I have been journaling, even though I haven’t posted for almost a week. I want to write something brilliant, but I can’t think of how to say it right now. We just got back from my sisters. They had us over to discuss some issues and get some things dealt with. Everything is cool now, but last night was kind of a different story. I just want to say that relationships with family members are worth making the effort to work out misunderstandings. I hated the thought of either one of us holding a grudge against the other for stupid things that don’t matter. In our past…growing up…we fought constantly. We had little tolerance for each other. It wasn’t a good relationship at all, until college. I think we just grew up. But we still have our moments. Thank God we are mature enough to realize when we are being petty and stupid about things that don’t truly matter. So many relationships are destroyed over little things. It is so important to keep those family ties strong. Your family should be your greatest ally, the ones you can depend on to back you up, hold you up, build you up and shut you up.

Ok. Enough about that. These are my journal pages since last Friday. Thought you might like to see them.

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My Secret Encourager from work gave me a box of animal cookies. I found this Klimt image of a tree that I love. It’s from a mural he did. So I copied the tree (mostly) and am drawing it in the same style – my own designs though (mostly). BTW it’s not done yet. I did this project with my 1st and 2nd grade split class and they are so awesome. I’ll get some pics next week when they are finished and upload them. I am sure you would love to see them. They are using markers and Gold gelpens.

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Last Friday was a big day…Max pooped in the potty for the first time and Savannah graduated from preschool. The 2nd page is my sketchcrawl page that I have added some color to.

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I added a blue background with lt. green spirals on top. It’s in watercolor crayon. The 2nd page here is a page I did on top of Sunday’s sermon notes. I had written them with pencil, but as I was taking notes in church, I didn’t have my colorful pens and stuff. So I copied the notes onto another paper and then designed this page where I also journaled about the topic of self-discipline.

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I found some pages in a magazine for the background on this page. The border is from my example for a printing project with my 3rd graders. “Oh I Wish…” caught my eye in a magazine and I had cut it out and saved it a while back…thinking it would be a good journal prompt. I wrote in gold gel pen in the background. After I wrote all the things I wished for…I started feeling guilty for being so selfish, because they were pretty much all about me. But doesn’t everyone wish for things they know they can’t have anyway…is that a bad thing? I mean, as long as it doesn’t consume you. What do you think? What kinds of things do you wish for. Make a list and see if you feel the same way. I want to know if it’s just me. 🙂

We had THE best day for Sketchcrawl here in Michigan…I met my friends Mary and Julia downtown and we drew for just 2 hours…all of us had other stuff going on today, but I am glad I could get 2 hours today to get some drawing done. It was a lot of fun. I hope someday I can actually do the all day sketchcrawl…that would be really challenging, I think. Did any of the rest of you do sketchcrawl today? How did it go? Post your link in the comments. I’d love to see what you all drew.

You may remember a while back when I mentioned this probable prank we thought someone had played on us…Well last night, we are getting into bed, rather late I admit, and the stupid thing goes off. It must be that either the batteries are dying or we have just become so accustomed to the sound of it that we haven’t really noticed it too often over the past month. So anyway, I was already in bed, Sam was just walking over to the bed when it started beeping. I yelled at him to find it, and he’s looking all over, and then opens his underwear drawer…the alarm gets louder…I start to believe there is hope to find it after all…and it shuts off…I think it only stays on for a minute maybe. But he digs around in there and pulls out a keychain stopwatch thing that he picked up when he and the fellas stopped at BW3’s on the way home from their weekend at the cabin. We can’t even figure out how to work it…or how to shut it off, so Sam throws it down the stairs and shuts the bedroom door…and gets into bed. We lay there for a bit, and it goes off again! Laughing, we just turned the music up that was playing on my ipod shuffle and I drift off to sleep with a bit of a smile on my face at having solved that bizarre mystery.

I did this sketch of the ever elusive stopwatch (which has writing on it that I didn’t include because I couldn’t figure out a good way to do it) with my new watercolor crayons…they were fun and worked really well in my moleskine.

An icey cold drink on a hot day…that’s nourishment to me! Wish we had one of those hot days to experience. I know it’s coming and I can’t wait for summer…17 more days till school is out.

For the Everyday Matters Challenge…”draw the first thing you see in the morning.” Drawn in ink and colored with my Prismacolors. The Candle Holders are olive colored glass…I just got them and they are so pretty when the candle inside is lit. I love them. I actually drew this before I went to bed the other night (@ 11:59).

Well, tonight is the Survivor Finale, so I gotta get my boys in bed in a hurry. See ya later.

Had to share these.

from 5-7-05 concert
photo source: U2.com

our view of the stage from section 325.
photo source: Jason

We just got back from Chicago a few hours ago. We had THE BEST time!!! And I even got two of my EDM challenges done…I am trying to catch up.
I am hoping this can pass for the glasses challenge. I do not wear eyeglasses, and at the moment I have no sunglasses…I was going to draw Sam’s but he is always wearing them while I am awake…so it just hasn’t worked out. I am afraid this is as close as I am going to get.

And this drawing is for the phone challenge.

So there you go…two more done…three more to go…I think.

Anyway…back to this weekend. On Saturday, we arrived in Chicago, checked into our hotel, and then went out and walked around. We ended up at the Redfish at around 4:00, so we decided to get something to eat. It was really good, and since it was early, the restaurant wasn’t busy. The food was awesome. I would definitely recommend it. I ordered some Penne pasta drenched with a sun dried tomato and mushroom cream sauce and some really delicious grilled seasoned chicken. Yummy! I should have drawn it, but it was too good. I just wanted to eat it up! After dinner, we went back to the hotel and relaxed for about an hour. I drew the phone. Then we met up and took a limo to the concert. It was a surprise for us girls. So cool!
The ride to the United Center was quicker than we thought, but we didn’t care because we just wanted to be at the concert.

We found our seats…and I am not even kidding about this…we could touch the ceiling above us…we were in the top row of seats at the United Center, AND we were right BEHIND the stage. But it didn’t matter. We could see everything. The stage was totally awesome! U2 does the best concert performances I have ever seen. No other band even comes close to comparing to theirs! This is the second time I have seen U2. The last concert I saw was the Popmart Tour and it was sweet, but this was even better!

Here is the set list…

U2 – Vertigo Tour, Chicago – May 7, 2005

Love and Peace
Vertigo
Elevation
An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart
City of Blinding Lights
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
New Year’s Day
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet the Blue Sky
Running to Stand Still
Bad
Pride In the Name of Love
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
(Encore 1)
Zoo Station
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
(Encore 2)
All Because of You
Yahweh
’40’

At the end of the concert, the band left the stage one by one. Bono hung the cross he wore around his neck on his mic stand and walked off as we were all singing “How long to sing this song” over and over. Adam put down his guitar, and walked off…we’re still singing. The Edge stops playing the bass guitar and walks off. Drums still playing, audience singing louder now….drums quit…we still sing…Larry stands up and walks off the stage…we keep singing with no music…till the lights come on and we all scream and yell for the best concert ever! You had to be there…It was way cool. I loved how they ended the concert with those last three songs, like they were pointing to God for the reason for them even being there. Too cool.

After the concert we went down to Trader Vics for drinks until they closed…then headed to bed.

Today was a beautiful day. Sunny 78º and great weather for walking the Magnificent Mile. After we got ready we headed down to the Corner Bakery for some yummy breakfast. Then we went to some stores. I saw so many cute things at Crate & Barrell…I wish I could have bought a whole bunch of them. Maybe I can find an outlet store around here and see if they have any of the things I loved. We bought the kids & Jasmin some prizes from the Disney store. Then we walked to the pizzaria for Lunch. It was nice to sit and relax a little bit. After that we caught a cab back to our car and headed for home.

It was a really fun weekend. I loved hanging out with our friends and not worrying about the kids. But I did miss them. It was really good to see their faces when we came home. They were so excited to see us. Savannah gave me the present she made me at Home Depot on Saturday. My dad took her, Andrew and Grace to the Kids Workshop. We spent the rest of the evening looking at pictures that Jasmin had taken of the kids, handing out the prizes we had bought them and playing outside. I even got to mow the lawn before it got too late. Then we tucked them in…and even though we are tired, we have to get a few things ready and cleaned up for tomorrow. It’s kind of weird not having my Sunday to relax before I go back to work tomorrow…but the fun I had this weekend was so worth it.

We didn’t take our digital camera, so I have to get Jason to send me the pics so you can see them. They will come later.
Here are some of the pictures that Jasmin took of the kids with her new camera.

So cute, huh?

I really have been slackin on posting my journal pages…actually I have really been slacking on putting things in my journal…Actually if you want the real truth…ok…On Tuesday when I taught my drawing class…I opened up my journal and felt as if I was reunited with an old friend. It had been a week since I had last opened it. This drawing is from Tuesday night. I set up still lifes for working on values and shading. This is a close up of one of the still lifes I set up.

Since the last time I posted…not counting my apology post…

I have my own computer now. Sam bought a G5 and I get the G4…since we had 2 17 inch flat panel monitors on the G4 when it was Sam’s computer, we each have one now. It’s very nice that we can both be working on our own computers in the evening. I have mine hooked up with the scanner and Sam bought me a dock for my ipod shuffle. It’s very cool.

I have been deathly ill for the last 24 hours…ok deathly is an exaggeration…but seriously, whatever this is has really wiped me out! On monday and Tuesday I was so tired and exhausted. I felt like I had no energy. A friend of mine mentioned maybe I was coming down with something…I didn’t know…but Wednesday night about 12:00 it hit me. I was up every hour puking my guts out (sorry) and decided by the second time that there was no way I was going to work. Taking a chance, because I know I am almost out of sick days, I called in at 5:45. Hopefully I still have one day to use, otherwise I will have to pay like 400.00 for staying home! It was worth it I think…I slept all morning. Got up and hung out with the kids & Jas until around 3:00 when I had to go out to both schools and pick up cookies that had been donated for the art show open house.

The Art Show (for my students) was this week. I spent last week under pressure to get everything done and set up by the weekend. It looked pretty nice. I love to see all the kids art displayed like that. They really worked hard. I will have to post some pictures. I plan to take some tomorrow when I go take it down. We had maybe 60 people come the open house tonight. I think it was a bad time with sports, and I guess there was a concert at the middle school at the same time. But it was fun.

So this weekend, we are going to go to the U2 concert in Chicago. We are going away with out our kids…for mother’s day. Weird huh? Jasmin is really looking forward to having them for the weekend. She plans to take them all to church on Sunday and show them off. It should be fun hanging out with our friends and not having to be concerned with taking care of our kids. Not that I don’t enjoy that, but sometimes it’s just nice to get away.

So I am looking at my to do list. I checked off 5 things today. But there are still so many things to take care of. I will get caught up. I will. I will.