Waiting For Sam

I'm just waiting for my nephew Sam to be born right now. His due date is tomorrow.....I just can't think of anything else....art is on a break (which was really needed) I'm having sympathy pains (I'll spare you the details)...and still unpacking from 12 days at the beach and once again, a no sleep week. I did get to see the sun rise up from the ocean's horizon like a pink glowing ball....nice eh? But not so fun when your company is a fussy 18 month old sucking on a pacifier along with questioning furred brow.....she did say "balloon" when she saw the sun rise which made me smile and then she proceeded to pick my nose. Isn't it romantic? So, c'mon Sam-I'll show you the sunrise too....just keep your cute little baby hands to yourself.

Cool

AN entire grad school project done by Alex Cornell for a imaginary Wes Anderson Film Festival-very cool...."I want to go to there."...if it were real. Well done.

Countdown

10-shoes
9-snacks
8-action figures
7-diapers
6-times to yell "GET IN THE CAR!"
5-applications of sunscreen
4-explanations of WHY we wear sunscreen
3-towels
2-bathing suits
1-30 minute swim lesson

Times 8. Whew.

Gone....

We're off to the beach until July 5th by way of DinoRock at Wolf Trap of course (got to squeeze everything in on one day-bad planning)......Duck, NC get ready for us....We'll be the ones looking like we NEED a vacation.

Chickadee

Amazement

I'm amazed that.....
.....my kids still run around and scream at the top of their lungs whenever I turn on the vacuum
.....NOT that Kate Plus 8 's marraige is on the rocks but that she actually dresses her kids ALL alike depending on gender. I'm telling you, I never successfully dressed two alike, let alone 8, that's just plain crazy.
.....there are people out there who actually HATE Crocs, have websites about hating them....
1. Who has the time? And 2. these people are apparently not mothers...all mothers know that Crocs are like gold. What other shoe can a kid put on themselves (Anna can and she 17 months old), can be thrown in the washing machine, hosed down, squashed, drawn on, thrown from heights and not kill anyone and be run over by the car (yes, we have done all of those things).
.....Anthropologie hasn't come out with a "Loft/Old Navy" line so that we too can pretend we can afford such beauty.
.....all grocery stores don't offer free neck massages at the end of the checkout. Think of all the business they'd get.
.....shorts are still around as fashionable (or are they?)-I hate them.
......they haven't come up with an ad campaign that sitting down on the toliet is cool.....c'mon guys, really....surely there's a C list celebrity out there needing a cause, this could be it.
.....that my kids still don't sleep through the night and that any night it's a toss up as to who's going to play the role of night owl.
.....I can function on so little sleep.

Have you noticed the running theme of sleep in my posts?

Bobby said to me the other day.....
"You know, they ought ot make a place you can go to JUST SLEEP."
"Yeah", I reply, "it's called a hotel."
"No, I mean, a hotel that's JUST for sleeping, the best pillows, the 500 count Egyptian cotton sheets, low lights, choice of white noise, sound proof walls to keep out noise, control of your own thermastat, etc. There's no destination, no sights to see, just sleep. In fact this place could be in the middle of a corn field, no views, it doesn't matter, you just sleep."

Dreamland Hotel-coming soon......I'm already thinking of names for it, oh and there will be free neck massages.

Found Paper Journals

Found these Found Paper Journals on Book By It's Cover...I always find the coolest stuff over at her blog (Julia Rothman-a super awesome artist)...can't wait to see one of these in person....think some really great collages will be coming out of those pages.

It's Friday...it's been a mess here this morning, last day of school....tears were shed, toys were dumped, little brother got picked on.....the big boy just doesn't like change. But I'm sure in time, he'll appreciate that change of the last day of school.....you can bet on it.

Swing Into Spring

Pictures from the Spring Fundraiser for the Round Hill Arts Center. This is why I love Virginia.

Drawing on the Page

Dagger

I've been pretty good this school year.
Only forgotten snack once, library books a few times. I DID run the forgotten books with Anna and Colin in the double jogger behind the bus The Graduate style, so give me credit for that. I've gotten Jamie on the bus on time every day except once when we had to run an errand before school in the town 15 miles away. I knew we were going to miss the bus, so that doesn't count right? I've managed to always be home when Jamie runs home.Yes, that's what Kindergartners do, they run home. I read to his class twice this year and helped make a "Helping Hands Bag" which required the painting and the laying of hands all over a quite nice Land's End duffel bag for the school raffle.
All in all, I'm batting a 95%...not too shabby.
Until yesterday....
Here's how it went:
Jamie comes home from school, running, of course.
"Where's Kameron, Jame?" I ask-Kameron is the BFF.
"Oh, his mommy came to school today and they went home together. EVERYBODY'S Mommies were at school today. It was my end of school year party." (oops)
The boy does not look sad or damaged in any way, this is good. So I prod him further.....
"So were any kids' Mommys not there?" I implore, trying to make myself feel better. I also explain to him that Anna was taking a nap (which she was) and I had Colin at home, who was fussy, so that I couldn't come. (Read:I could have come but I would have had to jump a few hurdles to get there but alas I had forgotten.)
"Yep, a few. Even some kids' Daddies were there!" he exclaims and he rattles off about 3 or 4 names of the parentless kids. One kid, Josh, he mentions, we know well, he came to Jamie's birthday party on Saturday and got a goody bag-lucky him.
"Oh, so Josh's Mommy wasn't there either?" I ask
"No she wasn't there, it's okay Mommy...really, I had a good time."
"Yeah, see Josh's Mommy probably had to stay home with HIS little sister too. That's why she wasn't there just like me. So, his Mommy really wasn't there right?" I ask one more time to be sure.

"Right, Jamie says, "his GRANDMA was."

Oh, kid, you're killin' me.

Volume 2

Arts and arts and arts

Goody Bag?

You can eat cake at the party.
You can splash down the slip-n-slide at the party.
Whack each other over the head with a fun noodle at the party.
You can take a crack at a stubborn pinata at the party.
You can throw water balloons at the party.
You can watch the birthday boy open really cool gifts that you brought at the party.
You can slurp popsicles and eat huge chunks of watermelon at the party.
BUT, you may NOT have the guarantee of getting a goody bag at the party.
Ooops, I've miscounted for the 3rd year in a row.

One!

It's 1979 and I am pedaling my 3 speed Schwinn to dance class. Hanging off my handlebars is a red Capezio bag, my prize possession and in it, my black ballet slippers (no pink for me thank you), and a handful of pennies that are jangling around as I curve and steer and ride my bike over the bumpy path. I won those pennies in swim class. I knuckle scraped them off the bottom of the deep end trying to impress my swim instructor, Bob, who, in fact, was bitten by a shark, making him all the more impressive.
I am a good little dancer. Why? You ask..... because I even danced with my fingers. I remember thinking a ha, I know something other little girl tutu dancers don't know-that you have to USE your whole body to dance.
I get moved up to the advanced class where I am one of the two youngest. Yep, that's me on the very end of the Chorus Line with tuxedo printed bodysuit, top hat and plastic cane. And then, dammit, after a couple of years, my beloved instructor, Mrs. Cope moves away leaving me with (and I am not making this up) a VERY large, sweaty, unflexible and mean old ballerina...gone is the cool music....Mr. Bojangles (whoever sang that), gone is the 70's version of Pachobel's Canon, enter boring Bach, skiddish Mozart...nothing anyone could keep a beat to. This is straight up classical and I hate it.

I quit.

I never learned about modern dance or other forms of dances until college. Shucks.
And so, it's time folks, it's time for another season of So You Think You Can Dance. And I have brought out the black ballet slippers, I'm practicing first position and pirouettes again. I'm throwing a little chasse and leg swings into the mix too. And best of all....let's sing it folks!

One singular sensation
Every little step she takes.
One thrilling combination
Every move that she makes.
One smile and suddenly nobody else will do;
You know you'll never be lonely with you know who.

One!
(boy, it still gives me chills)

De-Caf Double Non Mocha Sans Cream Latte

Have you ever noticed that most things that are bad for you start with the letter C?
chips
cream (ice, puff etc.)
crackers
chocolate
cookies
Coke
candy
cheese (in moderation of course)
crack
cocaine (oh, I can't wait to see the traffic I'll get from posting that)
caffeine
The list could go on of course....
I am a coffee addict. I love it. And for the past five years I have had to give it up for the most part, either pregnant or nursing. And I love my warm cup of coffee in the morning, late morning, lunch, afternoon (well, it's not that much) but you get my drift. When denied something for so long, I tend to overindulge and perhaps I am drinking too much....I'm wondering if the reason I feel so tired these days is because of my little, warm, brown, best friend. I used to look at non-coffee drinkers and de-caf people like they were crazy....I didn't trust them. Oh, ho, ho, no caffeine for you, too good for caffeine eh? Man, it's an acceptable drug...what's a gal to do?
This could be interesting. Maybe I'll try it....I may just be making myself into an experiment.....and I may just be asleep on the couch.

Useful Tip #2

(Car packed for car trip/vacation-or as a friend puts it-RE-LOCATION)

This helpful tidbit is not only for all of you fellow mini-vanning moms out there but for commuters too,well for anyone wanting to spice up their driving time.....my boys love this....try playing the brilliant John Williams' Superman theme, Indiana Jones' theme or Star Wars theme (even Harry Potter's is good) music while you're driving....it makes the boring trip to the grocery store or work seem LIKE AN ADVENTURE! Can't you just see the Tie Fighters battling you on the toll road? Want to feel like you're barreling down the road in a dirt covered convo truck trying to get hold of the Holy Grail?
Really try it and may the force be with you.

Oh Baby!

(Inside cover of The Smiling Pool found on my shelf)

Last night-this morning-sleep is so highly underrated.
11pm-get home from soccer with cleated and bruised knee-baby is up and ready to play...what?
12am-lay on nursery floor nursing knee, Anna is reading the book Babies to me...here's the jist of it, "Baby. Babies! Baby. Babies!!! Baby."
Oh, baby.
1am-baby finally goes to sleep
5am-thunderstorm-bad timing thunderstorm!
6am-baby's up
10am-Put on Scooby Doo...kids are glued, lay on floor, baby playing with thumbtacks, oops
12pm-one kid down, one kid on bus, one more to go until a nap...ahhhhhh.

Eye Fatigue

Found this deck of cards at my parents' house.....love the retro look of the cards but the best part of it really is "35% Less Eye Fatigue"......what? You can get eye fatigue from playing cards!? Who knew? These are scientifically tinted, wow. I'll have to show you what the waterfall design on the actual cards looks like when I have more time (yeah...more time)...
Here's a funny snippet for the end of the week from Fuller land to make you smile:

This morning we were talking about how excited we all are that baby Sam is going to be here soon (my sister's due on July 10th-it's the first nephew or niece of mine on my side of the family)...here's how it went, ( I swear I don't make this up)

"Claire is going to have baby Sam, right Mom? Not Uncle David, boys don't have babies!" says my three year old.
"Right," says Jamie, "only girls have babies. Mommy had us inside her tummy!"
"Yeah," I say " I MADE you guys from scratch! I did! Can you imagine that?"
"Yep," exclaims Colin, "like PLAYDOUGH!"

White Leaf Brown Plate

Okay...so there's a lot of art going on in Fuller Land.....the drawing just relaxes me, well, not as much as I'd like but good enough. I remember in eighth grade art class when I was introduced to stippling....yes, we were producing entire drawings using the method of repeating dots of ink...and I was thrilled. I loved it and for a person with scant amounts of patience it was good therapy for me. So, you may see more detailed drawings from me....rule of thumb, the more detail, tiny, ridiculous, repetitive stuff you'll know, the crazier things are in my house. dot dot dot

Needed Rest

(Pic of Jamie (2) and me...still can't believe he's six!)
Oh what eight STRAIGHT hours of non-weird dreaming sleep will do.....I feel so much better, stretch, ahhh...more later.

Paaaarty!

Jamie is six today!
And although, the day has quite improved...it started out with this song....(everyone, yes, everyone was crying this morning)...

"It's my PARTY and I'll cry if I want to....cry if I want to. You would cry too if it happened to you!"

I promise a funny post or two about the three (yes, three) parties we are having for Jamie....crazy, I know....but hey...it's his party and I'll cry if I want to.....

My Balancing Act

Okay so after that last post mentioning my dead ex-beau dream...I've been thinking and trying to figure out just what those dreams could be about and I have oh so many theories.....here's a rundown:
1. I am mourning my young self-the 20 year old version...never have before but now is a good time as ever I guess....
2. I am feeling guilty about dumping the poor guy who died and not returning his phone calls even though he tearfully told me he still carried my love letter (when there was no email or texting, whoa, that's what we did) in his wallet many years after the break-up. He died alone with only his dog living in a town outside of Las Vegas, sad, I know....but definitely not my fault.
3. I am needing to treat people better (ahem...see post above) so that they don't end up dead and alone with their pets.
4. I am missing that feeling...that possibility feeling, not about love per se but about life in general. Had the "Is that all there is?" talk with a girlfriend the other night.....whew, that's a novel length post right there.
5.I could quite possibly be a bit overwhelmed these days by the sheer responsibility of keeping my loved ones well and alive.
6. Mortality is knocking me over the head.
7. Or simply put by my husband this morning......Well,Beth, you are just slowly going insane, aren't you?

Cups Shared

I've been having really weird dreams lately....like waking dreams. Dreams so real, I don't feel I've actually fallen asleep. An old flame (from like when I was 19) of mine has showed up in them, he passed away six years ago from a heart condition, he keeps telling me, "If you had loved me more....I'd still be alive today." Whoa, nelly....what is up with that?
I'm sure someone could dissect it and come up with an answer. I don't often dream of old flames, let alone dead ones, so....right now, it just totally freaks me out.....

Tea Time

My Own Personal Trainer

It's early Saturday morning.
It's just me and the two youngest, Colin and Anna heading to a 5K for a good cause.
I thought about letting my 30 bucks just be a donation and enjoy a cup coffee at home. But I know I need to go and show my support....
It's Tommy's Run for a Reason a race dedicated to a local boy, Tommy (2 years old) who passed away with no explanation, SUDC-Sudden Unexplained Death of a Child, last May. It's a sad story, heartbreaking.
And I realize in the car that my son is almost exactly the same age as that poor little guy would be if he were still alive. (They are three weeks difference in age.)

Now we are in the parking lot, it's a beautiful day, absolutely picture perfect and Colin has seen the amazing pool they have at Algonkian.....we start crying for the pool, we won't get in the double jogger, we are throwing a tantrum like no other, people are starting to stare....and this is THE WORST PLACE to lose it with my three year old son, yikes, keep it together Beth, keep your cool....this may be the longest three mile "race" of my life.....

And then suddenly something shifts, we started the run (I've actually never run with a double jogger, whoa, it's tough) and Colin snaps out of it...

"Go Mommy! Go Mommy you can do it! Wow, we are going fast!!! (We are not). Get those ladies!" he yells enthusiastically....apologies to whomever was ahead of me in the "race". He rode the three miles full of vigor and zest. I had planned on walking but a slow jog worked out just fine...and with such a little motivator in my carriage, I even felt pretty good.

I let him out of the jogger for the last 100 yards of the race. He ran through the finish line with a huge grin.
"I won! I won!" he exclaimed. This time people looked at us and smiled.

It was a good morning....crisis averted, race "run" and well, apparently, WON! And all for a good cause.... You should join us next year..and I'll bet Colin will cheer for you too.

Useful Tip

If you talk to your kids in ROBOT voice you can get them to do almost anything.
(I know, how did you ever live without this useful information?)

It's a Barbie World Today

My three year old son, Colin (see above), is playing with our three Barbies this morning...yet the dialogue coming out of these statuesque beauties is more of a vicious battle between let's say Batman and the Joker with the appropriate gender switches made...

"I'm gonna get you lady....ahhhhhh" says Christmas Barbie. And she grabs a minuscule and frustratingly small Barbie piece out of Art Teacher Barbie's permanently curved hand.
And then comes the part that really made me crack up,
Art teacher Barbie exclaims,
"My I-Pod....my I-Pod what have you done with my I-Pod...you evil lady!!"
(apparently the little piece that will inevitably end up in the vacuum is an I-Pod)
"I'm gonna geeeeet yoooooooou!"

Ahhh, there's so much we could read into this couldn't we? Chuckle, chuckle.....

I just wanted to thank everyone for the wonderful comments and support about some of my latest (non-funny) posts. I started this blog two years ago simply to post art and ramble every once in awhile about my kids, being a mom and being an artist and the balancing act we do everyday. I only had the two boys at the time and I was barely keeping my head above water. The blog helped me find a community and an outlet.
Lately my head has been bobbing up and and down in those waters, some things taking my breath away, some things making me laugh until my blasted bladder betrays me (I had three kids, need I say more-TMI, thanks Kacky for that new acronym...BTW-I'm TWOH-typing with one hand-all mothers should know it-LOL).

So thank you, thank you.....now where is my dang I-Pod, evil lady!!!

5:20 am

Okay....
You know you're tired when.....(fill in the blank)

You yell over and over to your dog to come upstairs from the basement (his favorite cool place) to eat some Ritz cracker mayhem in the living room.....Tucker, Tucker, where is he? Did I leave him outside? Is he upstairs rubbing himself all over my towels in order to smell like hair conditioner (if only it lasted)....remember....you dropped him off at the vet this morning for his shots and a needed bath.
Yikes.
So what are your funny stories? C'mon make me feel better:)

Lament

(me with our harmless lab-trying to get away from me)

There are lines....
lines for being a single young woman
lines for being a liberal, a conservative....
lines for being a decent human being
lines you think of crossing or not almost everyday
then there are the lines you draw as a parent
what you will or won't do
what you say or wont say
how protective you will be
how much you should allow
you cross them-these lines
or you don't
you reevaluate

My son was jumped on and bitten by a friend's dog last week. And I went into survivor mode. I've often thought I would have made a good doctor, nurse or trauma worker....I shut down, get the job done (with comfort and love for my kid) and then think about it later.....and I have been thinking about it.

The most sensitive kid of my brood....he's doing so well....but I'm not. It's my fault.
When you hear that little voice in your head say...hmmmm......maybe.....this is isn't a good idea, please listen to it. We've learned the hard way. It could have been so much worse.
I'm so sorry, kiddo.
I'm so sorry.

You were such a brave boy sitting in that chair today...it was only stitches they were pulling out but it was my heartstrings that got pulled on the most.

IF-Cracked

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in. --Leonard Cohen

(yep, there it is again, that quote...but it perfectly works for Illustration Friday's "Cracked" theme. And here's mine.)

Baker's Twine

Love the bakers twine...found at NicePackage...not sure how I'll use it yet....but I love this brown, red, off white color scheme...

In the Garden

I've started doing some relief printing again....this is first pull of a little lino I cut the other day....it's just for fun. And then I remembered of course it's just for fun, I'm not getting critiqued on my printing technique so it doesn't really matter that the image didn't completely come out or that it wouldn't "make an edition". I can make whatever I want of it.
I love printmaking. It's like finding a long lost friend. Hello!

What I Love Most About My Mom....

Hmmm....it's his Dad who makes him pancakes.
Hey!

Poppy Field-Work in Progress

Bear,Bear

Today I thought...hmmmm...putting more time in between having children (mine being 5,3,1), those people might just be onto something......it's been a crazy week/weekend. There was a dog bite, ER visit, 8 stitches, a plastic surgeon and a stiff drink (or three for me).....all's well here in Fuller Land...other than trying to make light that the dog thought Jamie's red hair looked like an apple and wanted a bite...I'm probably not going to find much more humor in this as I usually am apt to do. Give your family a hug for me, wontcha?