Almost May Day

To celebrate May Day, we spent an hour today at Hudson Gardens. Very short visit, but lovely. It was quite hot today, I'm sure it was over 80 when we were out. And another reason we went to the gardens today, not tomorrow - well tomorrow, it is supposed to snow. Yep.

SO today is a picture day. I've got lots of them. I caught many flower fairies on my camera today..... Enjoy!

And here is my next photo folder - November 2002, Blessingway:

No new pictures today

Too busy to take pictures. Although busy days can be the best. Now I'm super tired, although I did sneak in a quick nap while Elise and I were watching Night at the Museum (a must after a day at the museum), even though she kept telling me to "wake up mama!"

Inspiring Nia excersize class this morning, a good day working in the classroom, where I felt like I was actually helping rather than just butting heads with kids who don't want to do the schoolwork (read busywork), picked up the last of the books for the parenting conference - whew, even though they messed up one thing, that doesn't affect the conference at all, just a promise :-(, a trip to Vitamin Cottage (badly needed that deoderant I can only get there), watched a movie with Elise (see above), pick up Owen from a friend's house, start dinner, clean a bit of the kitchen, then finshed off with a very relaxing and enjoyable yoga class.

Now the fun part, the next folder - October 2002 - a very pregnant mom with a tiny Owen in our beautiful fall backyard:

An Enjoyable Day

Owen and Elise both had no school today, therefore a perfect day for a trip to the Museum of Science and Nature. All three of us haven't been there for quite a while. We got to tour GOLD, see some animal dioramas, the Native American section, play in the children's area, see the Gems and Minerals, and Space Odyssey. It was not crowded at all.
We found a cool pink wall and had to take pictures in front of it. It looked so good as a background to the kids' clothes ;-p

Ollie has gotten a clean bill of health. Last week, after trimming an overgrown claw and removing a cyst on his belly (both under anesthesia, I might add), the vet took some blood from Ollie since he is so old. Apparently he is quite healthy for an 18 year old cat. Good news!

Meow!

Brought home my first "pots" today. I took a picture. They are more like very small drinking cups. Smaller than my small glass jars. Anyway, they are mine, and I made them.

And finally, a photo from September, 2002. Just Owen:

Books

SO last Thursday was Author Night at school, where the kids reveal their books they have been working on for the past few months. The books are bound and nicely presented. Each book is available for viewing by classroom, and there is space in the back for comments by kids and/or parents. Of course there were many wonderful stories.

The other good reason to go is the Used Book Sale that goes along with Author Night. We have always gotten some good stuff here. Here are my finds from this year, I will post reviews as I finish them:

• The Girl With No Shadow - Joanne Harris. A few months ago I ripped through everything she has written, and was sad when I was finished. Lucky for me there was an advance copy of her new book sitting on the table at the book sale. I grabbed it up. This is the sequel to Chocolat.


• Sisters of the Earth - Women's Prose and Poetry About Nature. A compilation that looked too good to pass up. Many many wonderful authors and poets.


• women on the edge of a nervous breakthrough - isabel sharpe. How could I pass this one up? "Sometimes the only thing women on the edge need . . . is a push."


• Last Rituals -Yrsa Sigurdardottir. AnIcelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder. Mmmmmm, sounds yummy!


• The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga. "No saris, no scents, no spices, no music, no lyricism, no illusions - this is India now."


• A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving. I read this back (~10 years ago or so) when I was on a John Irving kick. An epic of sorts. It's where I first heard of the name Owen, and liked it. Not that *my* Owen is at all like the title character, if you have read the book :-) I loved this book, and just had to have it.

The next photo folder is: September 2002, Erin's Visit - Owen and 2nd cousin Natalie playing:

A New Family Member

So, we have a new neice and cousin, Catt Minka. Hopefully we'll get to meet her and see her sisters soon.
So in our family (I am including my family and John's, including our cousins' kids) that adds to the majority of girls as grandchildren. A few boys have slipped in, but they are few and far between. As far as I can recollect, it goes - girl, girl, BOY, girl, girl, girl, GIRL, girl, girl, girl, girl, boy, boy, boy, girl, and tbd. (Mine are in CAPS, of course:-) 11 girls and 4 boys. Among just our brothers and sisters kids it goes - BOY, girl, GIRL, girl, girl, girl, and tbd.
Welcome to the world baby Catt!

Our new family blog

Okay, now I'm going to do it. I'm not saying I will do this every day, but I have been motivated by reading my friends' blogs lately (thank you Google Reader). And this way I can post a few pics, without making you view 200 each time I do a photo shoot :-) But you might find in this blog my creative endeavors, things my kids have done, my kid's posts, and many pictures thereof. We'll see anyway. Yesterday and today I have been dying roving with kool-aid for some projects to offer up for sale at the upcoming LLL Parenting conference in Estes Park. My group (well, me anyway) is selling felted wool balls and other kids felted toys. Also the few hats we have been trying to sell, if they sell there they go into our treasury. Here is some of the roving: Hanging is Ice Blue Raspeberry Lemonade, Berry Blue mixed with Blastin' Berry Cherry (2:1), and painted Orange, Lemonade, and Strawberry. In the colander is Lemon-Lime, and painted Lemon-Lime with Grape. I will post all of the felted toys as I get them finished, but so far I have made the sunset painted colors into balls, and they turned out great. I have started a pottery class (okay, I'm halfway through it) - and I hope to have some results to share soon. We went in tonight (me and Sara, my buddy who is brave enough to do this with me) to practice, and I threw 2 decent looking bowls. We'll see if they survive - my last bowl cracked during the drying phase. My suspicion is that someone put something else on top of it by the way it cracked, but my teacher says it might have gotten water-logged. I guess both guesses are possible :-0 But anyway, we got to see the glazed results of our earlier projects. My glazing turned out okay. I am jazzed to see some other color combinations on my future work. The ones that turn out, that is. Pics coming soon, I promise. SO here are my wunderkinder. They got up this morning and just started working on various art projects or reading (as I slept in, as John went to a swap meet and made me miss my yoga class ;-(. Then they pulled out the "purler beads". They were just being so cute, they were singing together, that I had to get a video. They were well aware that I was taping, however. I call them the O'Haley Family Singers:
Aren't they cute? And I hope to keep updating my other blog, Moon Garden Fibres with my projects. Feel free to check in there as well, although I won't update that site nearly as often. http://insalamandercity.blogspot.com/ AND - finally, for my own amusement, I will pick one photo from each of my folders from the past 6 years (okay, some even earlier if I find any good scanned photos on my computer, I won't scan any new old ones in for now) to show in each post. I can't decide if I should start at the beginning of my folders, at the end, or in the middle. I'm afraid I will lose track if I don't go in some type of order.... So here goes, my first picture folder, September, 2002, Owen's first haircut: