jessica

aloha, all.

we're here! since we won't be sending any postcards....

we'll have a pina colada or two for you.

it all evens out in the end

so we are totally nut-free in this house. there are a few ways i can go with that statement, but in good taste i will leave it alone.  the allergy is confirmed, but there is good news.  she *could* grow out of it.  we're not holding our breath. i miss dairy queen.

yesterday i got the contract paperwork for my first official LICENSING AGREEMENT!!!  my artwork will be on floor mats and rugs  in '09. worldwide.  i won't be paid til everything is in stores and sold, but still, it's a step in the right direction. and it won't bother me AT ALL if someone's stepping all over my art. my art is being presented to lots of large clients but i won't jinx myself by naming. not holding my breath here either.

i'm doing photoshoots like crazy.  i have to slow down. it's fun, exhausting, and exhausting.

SEVEN days until hawaii.  still looking for that housesitter....

this past week has been filled with lots of activity. 
monday - hubs was in a car accident. he was rear ended during rush hour on his way to work. long story short, our car is in the shop for up to FOUR weeks. because of all the storms and hail damage. he's okay.
on to tuesday - i had three photoshoots. this was way insane. but they're proofed already!
wednesday - spent proofing the wedding shots from last weekend. we got a rental car finally, because of all the body shops being busy, the rental places are also...  hubs did not make it into work.
thursday -  another shoot, and then afterward, monkey had another dr. appt. she got four lovely shots, and afterward we went to the pharmacy to get some stuff with camphor oil (?) in it for her bad bug bites. at the stoplight, she was crying... i reach back to give her a toy, and my foot slips off the brake. i *barely* bump into the car in front of me.  guess what it was. a VINTAGE JAGUAR. yes, this is my luck. the dude does not want to exchange insurance info, he is turning into a nightmare... maybe there will be a follow-up post on this incident.
friday - more photo proofing... photo ordering, basic shuffling of many things. helping out at the garage sale i have a ton of junk in.... i also went to the outlet mall (don't let that word fool you) and bought some new jeans because i have TWO pairs of pants that fit me right now.  i better not change sizes again.

wordless wednesday 04.30

it's a good day.

i know, i know. if it weren't for the last minute i wouldn't do much of anything...

AND... we didn't have to pay IN!

AND... the sun is shining!

AND... the snow is melting already!

AND... the neighbor still rocks!

panicked

our smoke alarms went off this evening. we spent about 20 minutes running around trying to find the source. we'd smell the smoke, then we didn't. the alarms would go off.  then we did again. they would go back on. it was so bizarre. finally, hubs went outside and yelled at me to come out.  i did, and in the sky a few miles away were smoke billows from what was very likely someone else's house going up in flames.  woah.

weekend wrap

well, everything went off quite well for the j=man party on saturday.  he bowled some great games (check out the 'strike-to-be' in that one pic) and had a  ball with his buddies. he successfully turned nine.  monkey girl was awake pretty much the whole day and our night that night was another story. uggggh! we had hockey both days, it's the very last weekend!  sunday was the mite jamboree... they did a round robin tourney with nice short 20-minute games. the kids could only score once in each game, which i thought was a little silly, because the kids' drive really went downhill after they scored.  anyhow in all three games, j-man got his goal and a couple of assists per game too.  it was a nice, napless weekend.

boudoir

a long time back i was going to respond to jaime's bedroom post.  and then kim posted photos. and now jenny is posting her bedroom on her blog. but my bedroom was in no shape at that time, and in fact you could barely forge a path into the room.  i've had a lot of energy lately and have been doing  a bit of cleanup around here.   my bedroom is nowhere near as large as any of yours... but i love my space.

our room is a 'bonus room' over our garage.  it feels like it's got its own miniature wing of the house. here is the photo going up the stairs.  i'm standing in our private little hallway and to my left is our master bath. (which i did not photograph.)  the guy on the floor is "roomie", my roomba. - he is  one of my best friends. he cleans my floors while entertaining my child. 

 

i love my hardwoods. they are beautiful. but they are hard. on . the. back. i also love my furniture. we bought the bed, but hubs' uncle made the dressers for us.

as you come up the stairs, this is what you see:

 

another angle (you can see the railing a bit coming up the stairs) - and my walk-in closet is almost as large as the room itself. it is most certainly the catch-all for everything.

it's just in a cheap poster frame, but i took that photo in point panic, hawaii. i looooove it.  the yellow is textured and i just love how warm it feels in here.

tft: dreams, aspirations, and all that jazz

let me just jump right into it. if you could do anything with your life, what would it be? if you could truly follow your heart, no holds barred, what would you do? what would you be? there would be no obstacles, no financial issues holding you back. if that were the case, would you change anything from what you are doing now?

i've got a zillion things going around in my head surrounding my impending resignation from my job. i guess that's what is bringing this tft on.

who really "knows" their direction in life, and what they want to do by the ripe old age of 18 and fresh out from under mom and dad's wing? when i was a kid, i wanted to be a pilot. (along with a mommy, a racecar driver, a chef, etc...) but mostly, i dreamed of flying. i took classes and flight school in high school before i even laid eyes on an airplane in college.  but after a period of time, despite enjoying it immensely, i realized that wasn't "really" the direction i wanted to go. always being a creative type, i switched gears to attend design school.  i've been doing that since '96, and i truly love it. but now i see myself doing something that, well, would make more of a difference. in the lives of other people.  at the very least, the lives of my own children. instead of this insanity that i have going on.

in the meantime, i will enjoy my design and pursue photography... because i need to pay some of the bills... but there's something more to do, i know it!

am i the only person who feels this way?  is everyone else pefectly happy with their direction? maybe i should get this book titled "i could do anything. if i only knew what it was: how to discover what you really want and how to get it"

maybe i will.  now, tell me about YOU. what would you do if you could do anything with your life? 

other tft'ers this week:

• nicole on  babies and germs
• jenny on brand names
• cass on luxury
• kristi on esp, premonitions, etc.
• michelle on celebrity babies
• denise on ghopsts and haunted houses

tft: overscheduling kids

down time. everyone needs some. even kids.  i remember being a kid, and in the summers, we basically ran free outside and just enjoyed being kids. we made our own fun, our own games.
fast forward to today.  i'm a slave to the clock and this activity, and that activity. can't we all just stay home?

i have an overscheduled eight and a half year old.  no two ways about it.  there is rarely a night that we aren't running him somewhere, and from that somewhere to somewhere else. right now we're perhaps in the throws of the worst of it. for it is HOCKEY SEASON.  and hockey in minnesota is hard core. even when you're eight. this week, we have hockey on tuesday, hockey on wednesday, hockey on thursday, hockey on friday and a jamboree (basically a tournament) on saturday and sunday. every weekend between november and march is disrupted by hockey.  weekly he is (and so we are)  scheduled for in piano lessons, practicing for piano lessons on the nights there is no piano lessons,  soon-to-start chinese classes two nights a week (by persuasive request).   also sprinkle in there ortho appointments and such. you got yourself a crazy schedule.

in the summer we've got baseball, soccer if it doesn't conflict, golf, and then football (which i've already vetoed for the upcoming summer). camp invention. the list continues. what will i do when the baby gets older and wants to be in activities of her own?

i'm not trying to overschedule.  the kid requests it. adamently. he's a complete sports freak. and who am i to say no? maybe he'll be the next wayne gretzky or tiger woods. (personally i like the thought of a non-contact, low impact, warm sport like golf) seriously, i want to expose him to whatever he shows interest in. i remember that a lot of things that i was interested in (gymnastics etc)  just weren't available where i grew up. things that i believed i'd have loved and excelled at.

i really try to balance. but it's hard. we do have down time. i make an effort to make sure he's able to do stuff that's not scheduled. read a book, ride his bike, run around outside with friends.  life's a juggling act.

what do you do to keep the balance?  tell me your thoughts.

others with thursday thoughts:

Nicole on signing things as Husband and Wife

Denise on Valentines and Flowers

Amy on School Wellness policies
Kristi on Regional Stereotypes

Jenny on L.O.V.E
Nicole about keeping in touch with out-of-town family

Robyn on Technology and Parenting

inspiration: on settling

this blog thing is awesome. i've cyber-met some really great people.  i just wanna say thanks for commenting, everyone.

i don't know where i found this. somewhere i was surfing from blog to blog to blog...  anyhow, if it was yours and you are reading this,  i apologize for not keeping track and giving you credit.

this is my inspiration for today. since i feel like i'm in a transitional mode in my life. or a wanna-be transitional mode.

In 1995, Maureen Dowd became the fourth woman in the history of The New York Times to have her own op-ed column. She said, "The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for."

hope all of your weekends are fabulous .