I've been lucky enough to have a very talented Father whom has made many artistic creations.

In my home hang four of his works of art.

I always looked forward to the things that my Dad made for me. He painted a table with strawberries all over it when I was a little girl. I don't know what happened to that table, I think it was given away. :-( I would love to have been able to give that to my little girl. He also painted a doll crib for me with a little girl that wore a bonnet. Same as the table, I don't know what happened to my little doll crib.

When I was in elementary school, I remember watching my Dad create oil paintings. This is one of them. This particular painting doesn't have a good history, as it was an object that my parents fought over in their divorce. My Dad won.

For a long time, Dad would offer this painting to me to take home. I would pass on the opportunity to take it because of the symbolic nature that the picture held for me.

I didn't want my Mother to come to my home and see the painting hanging in my home, especially after the energy she spent on trying to keep it! I eventually got over that hang up and am very proud to have this painting hanging in my home.

One of the things that my Dad really loves to draw, in this case paint, are columbines. I've had this painting for a very long time, and I honestly cannot recall when I took possession of it! I know it was after I was married. It was hanging in the stairwell to my basement and one day I realized that NO ONE besides myself and my family were able to enjoy the painting because of its location. I decided to hang it in my living room! I think it goes great in there!

I love the round frame this painting rests in. It's old and interesting, to me!

This plaque painting has companion paintings that went with it! There was a plaque with the name VANCE on it which had a few black ribbons that hung down with additional owls painted on them. I believe that my brother may have the other piece to this plaque. I wish that it could stay together, but at the same time, I'm glad that both my brother and I have these pieces. They tie us to our childhood with good memories of those times!

Phobia of Choppers

For the last ten or so years, I’ve developed a phobia of helicopters.

When I was a little girl, I would have this reoccurring dream where I step out of my home on Montrose Avenue and look up at the night sky to hear the neighbors screaming look at all of those helicopters, which turned out NOT to be helicopters. It was a terrifying dream, and I would have to say that I probably had the dream at the least 10 times, if not more and I’ve had it as an adult as well.

I’ve had other dreams where there are modified single-man choppers that have landed in the neighborhood where I live now. They are always searching for ME. I immediately drew the vessel upon waking up on a piece of paper. In this same dream a large military helicopter crashes behind my house in the ally and I’m screaming as I run and grab my children and head for the house for safety.

I believe these dreams have lead to my phobia of helicopters. Along with the fact that I feel every single medical, traffic, passenger, crop-duster, and military chopper flies LOW over my house.

About three years ago, Ashleigh wanted go to a function at her pre-school. She kept telling me that there would be a helicopter there. At the time, her communication skills weren’t the best, so when we go to the school and the helicopter wasn’t there, she wasn’t very happy. We went to the different stations they had set up for the kids, and then finally an emergency medical helicopter flew in and landed in the school yard.

I was having quit a hard time being that close to a landing helicopter. Once it landed and turned its blades off we stood in line so that she could see the inside of the chopper. It was pretty cool and I would love to one day ride in a chopper, but I still hold the fear of them.

On October 25 I was outside in the yard doing the first round of leave raking. For about 20 minutes I heard the deep sound of the familiar military helicopter blades chopping the sky above. I couldn’t seem to see where they were. Finally, I walked to the back yard and saw the triangular formation of the military choppers as they approached my house. Another ten minutes went buy before they finally flew over head,
heading north to Cheyenne. These guys were thundermakers!!!

I would love to be rid of this phobia!!!

Sunsets in Review 2008

Today is a NEW day.
I celabrate the opportunity for CHANGE!
I'm saddened by the FEAR most feel about the future we hold in OUR hands.
I'm disgusted that RACE still holds a very large part of the FEAR of this country.
FEAR breeds HATE!

I'm saddened and disgusted by this video:

Leaves, Leaves and More Leaves!

A blanket of leaves covers the lawn, smothering the green to a sea of yellow. The weather has been so nice for the past week. The day of this shot the temperature was in the mid 70s. This shot is looking to the West in the front yard that faces North. My Cottonwood is really the only one leaving this mess behind.

This shot is looking to the South from the NorthEast tip of my front yard. As you can see, I have a lot of work ahead of me. I didn't have Luke out helping me rake because he was with his Dad for his birthday weekend. Otherwise he would have been working off debt.

As I raked I made many piles. This one is just one of five piles I made in the front yard and was the largest!!

I loaded my wheelbarrow several times as full as it would let me fill it without leaving a trail of leaves behind to have to re-rake and deposit back into the wheelbarrow.

As fast as I filled the wheelbarrow, the leaves rained from the sky. Well, actually, they rained from the tree above and the tree itself still had quite a bit of leaves to fall and basically I was raking for no good reason because I'd have to do it again!

I hauled leaves to the back yard to my garden area. The leaves went from being a pile to a mound and what seemed like a mountain! There was a huge hole in the garden where Luke decided to dig what looked like a burial plot and I used garden dirt to fill a hole that my dog Bertha dug back in 2004 so the leaves filled these holes and still made a large mound.

After getting the huge pile of leaves in the front yard, I had a pile of leaves in the side yard that begged to be moved before I could quit.

Mika waited patiently as I raked, loaded, hauled, dumped, raked, loaded, hauled, dumped and repositioned my piles for another load to be loaded, hauled, and dumped in the back yard. I left the side gate open and even forgot that I left the gate open and she only ran after a neighborhood cat when I had stopped to get a drink of water and forgot about her being outside with the gate open.

Once I finished with the majority of the raking of the leaves and hauling of the same to the garden, I sat on my back porch and enjoyed the late afternoon light just as it hit the pumkins that the kids didn't take to carve with their Dad. I thought they made the most beautiful orange glow. You really cannot get that effect with my cell phone camera, but you get the idea.

After all that hard work, it was nice to be able to sit on the back porch and watch the sun setting behind the clouds, soon to the be mountains and then the entire earth as nights shadow settled upon the land.

Yeah, I'm cheesy. The next morning was Monday and after Matthew returned home from school he sent me a text to let me know that our neighbors to the East had blown all the leaves that gathered again on the lawn to the other side of the yard, completely blanketing my NorthWest lawn again!!! I have to work this evening after getting home to get the leaves hauled to the back before the weather changes tomorrow into Thursday!

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.