Oh, Rats!

Somedays this this whole mother thing really gets me down.

Bear brought two of his rats home with him over Thanksgiving, so I have had a cage full of rats in my house for the last three days.

While Bear was gone last night Coder decided he really wanted to hold a rat.

So he took it it if the cage…

without asking…

and…

accidentally…

LET IT GO!!!!

After he finally realized he could not catch it, he could not even find it, he comes down here crying and tells me.

I was completely freaked, the very idea that there is a RAT loose in my house makes me crazy.

I cried for nearly an hour. I know I can not sleep with a rat in my house and if the stupid Jack Russell gets it she will tear it up!
I called Loml and Jove (my oldest) and Bear.

The boys came home and finally caught it, but there are NEVER going to any rats (pet or otherwise) in this house again! No matter what! The rats can stay Bears house, go over to Jove’s, go to the Humane Society, I do not care but the boys will NEVER EVER bring a STUPID RAT in my house again!!!

Advent

I was looking at the cutest advent box at Target the other day, I have been thinking about buying it for a while and there was only one left. It was a little shelf worn so I was looking it over to make sure that there was nothing major wrong with it.

“A little chipped paint, I think I could fix that,” I picked it up and one of the doors dropped inside the box, “not good, but I could fix it, maybe they will give me a discount,” then I opened door # 21 and found where someone had decided to leave their great big wad of gum! “that discount better be REALLY big!”

Well they were willing to mark it down, by $2.50 is not worth it to me.

I still want an advent calender, but am thinking I will make my own.

Here are some ideas I have found.

Here the advent calender consists of an envelope for each day with an activity inside.

http://www.loobylu.com/archives/000516.htm

This on is made from matchboxes.http

://www.artchixstudio.com/create/classroom/class_adventcalendar.htm

And this one is made using plastic canvas. http://faerycrafty.blogdrive.com/archive/442.html

The plan I have settled on is a little different, but will work for me.

I am going to buy a small parts chest with 25 drawers, and paint it up cute, I’ll post pictures when it is finished, if it is ever finished.

Accent

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North     You may think you speak “Standard English straight out of the dictionary” but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like “Are you from Wisconsin?” or “Are you from Chicago?” Chances are you call carbonated drinks “pop.”
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Midland
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Apparently I have succumbed and now sound just like everyone else.

I really thought that all my traveling growing up and as a young adult had given me a bit of a unique accent, guess I was wrong.

No one has ever asked me if I come from Wisconsin but I confess, I do call it pop.

A Normal Life (at least for now)

Adolescence has been really tough on Sissy. She is so head strong and confident, she hates not being able to do what she wants, when she wants and the way she wants. Sissy has a dual diagnosis of ADD and Down Syndrome. The ADD causes impulsive behavior that further aggravates the situation. Some of the impulsive things she wants to do are destructive or dangerous.Her behavior has often has caused a great deal of contention in our home and I certainly did not feel confident enough take her to in public by myself.

Three weeks ago her doctor put her on a new medication, WOW, what a difference, she is no angel but she is much calmer and more cooperative. We went grocery shopping today with no trouble what so ever. She goes to bed when she is told, she puts her things away when I ask her to. She entertains her self. This is awesome! Our life is starting to feel normal, what ever that is.

Beatiful Art

Where ever she lived my Grandmother always the same picture on her wall. It was of a little girl leaning on a chair. On the seat of the chair were a couple of cherries.

Grandma showed me that no matter where I stood in the room the little girl was looking at me.

I always wondered who the artist was. I had a fair grasp on art history but no clue who did this painting.

Finally a google search, (painting girl chair cherries) lead me to the name of the artist, William Bouguereau and eventually to Art Renewal, where I learned why my art classes had never mentioned this brilliant and once celebrated artist.

He had a huge body of work, including “The Seashell,” which serves as my banner. I had to crop it to make it fit, but below is the entire picture.

I think it is so beautiful, the people look so lifelike, not stiff and posed but really living.

 

The name of my grandmother’s picture was “Yvonne.” It turned out that 60 years ago Grandma had given a copy of it to her sister. When they held my great aunt’s estate sale a few months back my mother purchased it for me. One of my clients matted and a gave her a new frame, in exchange for my fixing his printer, and now she is watching me while I type. Everything is acid free now so maybe she will be around for another 60 years.

 

Here is Yvonne. (please ignore the icky wall, someday it will get fixed, but not today.)

Getting the Blog Back on Track

I have done a too much whining here and I need to stop it.
As You may have noticed, I have become bogged down lately with a distressing personal matter that I should have not brought into my little blog world.

So I am going to turn over a new leaf and try to leave things like that for the real world and not subject everyone *all three of my readers * to  this sort of thing anymore.

Oops!

I was looking at blog themes last night and accidentally chose one. I managed to get my banner back (sort of) finally, but have learned a lesson. Be careful where you click.