has never done this activity with her mother before. I cannot recall if she was with Dad and I the last time that we painted pumkins together back in Longmont several years ago.

Ashleigh went all in and added a few written words on her pumpkin since I had added Happy Halloween, 2008 to mine. She added her name, and the phrase, I so pretty! She cracks me up! She even went as far as to add two faces to her pumkin.

I believe she was telling me this face was Jackson. A boy that goes to her school. She kept saying his name over and over again. I think she is crushing. I can't believe how much she is like her mother! I'm really in for the long haul!

Once we were finished painting our pumkins, we set them aside and there was paint left over on our little paint dish. Asheligh asked that we both paint our pumkins on a piece of paper. She handed me mine as she began work on hers. I think she had a different idea of what I was suppose to do, but in the end, she liked the picture that I painted for her!

I'm glad that I took the time to sit with Ashleigh and do an activity with her. Sometimes we let life rush by us without stopping to see what's in front of us. Before I know it, she will be an adult and all I will have left are my memories of her! I LOVE YOU ASHLEIGH.

Luke Allan

Luke, my baby.

I know he hates when I say that! He makes this face that is disapproving as he shakes his head.

He's mostly kind to everyone with the exception of his little sister that gets the brunt of his "brotherly" love.
He has always been my most adventurous. Ever since I can remember he was running, jumping, and tackling like a football player. One of his teachers recently suggested that Luke join track. I think that would be a good activity for Luke to become involved with!

Luke loves to hang out with his older brother. A couple of years ago they had friends that were siblings and they all ranged in the same age, i.e. Matthew's friend was his age, while her sibling was Luke's age, and they would all hang out together.

Ever since the day Luke was born, he's been able to look into my eyes and reach deep into my soul. I've always felt more calm around Luke and have always enjoyed his company. He's mostly kind and considerate of other's feelings and he will do what he can to help someone that needs it in his subtle little way.

Luke let's a lot of things roll off his back. He even let's his older brother stand on him! I guess that makes up for all the times that he would run and plow his older brother over.

Generally, all three kids get along. Once in a while however, they go at each other and I would like to pull my hair out! They all know how to push each other's buttons and get each other worked up, however, Luke generally runs under the radar. Being in the middle sometimes makes him invisible.

I love when he and his siblings can do things together and enjoy each other's company without an adult around. I love to catch them in candid moments when they don't have any idea someone is watching. In this one, they were looking at slugs at Grandma and Grandpa Vance's house in Colorado Springs for Grandpa's birthday!

Thirteen years have come and are soon to go. Luke will be turning 13 next Sunday, November 2, The Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos). I am learning as I go, just as Luke is learning. I want him to know that if he works hard and puts his mind to what he has to accomplish he will fly through life without problem.

Instructions for Life

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE
Dali Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's:

Respect for self
Respect for others and
Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Accomplished

I've been neglecting a few things around the ol' abode.

1. My Yard
2. My Laundry
3. My cleaning chores
4. Washing/Vacuuming my car
5. Helping Ashleigh clean her room

This weekend, after Dad decided that it would be too much to drive to St. George, UT for my grandmother's 80th birthday, I looked at my place and decided I needed to do something about it!

I got out the rake and raked the neighbor's tree leaves into the garden under the trumpet vine.

I finally mowed my lawn and felt so much better about the way that my yard looks.

Ashleigh Jo

My little girl, growing up so fast! She reminds me so much of me that I think it is funny!! One thing I admire about my little girl is that she speaks up and says what is on her mind without worrying about hurting your feelings. I love that raw edge that comes about her!!

When she was little, she had a hard time communicating what she wanted to say. She was doing the usual baby babbling, and then she regressed and quit the baba, dada, mama. She quit babbling like a lot of little ones her age and everytime I would say something to our family doctor, he would tell me that her brothers were probably talking for her and that it was a phase that would pass. I didn't like his answer!

I eventually got through to the doctor that the way that her speach was developing was not normal and I was becoming ever more frustrated with her self-mutilating attacks on herself when she couldn't get us to understand what it was that she was trying to say! He referred me to Centennial Boces in Weld County and I made an appointment for Ashleigh to see their evaluators as soon as possible!

The day we went to have her evaluated she sat silently as she was instructed to do this task or that task. At some points she would look straight ahead of her like no one was in the room!

They approved her for speech therapy and pre-school. Ashleigh started school a week before she turned three.

I am greatful that our county had a program that helped Ashleigh come out of her shell!! She began to make the necessary connections with speech and the sounds that came out of her mouth. The temper tantrums weren't as bad and once we could get her to calm down enough to communicate what she was trying to say things became easier for her!

Ashleigh eventually would mimic her teachers. She would use the little whiteboard she received for Christmas to write her classmate's names and act out what happened in class that day. She is doing wonderful with school and when she has eventual hangups on things I'll have to remember that she needs patience and understanding and most of all love from her Mommy!!! She is my little spitfire, mostly happy and energetic. She loves her parents and she loves to bug her siblings. She enjoys her time with her grandparents and she is the light of my life.

Good-bye Old Cottonwood!

I've lived in my little home for 11 years now. When I moved in to the house, I had three large cottonwood trees that towered over the house. One in the front yard, NE side, and two in the back yard, SW and SE side.

The shade the trees provided was great for breaking the heat of the summer and wonderful for the windbreak for both winter and summer storms.

As the years have passed the trees began to show signs of aging. I guess the type of cottonwood trees in my yard have a life span of about 30 years and then they die off rapidly. My house was built in 1962 and the old westerly neighbor, an elder lady, told me that the two trees in the back yard were planted shortly after the house was built. They were past their prime in 1992.

Large branches off the main trunck were beginning to fall during wind storms and snow storms. After the blizard of 2003 we discovered a branch became impaled in the roof above Ashleigh's bedroom and had to be repaired so the roof would not leak.

I eventually had to have one of the trees cut down and the stump ground. I stayed home for the first day of that job. The arborists had their boom truck extended as far as it would go and then were standing on the outside of the boom bucket to cut the branches that still extended another 10'-15' above their heads. I couldn't stay to watch the rest of the tree come down.

Shortly after Jeff moved out, I had another tree service come and start cutting the remaining tree down. I got a good deal for what was remaining and hoped to have the tree gone for good. They got so far and quit on me and I haven't seen them since!

What you cannot see in these first two pictures is that there is still about 10' above the line where the pictures cuts off.

We recently met our new westerly neighbors and they were really pushing that I get this 20' plus stump cut down so that they wouldn't have to look at this eye sore from their "new" home.

I called The Tree Guys and had them come out to give me a quote for the price of finishing the removal of this tree and grinding of the left over stump.

I scheduled for the next weekend as they were trimming the trees for the new neighbors that same weekend and they thought that if they cut my tree down, they could use my yard to get to the trees in their yard.

Well, they were mostly finished with my tree when the skies opened up and dumped three days of rain so they couldn't finish the tree or the neighbor's trees as planned that weekend.


What you are seeing here is just the very most bottom of the stump. They had to get out of there in a hurry because the lightning was more than anyone could handle and the skies spit the rain as if it was an ocean! Four days later and with a lot of grinding...

...now all that is left is a pile of mulch that I need to get moved into gardens, but first, I have plenty of weeds that need to be pulled!!!

Work is never ending!!!