CHECK OUT WHAT BEN GOT ME!

I LOVE IT.

I have a trailer I can hook to the back for Cooper and off I go.

It was a great Birthday. Thanks for all of the birthday wishes guys. Your great. Ang

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Today I am THIRTY FIVE. Thirty five is the age my Mamala froze at  until she hit fifty and I was forced to look at her with different eyes. It was a hard thing to do and when I look at her there are still times I see the bright orange hair and freckles that she had in times past. Now she is fifty and fifty she will remain forever. Even though I know it’s been a few years now… I mean she wasn’t fifteen when she had me… I’m pretty sure. She is an awfully young fifty though… maybe it’s that immaturity thing we have going for us.

I wonder how my kids will look at me… Is it too much to hope that they will always see me as twenty five? Probably since I didn’t have most of them then…

Okay. I am not age obsessed believe it or not. I like who I am and the thirties have been good to me so far and I think they will just keep being great… I know they will… Some things just get better with age. I happen to be one of those things…

We celebrated my birthday last night. Ben took me to one of my Mom’s favorite restaurants… I like it too. It’s fun  to go for lunch or just desert… But last night it was great.

Amical… It used to be La Amical… I guess someone decided ‘friendly’ made more sense.

We were some of the first for dinner service. That happens when you have Monsters to get in bed.

One of my favorite things is their desert case. It is so worth just going there for desert sometimes.

They used to have a chef who made the best chocolate mousse he has moved on. I miss it.

I love the creme broule… the kids like the giant chocolate and caramel covered apples.

Mmm… creme broule… with raspberries and raspberry sauce.

Okay. That was my evening…

I’m off to celebrate THE DAY THE WORLD WAS BLESSED WITH ME!!!

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This weekend was the annual NMC Barbecue.

I have gone every year that I’ve lived here. It’s fun to see how it changes and grows over the years.

So every year that I’ve lived here would mean I’ve gone around 30 times.

The menu

A buffalo burger… I like mine plain… no condiments needed.

Charlie and Is enjoy the food.

Grandma hitches a ride on a buffalo.

Lunch is eaten under the towering pines.

This picture makes me dizzy.

Goofin off at the Museum.

Me, Ben and Mamala.

It was a great weekend.

Tomorrow I’m going to be old… well older…

I haven’t decided yet if this is a good thing or a bad one.

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I have decided that I am not old. You are only as old as you feel and since most of the time I feel like I’m still twelve I think that I am aging well. Now, if I will still feel that way tomorrow, we’ll see.

This is the Oleson buffalo farm.

How would you like to live on a farm like this one.

Today was Isabelle’s seventh birthday. I spent the day getting ready for that. we spent the evening making play dough so that she could give a nice ball of it to each of her classmates… to celebrate her day.

We took the rents and Is’s best buddy DJ to see Shrek III then we all had cake and ice cream to see who could hit the sugar comma level first. It was a good day.

Isabelle’s friend DJ… she tells him what to do and he says he loves it… he actually asks her to tell him what to do… If I was his mother I would be concerned.

Now… four more days and it will be the day the world was blessed with me… wonderful.

THE REQUESTS’ ROLL ON…

Okay, So my workshop/studio is a complete mess… it’s in transition. Right now it is patiently waiting for me to fix the floor in the building outside, and then I will need help disassembling my work benches and carrying them out there. So instead of showing you all of it right now, I thought I would show you some bits and pieces of it  and then when the outside is all settled I will show you the wonderfully organized and well lit studio that it will become and you will all think I am an amazingly neat creative person instead of an incredibly sloppy one. I know there are those of you out there who know me in real life and know the latter to be true… bite your tongues please…

Glass globs, magnified glass, mirrors and small bevels waiting for projects… never know what I will want to use.

 Glass that is too small to be put with the big pieces and a pile that needs to be sorted into mosaic boxes that I haven’t done yet. The plastic tubs are glass scraps from my finished projects that are to big to throw away and waiting for mosaics… Some of them will be used this weekend because I will be going to the annual mosaic weekend at my friend Rosie’s.

Of course I will be blogging on it.

Miscellanious things I find that seem like a good idea at the time… Plastic animals and people, keys and bottle caps, all of these things can be used some where believe it or not… really, they can!

Acrylic paints… used by both me and the kids, can never have too many.

Okay so those are some of the tools, Let me show you some of the pieces that are waiting to be worked on. These are things I’m doing for myself. It always seems to take longer to do those because I set them aside and work on other things for other people, that just seems easier to do.

Frog panel. I am actually considering putting some three dimensional glass wings on him… I think they would look good. He’s kind of stuck right now because I cut the first piece of olive green glass for his leg and decided I didn’t like it so now I need to find a green I do like.

These are two panels from a six panel lamp, the other four panels are reeds only… It is going to replace the ugly lamp on my night stand when it is done… looking at it now I want to go finish it… hmmm… nah, It’ll wait.

Okay this is in our front door. I did this piece a few years ago when the kids had one of their frequent “Oop’s, I didn’t mean to do it Mom.” Moments…

I have to find some time to sit down at the scanner to show you all any more since most of the pictures I have of the things I’ve done were taken before I had my digital camera. Also… I have requests for baby pics, grad pic, etc… I’m working on it … really I am.

Ang

Oh Rach, I promise when the studio is all in good working order again I’ll do a nice post about it… Sorry for the cop out. Ang

Hey!  I do have a piece that is on here, I posted it awhile ago… when I first started blogging, I’ll put that up too… since some of you may not have seen it.

It’s a fish I did for my Pop for Christmas.

I like making fish.

Went to lunch with Ben today and on the way back we saw this fella on the side of the road about a hundred feet in.

He had found some lunch for himself.

It was a nice surprise today.

I know I still have requests but I am finding so many other things I want to post too… You would think I would be in a posting draught… but I’m not.  Go figure.

seedsower has interviewed me with the following questions, so here goes! If you would like to be interviewed, just read the information that follows:

1. What is the most important thing that you want others to see in you when they observe you. 
     Kindness…
2. If there was a soundtrack of your life what songs would be on it and why ? This is tough… there are so many songs that apply because of the constant music in my head… today the song in my head is Corinne Bailey Rae- Put Your Records On… If I chose lyrics that I think apply I would go with Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten-

I am unwritten, can’t read my mind, I’m undefined
I’m just beginning, the pen’s in my hand, ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We’ve been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can’t live that way

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins

3. Where do you find solitude?
Normally I find solitude in the bathtub… but ours is currently under construction so I am living without a place to escape and it is starting to drive me a little batty. If you notice a touch more insanity to my blogging… that’s it.

4. All time favorites:
Book - Jitterug Perfume or Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins it’s a toss up

Movie - That’s like asking me to tell you which of my children is my favorite… I can’t do it… There are so many I enjoy two off the top of my head that are favorites… A Room With  A View and 50 First Dates

Artist/work of art-James Christensen I suppose mostly because I have met the man and because his imagination just bowls me over, it appeals to the little kid in me. There are so many more I like, I figure when it comes to art why limit myself.

College of Knowledge- by James Christenson

Song- Swing on a Star the Bing Crosby version

Album- hmmm… I’m more of a song collector then and album collector, although if I had to pick one I listened to over and over consistently I would say Cat Steven’s Tea for the Tillerman

Singer - It used to be Elton John who I still like but I think I’m going to go with James Taylor today.

T V show- I could watch Monk over and over but I like all of the CSI’s and House… Tom and Jerry is always good… oh my all time favorite is probably Murder She Wrote… gotta love J.B. Fletcher.

Commercial - I miss the beer commercials with the ferrets and the frogs… those were classic… of course… I’m Stuck on Bandaid brand cause Bandaids stuck on me… Or Munch a bunch a, munch a bunch ,Fritos go with lunch, bring back fond memories too…

5.What is your favorite memory? I have many many of those too… One that makes me smile right now is when one of my guy friends in high school knocked on my window early in the morning hours and said you have to see this… sneaking out we drove to the top of Wayne Hill  and watched the northern lights flicker. We sat there for hours talking and freezing sitting on the hood of his car watching them dance over The Grand Traverse Bay. It was the first and last time I have ever seen them that bright in Michigan.  Another memory that never fails to make me smile involves Isabelle and me scarring her for life… I posted on it here-http://www.xanga.com/angi1972/477239675/scarring-my-child-for-lifesomeones-got-to-do-it.html

Bonus Question :
If you could visit any other time era for a week where would you go??

I think I like the 50′s… Just because I’d want a chance to walk around in an apron and pearls all day long… well okay so I’m more of an Overalls and blow torch kinda girl, but so many things were going on then that I would like to see.

Now its your turn to play if you wish!

Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions, and I will message or comment you with them and these directions. Just update your blog with the answers to the questions and include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Of course I love flying frogs.

No this isn’t my work… I like it.

Who wouldn’t love a woman with a beard… rhetorical question.

After spending the day in bed yesterday there are a lot of things I have to catch up on and I have a Brownie meeting tonight with fourteen- six year old girls. We will hopefully be going on a hike.

I haven’t forgotten the other requests… I’m getting to them… I am really.

I seem to be really slow at some things, this is a fault I have. Most people love me anyway… You know you do…

Besides… sometimes slow is a good thing. Ang

Mother’s day!

I find it odd that I’m having such an  enjoyable day because I’m not having to be motherly…

I slept until 11:30 and now I am just sitting in bed reading and thinking about getting out of bed…

I was given a beautiful basket of red geraniums, which I ask for every year so I can plant them outside…

I have received numerous hugs and kisses that are always followed by a hasty retreat when Daddy shoos them away…

I believe we are ordering pizza for dinner, which means no cooking and no dishes…

I hear Ben cleaning the kitchen downstairs so it will be nice and shiny…

I wish I felt better, then it would be perfect, well almost. Ang

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Managed to stay in bed most of the day, slept, finished my book, watched movies… The Painted Veil and The Good Shepherd. In much need of Comedy, I went to the video store and rented 50 First Dates, Life of Brian and Life Stinks, a Mel Brookes movie, I haven’t seen it but it can’t be bad, It’s Mel… Brooks that is.

I’m off to watch my movies and continue my day of being a complete BUM.

Oh, I walked into the video store and the girl behind the counter said “I see the kids let you have a nap for Mother’s Day Ang…”

 I said “yeah do I look well rested?”

She said  “Well, yeah, you also look like you need to brush your hair…”

Hey, I can live with that. It was a good day. 

Off to the farmer’s market today… Mamala wanted to do a belly dancing class today…think I’m going to pass for this once, maybe next weekend.

I’ll be back later… Ang

Back from the market. It was crowded and fun. Bought a Gerber Daisy and some creamed honey from the honey man. The kids always beg to see the honey man he gives out tiny samples of creamed honey in little plastic cups with tiny spoons.

Now I need a nap. What’s that you say? No rest for the wicked? Well I’m taking one so BACK OFF!