Art: For A Better Community

My student’s at school have created an awesome grant application for Bing’s Our School Needs program.

Now, we need YOU to go and rate us!!  Please 5 stars!!!!!!!!!!!!

They even made a great video! So please, please tell everyone about our grant application!!!!!!!!!!

Our project number is 1770.  You can find us by searching for Art: For a Better Community in the A-Z search, or look for Stephenville High School in the A-Z school list.

Every person who takes the time to rate and share our application is appreciated!!!!

Thanks for helping SHS Visual Art students!

She’s growing up so fast

I can’t believe how quickly time passes.  She’s growing up so fast.  Maddie is such a wonderful girl.  She’s becoming quite the preteen with the curling of the hair every morning and things like that.  But she is still our precious little girl, our treasure!

I created this digital page using:
ArtPlay Palette 10 Things 2 Heart Collection
Anna Aspnes of www.designerdigitals.com

Warning: Kleenex needed

I read a post today, linked from my sister's facebook, from someone I don't know....  but it doesn't matter.  I know her really.  She could be me or my sister, or my other sister, or.....

The post, written by Nancy Smith ( http://nancysmithonline.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/is-this-your-first/ ) about how our society so ineffectively deals with miscarriage.

So I sat and read her post and tears fell, you see, just a few days ago as I was sitting in the after hours clinic with Kylie who was quite sick, I had to do fill out new patient paperwork.  Simple enough. Right.

Except for the question that asks how many pregnancies I had had, and how many living children I had and where did Kylie fit in that order.

So I sat there in that office and made the decision. 

I left it blank.

Did it matter to the after-hours doctor who had never met us before and would probably never see us again that Kylie is my third child but that I have lost at least three more?

No, it would just be uncomfortable and a piece of conversation that I really didn't want to have.

So I left it blank.

And that hurts.

Oh how I wish I was..

a stay-at-home mom.

Yes, I said it. 

Believe me, it’s not that I don’t love my job.  I do.
But the everyday pressures of motherhood on top of a full-time job are just about to push me over the edge.

I am well aware that SAHM’s work really hard and that they sacrifice a lot to do be able to take care of their kids themselves on a daily basis.

But there are days, and today is one of those, that I would do about anything to be a mom full-time.

What brought this on?  My one year old running a 103 fever and being dog sick and me not knowing it.  Yeah, she’s not been herself the last few days.. she just got her bottom molars and the top ones have been pushing through.  So, I thought her crabbiness was just teething issues.

But this afternoon, when I picked her up from the babysitter, you could just tell that she was really sick. And let me say this, I wouldn’t know what to do without our childcare provider.  Miss Dori is the best thing that happened to us in a long time.  She only keeps two children full-time, Kylie and a little two-year old boy that Kylie loves playing with.  So it’s not like Kylie wasn’t being taken care of.  It’s the fact that I wasn’t there.

Many of you who don’t know us might be saying, so make the sacrifice and stay home.  If only it was that easy.  You see, I’m the insurance carrier for our family.  The only way we can qualify for health insurance is through a group plan that doesn’t have a waiting period or preexisting conditions.  Doug’s job doesn’t have any benefits.  Well, he get’s a paycheck, so I guess that’s a benefit, but that’s it.

So with Maddie’s kidney disease and Doug’s high blood pressure, we are pretty much out of luck.  I have to work.  It makes me feel better on days like this cause if it was a matter of just having the “extra's,” believe me, we would move into a tiny house and just survive.

Thanks for allowing me to wallow a bit.  Surely this crazy sick season in our life will pass.

But for now, all of your SAHM’s out there, give your kids an extra squeeze in the morning, and thank the Lord that you are the one there for all the firsts, the hurts, and everything in between.

A Hybrid Invitation

Kylie’s church dedication is next weekend.  We are very excited and I made these invitations for our friends and church family.

I got the chipboard crosses at Michaels and made the invite in Photoshop, then I saved it as a picture and ordered the 4x6 prints. I had to trim down the crosses a little, but the difference in price from 4x6 to 5x7 is well worth the trimming time!

Then I embellished the corner and ta-da, done!

Art for ALL Abilities.. an opportunity for everyone to help!!

As the Visual Arts Teacher at Stephenville High School, I get the opportunity to teach some pretty amazing students.  Everyday I am wowed by someone.  It might be their detailed watercolor of a home, or an abstract acrylic of a hand, or maybe the unique random dots on a piece of paper.  You see, not only do I have the best artists in school, I also have the priviledge of teaching our lifeskills students. 

Over the last couple of years I have seen the faces of my students change from blank expressions to engaged learning.  I have seen students (who I had been warned that they just sat and picked their noses) create beautiful and detailed works of art.

It is because of these students, that I am asking each person to go to Power A Bright Future and register as a voter and vote EVERYDAY from today, October 5th through November1st.  I have submitted a grant application with Clorox and now it's up to the votes. 

The grand prize is $50,000!! I can not even describe to you the joy these funds would bring to our art program and to all of my students.

So please, for the sake of my students of ALL ABILITIES, vote for us!!