Rain Rain Rain...

I have never lived in a place where it will rain for 24 hours straight before! For those of you who know Eirik, you know that he likes to be on the move... ALL THE TIME! Every morning around 8:30 he goes to the door to get everyone's shoes and brings them to us and cries until we put them on. No matter how much we explain that we are not going anywhere, he insists. Yesterday morning Eirik went to the door at 8:30, looked out the window and said, "WET", "BRELLA!!", "MOMMY'S SHOES!" "EIDIT'S SHOES" and then insisted on going outside. Now there are plenty of mornings when he cries and cries and we still just don't go anywhere just because he wants to, but this time, "Idit" and Mommy went for a long walk in the rain and got soaked. It was pretty fun, and didn't put a damper at all on his enthusiasm. Several of our neighbors have ceramic bunnies, dogs, cats, windmills, or yard ornaments with bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies. He has memorized where all of these are and insists on visiting them everytime. He is so smart.

Cousin's house

We have lived so far away from family for so long that it was like a huge breath of fresh air to spend time with Paul's brother Zach's family who live 2 hours from our house. They are such a great family and we just played and relaxed the whole time. (oh, and they made us some spectacular food!) We love their "farm" house that is on a whole bunch of land with a big wooden play structure under the giant trees next to a perfect hammock. It's real living at their house. We at fresh herbs and tomatoes from their garden and swam in the lake and watched the cows outside their window. It was awesome!

More Detroit Excursions

First:
We made a trip to the zoo with our good friends Tiff, Craig and Coop. We had a great time and loved seeing our friends. The craziest part was that while we were there we ran into the Mathews and the Allreds!!! Isn't that crazy! 4 families from K-ville all at the zoo at the same time! (PS. It's a great zoo, but it's not St. Louis Zoo!! Those of you who have the chance, don't miss the opportunity to go to St. Louis. It Rocks!)


Second:
Our little family decided it was time to see what downtown Detroit is all about. We drove right downtown to explore and see what there is to see. Luckily while we were driving, my brother called. We told him what we were doing and he said, "Funny, my roommate is from downtown Detroit, let me call him and have him tell you what to see while you are there." He have us some great suggestions. We haven't seen all the spots he recommended but we did to to Belle Isle. It's an island right across the bridge from downtown and it is dedicated to parks and recreation. It's basically a huge park. We drove around and enjoyed the views and soon got to thinking, "Isn't this peak tourist season, summer, fun time right now?? This place should be packed! Why is it so empty!!!" There are a couple of beautiful lakes, one with swan boat rides, a boat museum, a little zoo, and tons of playgrounds, huge slides and picnic benches. The funny thing is that it all looks like a time warp has hit it. Nothing seems to have been updated in years! And the place was basically deserted.
The coolest part was going to the Conservatory.


http://www.bibsociety.org/sys-tmpl/door/
It was built in 1904 and still looks like a great old Victorian edifice that has barely changed since then. It's filled with all kind of amazing tropical plants from all over the world. They're all marked so you can learn about them. Since I'm such a plant lover, especially tropicals, I was having the time of my life ooing and awing at everything. We saw huge banana trees, palms of all kinds, a great orchid collection, gorgeous bougainvillea, euphorbia and tons of ferns. I loved it.
Still there was a sense of weird nostalgia about the whole experience, like it's become a city nearly forgotten. Of course, the volunteers who keep up this place do an amazing job considering that Detroit can't afford to fund places like this. Still, as we drove around town, the giant blocks of abandoned spaces, empty parking lots, overgrown dilapidated buildings that were once spectacular left me with a bit of an eerie feeling, like a sad longing for better times long since past for this city.




There are still lots of cool things to explore here. And, for your local Detroitians, I know there are jewels in this place, and we will find them. I know no one likes to have their state of residence knocked. Even if they're doing the knocking first, they'll defend it tooth and nail as soon as a foreigner tries to join in. So, so far, Detroit, thank you for the great metro parks, all the amazing birds, great stores we love right near our home, Ikea, the nice weather, ducks and great parks. No thank you to your ridiculous construction everywhere we look, but enough with the complaints, on with the good!

Newsworthy Announcment!

Debbie C. emailed me the other day and asked if I am planning to do the Red Barn festival this October in Kirksville. I had not planned on it because I haven't done much new work this year, but her email got me thinking and I decided that I can't imagine anything that gets me more excited than having a 9 week deadline, tons of work to do, and the reward of a really fun drive down to K-ville to see all of my old friends and participate in one of the best events that K-ville offers.... So.... We are going to do it!! I'm so excited.
So yesterday I pulled out all of my work that I have to sell, have to finish, have to paint over, and my ideas for new work and started making lists. My lucky husband just spent an hour staining frames, pressboxes and other treasures and preparing canvases for me. (Thanks honey!!) I really have slim pickings on new work right now, but lots of ideas, so I'm so excited.




These photos mark a milestone because this project is one of the first art projects that I have done in our new house. Of course there's been a lot of decorating and planning projects, but the work has finally begun. This is what a crafty mom does when she's super cheap and won't buy cute new towels for her kids new bathroom! A $2.00 roll of ribbon from walmart and a few fabric scraps and Eirik gets some fishy towels! I'm going to do the shower curtain the same way, but not until after the festival! This project is dedicated to Kristen who came up with the brilliant idea when she came to our house to visit all the way from Cleveland!!! Thanks again for coming guys! It was so good to see you!!!

Our New Pad

I finally have a few pics of our new house. I'm picky so they're still not really finished and you'll have to wait for the rest of the rooms while I finish them, but here you go. It's all our same old stuff just rearranged. It was fun to buy one or two new things for each room, like our new TV!

Ann Arbor Art's Festival

This festival is HUGE and very well known so we were excited to go check it out while Paul's parents were in town. Every once in a while you run across something someone has made that just blows you away. I loved these little hand carved wooden birds that have all kinds of cool ornamentation. I wish I had some better pictures. They were so cool!!

Mackinaw Island

Here are a few photos from our family trip north.
The ferry ride where Eirik cried the whole way because he got sunscreen in his eyes.
The cool fort on Mackinaw island.
The wonderful picnic lunch with the family.
This is my mother and father in Law Pat and Steve, and Eirik's cousins Oly, AB and Elsie. Great times!

Homage to K-ville favorites

This blog entry is about some of the things that we love and miss about K-ville. It's sort of an homage to our little town. Before we left town I went into Hyvee and wrote the management a little love note. I think Hyvee is such a great store. All of the employees are so friendly. The butchers and bakers were awesome. There were FREE special carts that Eirik loved to ride in. (The firetruck carts are $1 here). And, Eirik could be sure he would get a balloon at the end of our trip, which he loved. There is great cross merchandising, great produce, great deli, easy to find employees who are happy to help, and music that always got us dancing in the isles. Thanks Hyvee for being around the corner from us and for always having almost everything we needed.
We also loved our little library, that we could ride our bikes to. It was small and quaint and not very well stocked, but it had heart.
We didn't get our bikes until our second year in K-ville and we used them so much. I think I rode somewhere almost every day. Too bad this photo doesn't show Eirik in his bike seat since it was his favorite place to be in the whole world. He would drag me out to the bikes and beg me for a ride. We went every morning to the TCC and rode there every time we could. Great times. Where else are there so many destinations easily accessible by bike? Well, not here in Detroit at least!

I guess I should explain the VIC Cleaners sign. It was my landmark that told me where to turn to go home. I think in a weird way it will always signify K-ville home. I never even went there. Ha Ha...

Moving in!

We received a great welcome when we moved in too. Thanks to Trevor, Anona, Charyce and Ashlie for arranging a huge team of movers to help us.

We were lucky enough to have two guys show up that brought all of their tools and expertise that allowed us to keep our armoir that I was 1 second away from giving away to the crowd. The crew had worked for 15 minutes to get our huge antique armoir through our front doorway. It was just not going to make it. I was asking who wanted it when these guys offered to take our front windows out. It took them about 10 minutes start to finish to take the windows out, bring the armoir through, and put the windows back up.
Thank you, thank you Tim and John!

Moving Days

We still owe a lot of thank yous to our old and new friends who helped us so much with our move! We had a great team show up at our house and load us up in less than an hour. They were awesome. We love these people, and we already miss them so much!! (Except for the three that moved up here with us!)

Please try to overlook the fact that I look like I am about to start rapping. It was totally unintentional! :)


These are two of my sweet neighbors who showed up with gift packages to make our trip more comfortable. What great ladies!
The pic below shows are other awesome neighbors, the Ward family, who became great friends by the end of our stay in K-ville. Miss you guys already!

I have a little side story to share now. When we first moved to K-ville we had a really fun dinner with some friends at our house. We used a gift that we got for Christmas from our niece as one of our prizes for a game that we played. The couple receiving the gift weren't too fond of it. I don't have any idea why!! So they tried to leave it at our house. We snuck it in their bag and the game of sneaking the glitter bear into unexpected places began. For two years we passed this creature back and forth each laughing hysterically when it was unexpectedly found in the strangest of places. Well, they got the last laugh... so they think ( ;) ) when they snuck it into one of our boxes. I laughed so hard I almost lost it! Thanks for the great time Jill and Morgan!

Discovering Michigan

Two days after we pulled the moving van up to our new home, we went on our first Michigan vacation. We were excited to spend time with Paul's brother, his wife and their kids, and we had the good fortune to have Paul's parents with us for a week to party with (and to help us move in.) ;) We drove 5 hours, maybe 6 north to Mackinaw Island and the surrounding areas.
I have to admit, I handle change at my own pace and I would have probably done better with more than two days to get settled before vacationing. I felt a little displaced and de-constructed, but besides having to go to the beach without my bathing suit since the right box couldn't be located, it turned out to be a really fun trip. E loved his cousins and loves to say their names. We love how he says Oly, Oly, Oly, Oly Oly, with this cute little tongue roll. He gets so excited when their names come up. I'm SO happy that they live so close!! It's hard to be away from family and their connection makes us feel a lot more at home. We were surprised and thrilled that north Lake Michigan along the tip of the state looks just like the ocean and surprisingly reminded us of "our beach" in Portland. It was perfect swimming (for everyone but me since I wore by skirt!) You could walk out on the sand bar for yards and yards. It was a gorgeous day!

TV and fondant

When we moved we decided to go ahead and make the plunge into the big bad world and get cable TV. It's been a few years since we have been plugged in to the vein of acid laced modern media and after a few weeks of being "dazzled" by it's marvels, we remember why we got unplugged, but we're still seduced. I'm trying to find those few key shows that make TV worth watching. One of the TV show marvels is Home Makeover Extreme Edition. Man, do they know how to play out the dramatics. It's fun to watch though, I'll admit. Ty has great style. I also love the kids shows that give me at least an hour of peace a day. Thank you TV. And, of course I love the food network. I have just watched a few of the iron Chef shows and the competitions.. also SO dramatic, I mean, why is there so much melodrama?? Anyway, I love the fondant cake competitions. They're totally over the top and ridiculous, but it's such a crazy kind of hobby, so challenging and yet so much fun. I want to make it clear that I have no desire to enter any big competitions or anything. I just like making little funny cakes, and I feel like I have to redeem myself from my last pig/ hippo cake that turned out a little different than planned. (he, he, he) So I finally found the photo of this cake I made for my niece in June. Isn't it funny how the TINY imperfections look enormous in photos?? Ok, stop looking so close. It was fun to make and this one was super tasty. (At least I hope everyone else thought so.)


PS. Thanks mom for doing this one with me! It was so much fun to do together!

A tiny post on politics

Tonight we caught a radio show of a speech by John Pilger. He spoke about how many believe that the media in the US stood back and let the Bush administration proceed with the war on terror unchecked and unquestioned. He said that it is the job of the journalists to uncover the truth and speak out. He basically called for a revolution and cited many gruesome instances of inhuman media cover-ups in our recent US history. It's sickening to hear the claims he makes that, if true, paint our government to be an evil nightmare. I went to his website tonight since his speech was distastefully convincing to discover more about him and what he stands for. I watched the trailor of the movie he has just made that is not yet approved to be released in the US called "War on Democracy". This film will be viewed by countries all over the world, but not by many Americans. I feel, and have felt for many years a great lack of trust in anything I hear from the media and I have been searching for someone I really believe.
What do you guys think of what John Pilger says, and who do you listen to??
http://www.johnpilger.com/

Art Commentary

When I was in Utah last I saw this painting at the Springville Museum of Art. I got a kick out of it. It's such a clever statement about the nasty commercialism that art faces. Is it impossible to be prey to trendy art fads? I think we all are in on it in some way or another. Creating art that is beyond the fads, classic, timeless, enduring... that's a challenge. Is it really possible, or are we just swimming against the tide of our time?

Our Duck pond

One of the best things about our new house is that we have a really cool backyard. We are thrilled because we didn't get to choose our townhouse, we just luckily got the one available in the best building that has a duck pond in the backyard. It rained last night, all night long, and this morning the pond was much bigger than usual so I took some pictures. I got our grill in this first shot so that you can see the proximity of the pond to our house. It's about 25 feet from our back door. E loves to watch the ducks from his upstairs bedroom window.