Brody's First Masterpiece

This weekend I FINALLY got around to doing the art project with Brody I talked about doing a few months ago.



I had told him the night before we were going to paint in the morning, and he was ready to go, by no later than 7. Can we say EXCITED??? He did a great job, and listened to what I wanted him to do for the most part. I let him choose his own colors and after he had established a pretty good base of color, whatever tools and brushes he wanted.

Here he is going at it. I had already covered up a few parts that I thought were cool. He kept wanting to paint over them.

Here is his again - mid process. After a few layers of color, I would take sections and cover them up with saran wrap, newspaper, and tin foil. We used brushes, sponges, toothbrushes, mixing sticks, anything I could think of. I let Brody use his hands too, towards the end.

This one was mine, mid process. I always forget how much I love to paint.

Here is Brody's, putting on the finishing touches with his fingertips.

This was mine before I ripped off the layers.

And Brody's before taking off the layers.

Tada!! Brody's first masterpiece. I love it. So does he. He can not wait to do it again!!

And here are the two finished paintings. They are already hanging on the wall in my bedroom. I plan on doing this again in the fall, with two more different sized canvases to add on to our collection.

Edited to add: I am entering this in a toddler art contest over at Toddler Craft! Wish us luck!!! EDITED: HE WON!!!!!!!

I am so BORED

Brody fell asleep early tonight.  We are talking SIX O CLOCK.  I tried to wake him back up about a quarter to 7, but he was so exhausted that he wouldn't get up.  So I've been on my own and soooo bored.  I was planning on being outside tonight, taking Brody and Ernie for a walk.  Instead, I've been walking around looking for things to do.  

Not a lot has been going on the last few days.  Adam has made up for his previous behavior.  Right now I am watching Ghost Hunters, which I absolutely LOVE that show, but it might not be a great idea because I always end up getting freaked out right before I need to go to bed and end up calling him.  He's been over here twice this week already, so I don't want him to come over again tonight.  We still TRY to keep things simple and not complicated.  

I am debating what to do right now.  I want to work out, because that's what I usually do when I am bored.  But I am afraid to go downstairs and use the treadmill incase Brody wakes up, he'll be sure to get scared, and not think to look for me there.  So I was going to use a DVD, but my DVD player decided to die this weekend, so that's out.  I think I'll just wait an hour or so, and try to treadmill.  

Sorry for the boring post.

Last weekend Hollie the Rockstar came out to play.  It was Awesome Harley Nights up in Sioux City and things got a little crazy.  It was funny because Adam ended up going up there Friday night with his friends, and then I was up there Saturday with mine.  He was at the lake with his family for Fathers Day.

  We ended up meeting the right people and I spent a total of $3 all night.  It doesn't get much better than that.  I had my camera with me, and I don't even remember taking some of the crazy pics that we found on it. I think we thought we were 23 again or something - body shots, licking, chair dancing, shots, shots, and I might have been involved in a depancing....  Ha!  It was a great night, but my favorite part was on the walk home.  (The walk itself was kind of brutal - high heels, 4 blocks uphill while intoxicated, not fun.)

AHN is when they just block off all of 4th street, with all the bars, and everyone rides their bikes, and there are at least 4 bandstands going at the same time at different locations on the street.  While walking around the street earlier, I saw Jon (Adam's friend, who I have kissed).  He still texts once in awhile, so I wanted to stay away from him, I got my group moving and got out of there.  SO on the way home, he texts me.  I play innocent (because I am, duh)  and act like I didn't see him.  He texts back, well I thought I saw you and you looked hot.

So I text Adam, at 2:39 am, "Im hot tonight.  You missed out."

He wrote me back around 8 in the morning, "Damn, any takers??"

and when I didn't respond for a few hours, he wrote back, "Seriously, any takers??"

That's why I love him.  

I found the secret. Wait......What??

I hate the way my mind works sometimes.

I was reading a great book last night, (Nineteen Minutes) and in it was a saying -

There are two ways to achieve happiness. Either change your reality, or lower your standards.

While reading this, I thought to myself, wow, that really is true, and kept reading away. But my mind kept wandering back to this, and I reread it again and again.

While it may be true, I find so many things wrong with this statement. First of all, if it was so easy to just change your reality, wouldn't everyone be happy? It makes me think of the movie The Pursuit of Happiness, and how he tries so hard, and gets suckerpunched everytime.

And second....if you lower your standards, aren't you giving up, settling for less, saying you aren't worth what you thought you were? How is that going to make you happy??

For me, I know what I want, and I will not settle for less. I am a what if type of person. But then I started thinking about other people I know, and realized that some people are like this.
For example, there is another single mom at the daycare that Brody goes too. We are COMPLETE OPPOSITES. She has a two and a half year old little girl, with one guy, and a 5 month old baby boy, with another. She was with the baby's father for maybe 4 months before realizing she was pregnant, and they were broken up before he was born. She has pretty much said to me that she was trying to get pregnant of purpose, because his family has money and she knew they'd always be supportive. She even had the balls to tell me that I should purposely get pregnant with Adam, because his family has money. Yeah. NO.

She is now in a 3 month relationship with some guy, and she just announced on facebook they are going to move in together. ?!?!? I think she is setting herself up for disaster and setting her kids up for dissapointment.

But it goes to show me that what she considers happiness is different than what I think. She is after the whole "husband". I don't so much need the husband part, as I need to "companionship, love, connection" part.

Not that I am unhappy, really. I am pretty good right now. But am I wrong, is it possible to lower your standards and still be happy? And not feel as if you are giving up, settling for less? Because I just don't know that I could do that, and be happy. This topic is consuming my brain right now. What are your thoughts??

In other, less thought provoking news -

I need to go to the mall. Bath and Body Works Wallflowers are on sale for $4. Time to stock up. I also have a $10 coupon I need to use at American Eagle.

I also want to stop at Barnes and Noble. Brody is fascinated right now about the earth, the sun and the moon. We watched the sun go down last night, and it was so amazing to watch him, he understood. He told me that now we are dark, but the people who live on the other side of those trees get the sun. So I am hoping to find some cool books that can really explain it to him better than I can. Maybe he'll be an astronaut someday! :)

and I'll leave you with a funny story. At least I think it's funny. Adam came over on Tuesday night, after golf league, like he usually does. It was late so I was already in bed, and I figured he was in the clubhouse. He showed up, a little too drunk for my liking and it didn't take him too long to fall asleep. About an hour later I woke up to a loud CRASH. HE FELL OUT OF BED.
At first I was worried about him, so I rolled him over and made sure he was okay.

He was still passed out, and so I tried to wake him up and get him up, but he YELLED at me to leave him alone. So I did. He slept on the floor. I also did not wake him up for work, which made him a good hour and a half late, and when I told him about him yelling at me, I really rubbed it in and made him feel bad. He still thinks I am, actually. I've been getting I'm so sorry texts all day yesterday and last night. Haha. He should know better by now.

My favorite way to spend a day in Omaha

Okay, what is with Blogger? It took me two days to finally get my pictures on here, and now it won't let me rearrange the order or anything. I've tried 3 different browsers even. Oh well, these are going to be in completly random order.

I LOVE the Henry Doorly Zoo. I take Brody every Spring, but I am thinking we should go more than once a year, it is such a great time. It looks in this picture that Brody thinks it is NOT a great time, but really this was the last picture we took, and he was DONE. with taking pictures.

This is my friend Christina, AKA Aggie who came with us. Brody took this picture. I felt bad because we had brought his camera along, but he was fooling around with it and it got left in the car. He was mad about it, but I wasn't about to go back and get it, so I let him snap a few with mine.

This was close to the end of the day too - it is one of my favorite pics. The "milker" had already been turned off for the day, and brody was mad that it wasn't working. Milking the cow is a MUST at the zoo. His facial expression says it all!

Riding on the carousel. It took him forever to pick out which animal he wanted to ride, and then he picked the giraffe, and because it's so tall, it didn't even move up and down! Bummer. Next time we'll go for the gorilla.

Speaking of giraffes, I love them. They are my favorite animals. Have you ever seen one run?? You would not believe how graceful they are.

Brody told me he knew that this elephant was a girl because it had eyelashes like a mommy. (Turns out he was right - the train director said they were both girls!)

This is new at the zoo, and we didn't do it this year. Brody doesn't like heights too well, and I was afraid he'd be scared. Hopefully next year. It takes you across the length of the whole zoo! I think it would be awesome.

Another must at the zoo is feeding the big fish off the bridge. We always bring a bag of popcorn and throw it over and watch the fish go crazy jumping out of the water for it.

My other favorite animals at the zoo - the sea lions. I didn't get very good pictures this year, we were rushing to get on the train. But here is mommy with her 1 day old baby. It was so adorable, she reached her tail around the baby and petted it and leaned down and gave it a kiss.

And here is Brody's favorite part of the zoo - the train. I admit, I enjoy it too.

Every year this gorilla is the best. He is always sitting up by the glass so little kids can really see him good. This year he was so funny, and would keep copying the kids when they covered their eyes. We could have stayed and played here all day!

Up close with the gorilla.

This is in the Desert Dome. Brody thought at first all the lizard statues were real, and finally he touched one and thought it was the funniest thing.

Here he is watching an owl in the Desert Dome.

Sharks. Look at their teeth!!

Brody loves to watch the sharks. The awuarium is great, a big tunnel where they are swimming above you and all around. We just sat and watched for awhile.

I don't know what kind of bird this is, but he was neat. Just sitting and watching the people walk by him, not afraid at all.

Oh wait - maybe this was Brody's favorite part this year. There is a bridge in the Jungle that is like the "Indiana Jones bridge" according to Brody. We had to go across it like 5 times.

Brody and I in the jungle!

The zoo is fun, but sooo exhausting. I need to plan a little better too. This is the second year in a row I've gone down during the College World Series, which is just across the street from the zoo. The traffic and parking is horrible. But the crowds aren't bad, because everyone is watching the games!

Woohoo!! We are going to the zoo!!

We are heading to Omaha to spend the day at the Henry Doorly Zoo.  It's one of my favorite places in Nebraska!   

If you have never been to this zoo, I recommend you check it out.  I have heard several people say it's better than the San Diego Zoo!

I'm getting bored.

Sorry, I know it's a mess around here, and kind of hard to read. I'll play around some more and hopefully be happy soon!!!

My 10 Year Reunion and some more

10 Year Reunion!!

This last weekend was my high school reunion.  It was a BLAST.  

Friday night, I hosted the get together at my house.  We had about 20 classmates (out of a class of 36) + family, so 48 people were here.  It was a great time.  Our class was pretty close, but not everyone has kept in touch.  It was GREAT to see everyone!  I think we headed up the hill to the corner bar after having a potluck family supper, and of course several beverages.  Then back to my place afterwards for after party.  I seriously have no idea what time everyone left and I finally got to bed.

Tequila.  Lots of it.

This is my very BFF Tia.  We have been friends since grade school.  She's the one that just got married in April.

Here is Brody and I, before the party got started on Friday.  Amy tips out there on how to make kids smile for pictures?????  Seriously.

This was Saturday night, waiting for our pizza.  We had a golfing outing planned that day that I skipped out on to clean up my house/yard and return the tables and chairs we had borrowed.  Then we met at the pizza joint for a few hours, (and a $300 bill) before heading back to the bar again for the all-class reunion party.

It was a crazy weekend.  I had fun Saturday night, too, but it really wasn't as fun as Friday.  The initial excitement of seeing everyone was awesome.  I felt bad for the 4 people that only came Saturday, they really missed out.

Sunday, I took Brody to see UP.  Fabulous movie!!!  It was very entertaining and the 3d glasses made it fun.

Brody has Vacation Bible School this week.  He was so excited to go this morning, he sat all dressed and ready a good half hour before he needed to go, with his lunchbox sitting on his lap.  And I heard he made a few new friends, and was very outgoing, so yay!!  He goes again tomorrow and the Thursday, with the program Thursday night. 

In other news, I had the most delicious microwavable lunch today.  I picked up a few of the WW Smart Ones the other day.  Today I had the mini vegetable pizzas and they were AWESOME.  (5 points).  Just thought I'd share :)

I'm getting ready to out to work at the farm doing books for a few hours, so I can already tell it is going to be a busy week.  

OH!  P.S. -

My college BFF called me on my way to work this morning, she is now ENGAGED.  I'm so happy for her!  (But seriously, my friends need to knock it off.  When is it my turn??)

So.... I guess I'll be adding another bridesmaid dress to the closet!!

Red White and Blue SWAP!

The Queen of Swaps Mamarazzi is having a red, white and blue swap! How fun is that?? Hurry, there aren't many spots left!

Gorgeous dresses and a question

Okay, so I just bought this dress. (It's mark., if you like it, I can sell you one!)
I LOVE it.

I was thinking of wearing it to a friends wedding in July. Is it appropriate to wear cream and gold to a wedding? Or should I wear something else, like THIS ONE -

(also mark. and available now in my markstore)

I love them both. I know I'll wear them both a lot this summer, but is the top one okay for a wedding, or not???