Picture this

My good friend, Sherrie, is a painter. She has done (painting over photographs) portraiture for years. Now, she is ready to venture into free hand work. Fortunately for me, there are 5 horses of hers that need yearly vaccinations, and there are always barn cats needing to be spayed/neutered.

We are doing trade out work (the only way that this wonderfulness comes our way) for portraits of our children.

Here are pictures of Kate she made today. There were many that turned out so well. We got some great pictures - good enough for her portrait! It interested me how different a look you need for a classic portrait, versus a photograph. I learned much from her today! We even let Kate hold "Baby Shasta" and "Oscar" during her pictures.

I won't tell which one we are going to use - you can decide! And, when she is finished I will post a photo along with Sherrie.

For those in the Montgomery area (or otherwise), she does a fantastic job and I would love to refer you to her! She does full portraits and bust portraits.

The spoon rest

Isn't this adorable?! I just love it. I hot glued some old cloth to the bottom so that the ceramic wouldn't scratch my cooktop. Beside it is the hamburger pie I cooked for supper last night. It is the best!

Kate wanted me to take her picture... and just HAD to put her panties on her head first...

What I've been up to! (warning - long post!)

I have been doing so many projects around the house lately! And, we are still not finished. I don't think we will EVER be finished.

Let me take you around my home for a show: {snicker}

1. On the upper left you will see a new shelf that I installed in our spare bedroom. There is also another picture of another shelf (same kind) that I put up in the bathroom (see 2 pictures on lower left). Got those at Lowes last week, on clearance, for $10.00 each! I have been eyeing them for a while, but didn't expect them to go on clearance. (originally $30.00 a piece). No, I'm not finished with the one in the bedroom, but the one in the bath is. I had gotten that black frame on clearance at Michaels for $6.00 over a month ago and hadn't used it. I love the picture inside it (click to view closeup). The frames on the shelf in the spare bedroom (top left) were from TJMaxx at $6.00 each.

2. The second picture from the left are our new french doors. No way did I install these myself. Dad (HUGE thank you inserted here!) installed them for us. These doors needed replacing when we moved in, but we just waited because of the expense. Well, we saved most of our stimulus check from last year to purchase the doors, and were able to get them 20% off at Lowes during their Memorial Day sale. :) Since getting them put in, I have been caulking the frame and seemingly endless nail holes, and have only the painting left to go. They are beautiful - and hopefully more energy efficient than the older ones.

3. Third picture from the left is the doorway into our guest bedroom. I have needed to patch the sheet rock where the we had a door put into the pass through, making it an officially closed off room. I love to mud sheet rock! I even had to use tape on this job. I also spent the better part of a morning caulking the door jamb. Still more sanding and mudding to do. Still need to paint the door - but like I said earlier, painting is next on the job list.

4. Top right picture is of Kate's room and the bi-fold doors that I hung several weeks ago. If you have never hung these doors - they are a HUGE pain in the neck. But, they make her room look so nice. The old doors were the slatted kind, and they had such grease and dirt on them that they weren't worth painting. Neither of the kids have had closet doors since we moved in. 2 years ago. Yep. And, they too still need to be painted.

5. Middle picture on far left - some old ceiling tins that I found at a flea market in February. I ended up hot gluing some chocolate ribbon to hang them with. I love them above the pass through to the kitchen. You can easily view them from the dining room table.

6. Center picture is my growing "for real vanity" room of the kids pictures; i.e. the spare bathroom. I printed out some more b/w pics and added them to the window frame (top left glass pane).

7. The middle picture on the right is of our (sort of) china cabinet in the kitchen. It was a bookshelf when we bought the house, and I had the trim carpenter make doors for it. ONE DAY, after I get them painted, I need to get glass cut for them to make the doors official. Now that we moved the curio into the dining room (that description is coming) there is more room for the china that I have to display. It certainly looks less crowded. *And, I forgot to take a picture of the cutest spoon rest I got from TJMaxx for $4.00!!! It is lime green with white polka dots. It is the same color green as the tray in the cabinet in this picture.

8. On to the center picture on the bottom row. This is the cabinet that Dad made for me in high vet school (I think) to display my Breyer horse model collection. It really hurt my heart to put those horses away (I am NOT going to sell them), but I really thought that I would get more use out of the piece to make it a china cabinet. I really like how it turned out, but Dad really LOVED how good it looked. He was proud to say he built it seeing all my Great-Grandmother's china displayed in it. I have always been proud of it!

9. Last but not least, Kate's bed! I have put some tender loving care into this baby - and it is just as pretty as I imagined it would be. I am in the process of actually giving her room some style. Neither of the kids rooms have had much attention since moving here. I am thinking of painting it a pretty blue to match the horse picture above her bed (I will move the horse picture - that is just where it hung before we put the new bed up). I also took the side table out of her closet (where it did live) and made a side table out of it. I really like it there.

Just sitting here and typing this I realize how I seem to just bounce from one project to another. I will be glad to finish just.one.room. But, are you ever truly finished? Really?

Words from our kids

Chickalay = Chick fil A

Frosted Snowflakes = Frosted Flakes

Nana = Banana

Bewy Tot Tart = Blueberry Pop Tart

Queen Darius = Dairy Queen

Peaches = Mandarin Oranges

Pasketti = Spagetti

Hick um ups = Hiccups

Banket = Blanket (also = necessity)

Callapitter = Caterpillar

(thanks Aunt Laura - forgot that one!)

Well, that was a first

I had a client yesterday that made a difficult process even more difficult.

Her dog was old. He had cancer. She brought him because he hadn't been able to urinate all morning. Sure enough, he has a stone blocking his urine outlet. Because he is old, surgery isn't an option. However, surgery is the only option to fix this problem. So, she was left with only one decision.

And, the following conversation ensued:

Client: "I really wanted to wait until my husband could be here. He won't be home until 7 or 7:30ish."

Me: "You can't wait that long. This is a very painful problem."

C: "OK. What is involved in euthanasia?"

M: "First I will give him a sedative so that he will be really relaxed. Then, I will put him to sleep. It is painless - only an injection in his vein. An overdose of anesthesia that will stop his heart."

C: "Well, how do you know it is painless? I mean, the animal can't tell you it doesn't hurt?"

M: "That's what I was taught in school. I'm not sure how they know that."

C: "Well, maybe it's not true? You shouldn't just take things without proof."

M: "I'm sure that studies have been done to prove this. Perhaps they have connected EEG's to some animals to detect brain activity, and when there is none, there is no pain perception, right?" (WHY AM I HAVING TO EXPLAIN THIS?)

C: "So, how do you know he's in pain right now? He doesn't act like it. See, he's just sitting on the table - "

M: "Do you know what it is like to be on a car ride and needing to go to the bathroom? And, FINALLY getting somewhere you can go, and then finding out that you can't go? That is what he feels like!"

C: "Oh, I understand that. But, he doesn't act like he is in pain."

M: "He is."

C: "I'm sorry I am asking so many questions. I always wanted to be a veterinarian, but I guess I wouldn't have made such a good one, huh?" (smiling)

Uh. You think?

Family update

Haven't gotten much done today. I needed to get the laundry caught up - which I did. I also got several cards written and mailed (albeit not today, because the mail lady came early! These days are hot!). I also got our CAVMA meeting booked and scheduled for next month.

I went to TJMaxx Friday night, with the fam. I found some great deals, including several chunky picture frames and the cutest spoon rest ever! It is a lime green with white polka dots. Just adorable! I would post some pics but my camera is so slow to upload pictures!!!

Mom bought Kate some children's scissors and she had the best time yesterday. Mom said that she cut on construction paper for over 1 1/2 hours. That's my girl. I bet Brooks wouldn't spend 2 minutes on it. She had inherited her patience from me!

I am working 3 days again this week. I am so glad - we have made almost 1 years of car payments in 3 months. It is a blessing to have an employer who wants you to work more, esp. in this economy. I would love to have Lightning paid off in 1 year, but it may not happen. I hate car payments.

Krispy Kreme conversation

Kate had asked to go get a doughnut after VBS two nights last week. I suggested we wait until Daddy could come with us. So, after church we stopped by KK. We bought 4 doughnuts and 2 milks (white milk in red container and choc milk in brown container). The doughnuts were good but the conversation was better...

Brooks (after seeing the containers): "I want that one!" (pointing to the white milk)

Me: "Brooks, you like chocolate"

B: "I want that one!" (pointing to the white milk)

M: "Brooks! You don't like white milk."

B: "I want white milk!"

Fine. Let him drink the white milk. He takes a big sip.

B: "I want chocate!"