All that and a bunny

Currently Carina and I are in the middle of critiques for her Art of Digital Design class that she is teaching at Jessica Sprague.
It is an AMAZING class that she and Jessica have put out that teaches you all of the secrets *shhhhh, don't say it too loud* of digital design!
One of the assignments in the class is for the students to create kits with papers and elements that they then send in for Carina to critique.
How may you ask do I fit in to all of this?
Oh, you didn't ask?
Well, I'll tell you anyway! I am Carina's Executive Assistant at Carina Gardner Inc. So for this particular project I get to prepare all of these creative kits for critique by her. She then gives them great feedback on how things could be improved or let's them know they are on the right track with their design career after which I scan and upload them back to the students.
It's like being a teachers aide at a really awesome college!
As the pile of critiques begins to dwindle down we decided it was a great day for some down time so Carina called me and told me that one of her neighbors chickens was currently having chicks hatching in their coop and another neighbors rabbit had a wonderful litter of bunnies and if I wanted to witness nature in all of it's glory I better get over there toot sweet. (She didn't say toot sweet but my mom has always said it and I felt this was an appropriate place to throw it out there!)



The chicken mom was not too happy to see all of these little faces and big faces peering over the the side of the coop at her as she worked with delicate pecks to help her little peeping chicks out of their eggs...







It was truly amazing to watch this feathered mother knowing exactly what to do.
"I see the head!" My oldest daughter shouted.
"It's bloody!" The other kids were shouting.
Birthing babies is bloody business I tell ya!
So we decided to let the mother have a break and headed next to the House-O-Rabbits.



I know...right?
My daughter just stood there like that with the bunny pressed to her cheek.
She fell in love.
She has already come up with ten different names for the bunny.
One of those names should be Perfection!







My son wasn't so sure what to think of this wee small thing. He wanted to pet it but then he didn't want to pet it but then he wanted to pet it.
I wanted to tuck all eight bunnies down my shirt and in my pockets and just casually vacate the premises.
Back to the chickens....
















My husband thought I was full of garbage when I told him that chickens were the new puppy in the pet department around the suburbs.
I could have shot pics of them all afternoon.
But then we had to stop to play for awhile.
Carina was offering to push my girls on the swing with an "underdog".
That is when you push them while going completely under the swing so as to get a higher push for them and then there is the element of danger wondering if the person in the swing might fly backwards and knock you down if you don't get out of the way in time!
My girls looked at her like she was on crack.
Why would they possibly want to go that high on the swing?
Her girls thought it was better than candy!




It was a perfect break in the day!
Now back to critiques which will be finished up sometime tonight or tomorrow!

The Good Old Days

What ever happened to the good ol' days. The good ol' days of film where the movie stars were amazing and the films were romantic and you could just sit back and be taken on a journey to another time and place with the stars of the film leading the way!
I just finished a wonderful book about Cary Grant....

who was truly one of the great actors of all time. Because the studios that produced the films back in the day had such tight control over their stars images there is such a great mystery as to what some of them were like in real life.
The studios had control over what they wore, who they were seen with, even what their names should be. If the name sounded to strange or too ethnic they just went ahead and changed it! ( Otherwise it would have been The Wizard of Oz starring Francis Gumm instead of Judy Garland!)
Cary Grant was a star from the 30's clear through the 60's and there was a time period when in less than two years he made thirteen films! THIRTEEN FILMS! Nowadays stars take years off in between projects.

He could play the charming romantic man, the comedic foil or the sinister Hitchcock leading actor...a guy with a bit of an edge that you weren't sure if you trusted or not?

As I was reading the book I decided to check out some of his more famous films from the library.
I watched Hitchcock's "Suspicion" and "Notorious" and was totally taken aback with how sinister Cary Grant could be in "Suspicion".

And now wonderfully romantic and passionate his connection with Ingrid Bergman was in "Notorious".
I have always loved old movies but for some reason the younger version of myself would never watch a Jimmy Stewart or a Cary Grant movie. Something about their distinctive voices that bothered me. Then as I became an adult I decided that maybe I could listen to those two actors without ripping my hair out and low and behold I was introduced to something wonderful!

If you haven't watched old movies I highly recommend them. They take you to another world, one I wished we lived in today.
The fashion, the manners, the hair styles, the cars! (Holy mama the cars! Who decided it would be a good idea to stop making those incredible cars and make the cars we have today?)


Next week AMC is having a Cary Grant marathon on with some of his biggest hits. I myself have the TIVO going for almost 24 hours to record them.
Who are some of your favorite old time movie stars?

HOORAY FOR FALL!!!

Dear My Chemical Romance,

Have I told you lately how much I adore you?
And how absolutely over the top estatic I am that you are finally coming out with a new CD?
My son heard enough of your music while he was in the womb that he also seems to perk up when I mention to him that the new CD is coming out. He is only two but let me tell you he has the chorus of your new song down.....na, na, na, na.
(He also likes the Wiggles so do not fear that he has somehow been corrupted by rock n' roll.)
I want to download the new songs as they pop up on ITunes but that feels like reading the end of a book before you read the beginning.So, I think I am going to have to wait until the release date on November 22 and get the CD so that I can hold it in my hands and listen to it in one fell swoop!
You make me happy! Your music makes me happy! Bright red hair makes me happy!
And being happy is good stuff.
(Do not let the man in the spandex scare you, he is harmless and fully clothed!)

(People c'mon, tell me that you aren't intrigued by what is going to happen in the story? Are the Killjoys dead? Why are the bad guys taking the boy? Will the boy live......
Well, here is a trailer I just saw for the next song "Sing" and can I be honest with you.....I got all fluttery with happiness like you do on a really great rollercoaster, or when you open a Christmas present and realize as you are opening it that it is what you really really wanted.....
FLUTTERY!!!)

So just to sum up this letter My Chemical Romance you:
A. Make me happy
B. Make me fluttery
C. Are the Christmas present that I really really want. You don't even have to be wrapped up in a box. Just bows on your heads sitting under the tree and I'm good!

(And no I was not drinking when I wrote this post)
Love,
Me

Halloween Halloween Trick or Treat

The other night my husband and I were trying to remember all of our Halloween costumes from when we were children.
And sadly I could not remember them all!
These are the one's I do remember in no particular order:
Raggedy Ann
Princess Leia
Flapper Girl
Navy Sailor (used my dad's old Navy uniform)
Roller Disco Girl (It was my best fried Merri's idea. We went as twin roller disco girls and got to wear our roller skates! She was a genius)
When October rolls around I have to say that while I "like" the idea of Halloween the actual stuff that makes up Halloween creeps me out.
I don't like being scared.
No if and's or but's about it.
I HATE super scary costumes. Especially one's that conceal the identidy of the people behind them.
My mom used to ask me why I was bothering going to the Haunted Houses with my friends when I was literally sick to my stomach before going!
This year Miss Thang is going to be a Vampire.
Not your Cullen style vampire but this style....

While I preferred her years as Pop Princesses and Sassy Cats and whatnot I have to say this actually turned out pretty cool!
She wore it for her piano recital where all of the students dressed up (even the teacher dressed up) and played Halloween songs.
Her song was "The Wily Witch".
In other bits of random news that sort of have to do with Halloween and sort of not....
check this out.

Wouldn't you say that Keith Richards could qualify as ghoulish? Which puts him smack dab in the Halloween category!
I bet you didn't know I collect random biography/auto biographies, books on rock musicians, their wives/lovers/friends/roadies etc. from the 60's?
I started reading this book (Life By Keith Richards) on my Nook (you get the first 25-72 sample pages for free). Then today I trucked on down to Costco (cheaper there then anywhere else...sorry local booksellers) to pick it up and finish it. I had to have the hard copy for my collection.
Brian does not like to let me forget that when we met I said that Keith Richards was sexy.
He thought I meant this Keith Richards

But I meant this Keith Richards.....

The younger, pre-decomposed Keith Richards!
I am not sure how much new information I will get out of this book but it seems like it will be a good read!
And now it is time to go do some reading, watch the finale of Project Runway and get some sleep.....from the looks of that picture of me and the bags under my eyes I must need some!

Truly Great

My husbands grandmother passed away a little over a week ago. It was a very special thing for my children to have a great grandmother. I could barely fathom the idea of them having a great grandmother when I lost two of my grandparents by the time I was five years old, my mother's father passed away before she was even married and my dad's mother passed away when I was twelve.
I always told my husband he was so lucky to have a grandmother still alive because I would have loved to have that kind of time with my grandparents now.
He was right by her side the last few days of her life.
The children miss her. Especially my Little One. She has taken it the hardest. She has a very tender heart.
They loved to go and visit their Grandma Mae.
They loved her stories.
And my boy loved the tennis balls affixed to the bottom of her walker to keep it from sliding.
He thought those tennis balls were the best thing since sliced bread!
The last visit the kids had with her was such a great visit.
Despite her having bits of dementia coming on, the last day the kids went to see her she was on the ball!
She told them stories about the dog the she bought for her children when they were little. She was remembering all of the wonderful details of her life that were beginning to fade.
The Boy crawled up on the bed beside her and she held his hand.
She always got such a kick out of him.
Grandma Mae loved the girls but there was something special about The Boy!

I miss her.
I wish that we had spent more time with her.
Her four children gathered together from different parts of the country.
They had not been together the four of them altogether in nine years!
They have vowed that they will not let another nine years pass before all four spend time together.

Death is a funny thing.
It brings people together.
People who are living and people on the other side.

When I think of Mae now it is with a smile, because I know she is the arms of her beloved Clive who she has waited to long to see again. (Over 30 years). And she is at peace.

She would be good at long distance running....cross country running.....

Yesterday was our big school fundraiser jog-a-thon. Little one was gearing up and training hard for the event, trying to surpass her awesome record she set last year for herself. She ran around the track fourteen times. FOURTEEN TIMES! And when I saw ran I mean RAN. The lady standing next to me in the pouring rain where we cheered them on said "I have been watching her, not only is she running the whole thing but she is doing it with a smile on her face!"
A toothless smile I might add.
Thank goodness we took the jack-o-latern shots because that night she was doing homework and suddenly got a weird look on her face and spit out her other tooth!
Anway back to the jog-a-thon.
The rain was pouring down on and off through the whole event but those kids just pushed on through. It was very inspiring to watch!







Miss Thang here preferred to call it a walk-a-thon-talk-to-your-friend-a-thon but hey at least she did it! She ran parts of it and when I cheered her on and yelled "run run!!" She would give me the funniest look like I was the biggest dork ever and shake her head like "no, that's okay I am doing just fine at this pace!"
The d.j. was hilarious. I am pretty sure I was the only person laughing at him. The kids looked at him like he was on crack when he would make jokes or sing along with Lady Gaga while he cheered them on. And the other parents didn't really even seem to notice that he was there....but me...I was his best audience!
What a great day and a great idea for a school fundraiser. Beats the heck out of wrapping paper and pecan brittle sold door to door!