VALidations

After an hour or so of painting, here it is!!! This painting was really starting to bother me. Every time I came downstairs, I had to look at it. I had to wait a week or two for it to dry, and then I just wasn't sure what to do with it. I figured out what I wanted to do about a week ago, and then tonight I finally worked on it some more. I like it right now. We'll give it a while before I decide what it needs next.

PAINT!! ! Can I, can I??? Pretty please???

for a while. He has been working so hard the last few months, sometimes 70 or more hours a week between two jobs, plus teaching trombone lessons. I'm proud of him, but I also hope he doesn't have to do this forever. On another note, I am super excited about Christmas this year!!! I was sort of miserable last year before Christmas, being pregnant and all...until Maggie was born!!! Then I was so happy! And very exhausted. It's kind of neat that Maggie was born right before Christmas...all those warm and fuzzy Christmas feelings mix with all the warm and fuzzy Mommy feelings, and it is just too wonderful. I didn't get any more shopping done today, but Maggie's birthday and Christmas gifts came! I hope she likes them. I wanted to go shopping after work, but I felt too tired. It's strange how worn out I feel when my job really isn't hard. I sit in a chair most of the time. Maybe some exercise would help, but exercising makes me hungry, which sort of ...

I just cleaned the bathroom, and now all I smell is bleach! At least it smells clean, though! I find myself getting rather bored when Brian works nights. I wish Maggie would stay up late with me, but it's probably good that she doesn't. Although, she was up until 10 tonight. We had a sort of busy day. We played a lot this morning after Brian got up and then we went out to run errands. It's kinda funny, I was going through some papers to find Brian's pay stubs and ended up finding a check that we never deposited!!! It happened to be about the amount we planned to spend on Christmas this year! Anyway, they cancel the checks after 30 days and this one was from August so we had to take it by there today to get a new one. I was really excited when I found it. We didn't even know that it was lost! I couldn't believe it. After dropping that off we had lunch at Fazoli's where Maggie had a few spaghetti noodles and some bread stick pieces. We then heade...

Well, I can't sleep tonight, for several reasons. I am too excited about Christmas and Maggie's first birthday coming up. I bought her gifts online tonight, and can't wait for them to get here. I am worrying about a lot of things. I feel like some big changes are about to happen and they could either be really good, or really bad. I had too much caffeine today. Mostly it's the things I'm worrying about, though. I shouldn't worry, I know. But I do anyway. I just can't seem to turn my brain off. Maybe it's more anticipation than worry. I'm anticipating a lot of things right now. Yes. That's it. Anticipation is making me wait. Isn't that part of a song? Well, I'm going to move on to something else to try to make myself tired.

We never know where it will take us. How thankful I am that there are some things which I know will NEVER change, no matter what life brings my way.

Brian's first Painting (in progress) Cubby for jars Paints in their drawer Easel and Cabinet together (they match) Pretty and Practical! Storage underneath for all sorts of things! Having furniture builders in the family is the greatest! Above are photos of my new custom-made art cabinet. Don't mind the unfinished basement walls in the background. My mom and grandpa made both the cabinet and the easel, both from their own designs! Brian and I worked on his first painting last night, and I love my cabinet! It's so wonderful, not to mention my fully adjustable, custom-made easel. Thanks Mom and Grandpa!!!

A friend with whom I attended high school just released his band's debut album! The band is Sidewalk Prophets, and the CD is AMAZING!!! Very powerful stuff. One song in particular really spoke to me today. Sometimes I take for granted what God has done for me, for all of us, when we REALLY didn't deserve it. Accept it or not, but the truth is we are sinful creatures. Nothing we do could EVER be enough to earn God's love...but He loves us anyway. Being a parent has really given me a new perspective on what God did for me. He gave up his child who had done nothing wrong to a die a horrible painful death, so that I, an ungrateful, disobedient child could spend eternity with Him. I just can't wrap my mind around that...but I'm glad He loves me anyway. : )

Oh how I love Mondays. Spending all day with my little Maggie is the most wonderful thing in the world. Right now she is napping peacefully in her crib while I listen to some Mahler. I feel Fall coming, and I can't wait!!! The mild weather the last day or two has been so great. I've had all the windows open, and no A/C running. I love it. Fall is by far my favorite of the four seasons. Who doesn't love the Fall? Well, what's been going on the last month or so since my last post? Nothing major. Lots of running around, doing this and that. Where does the time go? It seems like I come home from work, and a few hours later it's time for bed. I can't really say that I'm "busy" because I don't do a whole lot. I guess taking care of a little girl who's learning to crawl is a pretty big job, though. I was doing really well with my eating until the last couple of weeks. I wasn't really "bad" but I wasn't as good as I...

Updating TWO blogs is a lot of work!!! Well, I think I was a little too boastful with my painting session...I haven't painted since then. There are lots of excuses I could list...but I won't. I just have to DO it. I've been eating very healthy foods the last three days after a one day binge of all kinds of bad food! I watched an episode of Oprah on tv about foods that help you stay young and healthy and decided to try to eat a healthy, balanced diet. I've found that I'm eating a lot more food, a lot more often, and I hardly ever feel hungry! Imagine that! I've still had a piece of chocolate once or twice a day (gotta have my chocolate) but so far I feel great! I'll try not to sound too proud since my last humbling experience with painting. I still don't exercise regularly (besides carrying Maggie) so now I need to try to mix that in with my healthy eating. I track everything on the Daily Plate on Lance Armstrong's website, thanks to Amy...

I finally spent some time painting!!! I set aside a few hours in my schedule and planned to paint during that time, and I actually did it. It was great, too! Everything seemed to come back to me, all my teachers' voices popped back into my head and reminded me what to do. I guess it is sort of like riding a bike. Painting in oils again also made me remember why I like them so much better than acrylics. Oil paints go so much further than acrylics and they don't dry instantly like acrylics seem to. I used a lot less paint and covered a lot more canvas. And the paint I didn't use will still be useable next time. Brian and Maggie came downstairs with me and listened to music in the music room. It was fun, and I feel so much better!!! Here is a picture of what I got done in about 3 hours. It's on a 16x20" canvas that I had laying around. I recently acquired two huge boards from work that they were going to throw away. One has some water damage on the end, b...

We're all married now!!! Our circle of couple's friends are all officially married. Dave and Melissa were wed in December, Kaleb and Kylie last weekend, and Scott and Bailey yesterday. The weddings were all wonderful. I couldn't keep myself from crying when the girls came out in their beautiful dresses. That always gets me for some reason. Now it's time to place bets on who's going to have a baby next! We had a great time yesterday with the Keran's . We rode together to Scott and Bailey's wedding. When we got home, there was a surprise check in the mail! I thought I would get one, but I wasn't planning on the extra money. I showed it to Brian (who had been talking about getting a new TV all day) and jokingly said, "Let's go get a new TV." Brian thought I was serious, so...we have a new TV now. I love it. It's the same brand as our old one and we got a great deal on it! We only spent about $20 more than the check we got in ...

I thought I'd start a new blog, reserved for random things. I figured most of the people who read Maggie's blog really just want to know about Maggie...probably not so much about my back yard and houseplants. That's what this page is for. Maggie will most likely make appearances since she's a major part of my life, but I'll get to ramble about other stuff here as well. Here goes! I really got my hopes up today about a potential job for Brian. Yesterday, his boss called to tell him that someone from the company was coming in and wanted to talk to Brian about a position that just opened up. Things were looking really good, and I really thought it was going to finally go somewhere. Well, once again, we were let down. Brian waited ALL DAY for this guy to come and talk to him. He never did, so Brian found him before leaving. Apparently this person was not interested in Brian for the job at all. They are going to cover the position by contracting it out. But, ...