drawing

I felt like drawing today, so I looked up some pictures of a friend's boy that I had saved for doing drawings. In school I had learned a method of "mapping" out the body when you begin to do a drawing, where you break down the body into a series of boxes. I understood the concept, and it helped, however I always find it difficult to see the boxes in the body. Instead, I see circles. So I decided today to map out the circles instead, and I was pretty impressed with the finished result. Keep in mind that this is a 5 min drawing, it's completely unfinished and not completely accurate, it is mainly just a way to get an idea of where everything will go. The finished drawing/painting will have clothes on the boy, and he will be playing with a train. A lot of art teachers and artists will push their method of creating a painting/drawing on you as if that is the only way it should be done, however I feel that the best method is different for each person. (This is Brayden, Kimberly... or it will be when it's finished :) ).

Ethans new list

Ethan is doing so well!! He can now say Momma, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma, wow, uh-oh, Ally (the dog), Lisa (speech therapist), Pizza, Soda, Puh (please), More, Up, Tractor, Bye Bye, banana, plus a lot of sound effects for animals and vehicles. He has been very eager to learn lately, even if he can't quite get the right sound out he still is trying and I'm very proud of him. He's also really gotten into singing and will attempt to sing along with songs on the tv or even the radio. He doesn't know the words so it ends up sounding like "duh.............duh........" and I think it is really cute. I often hear him singing twinkle twinkle little star which appears to be his favorite song right now, he will make noises to the tune of the song. He really likes to count things and will point to things and make sounds like he is trying to count. He will open his fingers one at a time on his own like he's counting them up to 5. He started counting his fingers all on his own out of nowhere, I just caught him doing it one day and was surprised. We've even been able to finally get him to put up two fingers to say he's two. Tonight he was watching Blues Clues, and they said "second clue" and the guy on the show held up two fingers and Ethan copied him- he's never done that before. He loves trains, and has discovered that I can look up pictures and videos of trains on the internet for him, and he thinks that's the coolest thing ever. I drove up into the driveway from work yesterday to find him on his tricycle and when I got out of the car I heard him clearly say "Momma". It made my day.

Going Back to Work

Today I found out that I got a job as a teacher at a pre-school/day care center. I had interviewed for the position last week, however they hadn't called me back when they said they would, so I assumed that they had found someone else, esp. since I have very few formal qualifications for the position. I am in shock now, and a little panicky. I start tomorrow with training, from noon until 6, and when I am done with the training it will be a 8-6pm full time job. I started thinking about it, and the last time I had a full time normal job was the year before high school.... I've had part time jobs since then, but nothing full time, and all those jobs were pansy jobs, so I'm excited and nervous for this "real" job. I will start out in a "floating" position, helping out in all the classes, wherever they need help, and eventually when they feel I'm ready I could have my own class. I feel this is a really good learning experience ahead of me, and I am proud and thankful that I was able to get a dignified job and not have to resort to some of my back-up plan jobs, because those wouldn't have been very enjoyable (ie conducting phone surveys like I did back in college). Ryan will be home to take care of Ethan, until Ryan finds a job, but we are going to go step by step and see how things go and not worrying about what happens when Ryan gets a job until he does get a job. I've always wanted to be a stay at home mom, so it will be hard to be away from home, however I know it won't be forever. It will help us out financially and eventually I will be able to go back to being a stay at home mom.

For All the Pregnant Ladies Out There

I just found out that the wife of a friend from college is starting her own maternity clothes business called Milan Maternity. I checked out her website and she has some pretty cute clothes. Here is the website for anyone interested in taking a peek: http://www.milanmaternity.com/

I know I'm forgeting something......

Is there a medical condition that causes poor memory? I'm not talking about alzheimers or dementia, and I'm not talking about silly memory lapses. You always hear people complain about being forgetful, calling them "senior moments" or attributing it to being an air head. I have trouble remembering things, everything from where I put my keys to appointments I have, and it happens so incredibly frequently that it honestly isn't very funny, it's embarassing. I've tried keeping lists and planners, but I always lose the lists or planners, or forget to write in them. In school I would forget about assignments or forget when they were due, or forget what the assignment was actually about. I'd forget what was said in class, I'd try to take notes, but i'm horrible at note taking- and i'm not just saying that to make excuses, I really am horrible at taking notes. I'd take notes on all the wrong things, or I could never keep up with the teacher and what he was saying. Now it's things like misplacing very important items on a daily basis, or even putting them somewhere safe where "i'll remember it" and yet still forgeting. I have a special place for certain items to make sure I won't lose them, but i still lose things so incredibly easily. Then there is the appointment thing. If I don't think about an appointment the night before or the morning of I will completely forget about it. And even then, I can think about it up until a couple of hours before and I will get distracted and still manage to forget about it. I'm very frustrated with myself, as you can see, it is very discouraging. I want people to be able to depend on me, but I don't know what to do when I can completely forget about something so easily.

Artist: Chris Turnham

I wanted to start highlighting some artists whom I am in complete awe over. I only know personally a couple of the artists on my artist list, but when I find an artist work that I love I add them to my list. Today I want to feature Chris Turnham. I accidentally happened upon his work one day when I was googling something or other. I love his interpretations of line, space, and color. I like looking at his sites and seeing how imaginative his concepts are. Imagination is something I really need to work on. Chris also worked on the artwork for the animated movie Coraline, a movie with amazingly beautiful and imaginative artwork (and also a movie that I would definately not recomend taking your children too....). I highly recomend that you take a look at one of his two sites that I have discovered. http://www.christurnham.com/ or http://www.christurnham.blogspot.com/

This week has been a very hard week for me, just several big things going on that have caused me discouragement and sadness. I hope next week is better.