Collage

Just got done creating this collage using ripped magazine pages.

Whattaya think?

Focus on the Family

I was looking way forward to this Memorial Day weekend, because my mom, sister, and sister's boyfriend were driving up today from Utah to visit for the weekend. Unfortunately, I just found out that Kate and her boyfriend woke up this morning feeling sick, so they aren't coming up anymore. Rather than drive alone today, my mom called my Dad, who had been planning to come up anyway (not that he told me or Tony about his plans), and now they are driving up tomorrow, which is fine, but I'm bummed that now we will have one less day to visit with Madre.

My son has a state soccer tournament in Great Falls all weekend, but my daughter has a softball game tonight, so he is going after school today to Great Falls with his dad, while we planned to do a day trip to Great Falls on Sunday to see him play and to give Grandma a chance to see him. Apparently, my dad chooses to NOT travel with us on Sunday. He'd rather attend church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints takes major pride (you know, the righteous kind of pride, not the sinful pride) in teaching that FAMILY is the Most Important Thing. This may be true in many LDS families, but it certainly isn't true for my dad. I am fairly certain that he feels he is Choosing The Right by being a righteous example to his poor, misguided, wayward, apostate daughter and her poor, innocent children whom she's leading astray. But all I see is a pathetic excuse of a man who is unable to see how his behavior gives the clear message to his daughters and grandkids that they rate below three hours of boring church. He spends countless hours a week on church things and temple service and genealogy work. He spends a few hours a year visiting us.

I have a guest bedroom all prepared for him. The thing is, I have no idea if he'll choose to stay with me in comfort, or if he'll opt to stay at his (abandoned since 1996) house across town ~ the house that has no power, heat, or running water. That's what he did last time he came to town. He filled a five gallon jug with water from my house and camped out at his house in a sleeping bag, and the temperature was over 100 degrees. So strange. He actually went to TWO wards that Sunday, for a total of 6 hours, rather than come and spend time with his grandkids.

We were in Utah last June over Father's Day weekend, traveling through from our trip to Las Vegas for a soccer regional tournament. I called him, telling him we'd be at his mom's house in Kaysville for about three hours, and asked if he could drive down and visit from Brigham City since we had plans that evening and couldn't make it up there and back with any time to see him. He said no, he had gotten up early to clean the church building, and besides, he had just seen his mother yesterday, and it IS 100 miles round-trip, you know. Oh, yeah, well, um...Happy Father's Day, Dad. Really.

Some parents teach by example. My dad teaches me what NOT to do by his.

happy as a little girl in spring

My daughter had a nagging cough for over two weeks, and sure enough, I got it. I'm on about day five or six, and it's doing a number on me, that's for sure. The worst part of it is that it's made hash out of my vocal chords, so my voice sounds just awful. All day long, I sound like I just woke up from a bad three-day bender. At the very least, I sound like Bea Arthur. At the very worst, I sound like Bea Arthur's DAD. And he's dead.

I coughed so hard in the night last night, that one of my bottom ribs near my waist is really sore. When I have to talk, it brings on a coughing fit, which really sucks at work. Each time I answer the phone, the people feel they have to comment about how I don't sound like myself, causing me to have to talk even more to state the obvious: Yeah, I'm sick. Wonder how you could tell. Huh. (And hells yes, I've been complaining about this. I'm a wimp.)

Anyway. Regardless of that, life is good. My son got his cast off and will be playing soccer using a hard clamshell thing they created for his forearm, so his wrist has mobility and he can put on his goalie gloves. My mom is coming up from Utah to visit this weekend, and that spells more good times. We will travel to watch my son play on one of the days of the state tournament, and it should be a great weekend. The weather has been in the upper eighties this week, which adds to the joy. It's so nice to enjoy spring for real. Travel across Montana during this time of year is great fun for an artist. It's gorgeous.

I recently started a new ceramic project at the ceramic studio, which I'm excited to complete. I'm also working on a collage using ripped pieces from magazine pages, and I hope it turns out. I've never tried this before. I feel my art coming back to me and it's a great feeling. I may have a graphite portrait commission for Father's Day for the wife of a co-worker...which reminds me ~ I need to call her. Father's Day is coming soon.

Hopefully I'll have some good ideas come to me for this blog as well. I've been way too lax lately and need to write something of quality. If you have any suggested topics, please share. Some of my best blog posts from the past came from "assignments" people gave me. :)

"When Death Comes" by Mary Oliver

When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

Quite tasty

I have a perverse enough sense of humor that when I saw the menu item "Camel Toes" at the trendy sandwich shop yesterday, I had to order them.

It was hilarious when the waiter brought our food to the table. "And who has the Camel Toes?"

Uh.....that'd be me.

Yo, Kate!

Aaaaand,

A shout out to my sister, Kate! She called me last night to let me know she got a full ride scholarship to study nursing! She's been working so damn hard for this for years, and to now be paid to do what she had been working so hard toward all along, well....that's simply awesome.

I'm damn proud of you, Kate. Ya done good. I'm so glad you're my sister.

Yo, Keith!

Here's a shout out to my brother, Keith, who is in town for work for just over a week. He's my sibling I know perhaps the least, and I'm so damn glad for this opportunity to get to know him better. He's been coming over and hanging out with me after work, and it's been great fun.

Already he's teased me for being like our beloved Madre when I've called him my son's name and when I said three names before getting to the right one when talking about one of our siblings. We've had some great discussions and some serious laughs as he showed me his favorite website on the internet: cracked.com

We sat there laughing for almost an hour at the part labeled "Craptions" where funny pics are posted and people can submit captions to the pics.

I'm really enjoying getting to know my awesome brother better. His birthday happens to be this week also (a source of pain for him, being away from his friends on his great "drinko de Mayo" birthay), so I hope that being with us isn't too much of a let-down. Perhaps we can think up something suitably un-tame to do so he'll feel more at home!

Heh. Imagination going wild now...fun.