It was a long night.

So I had this bright idea a couple of weeks ago to take the child proof knob off of Ethans bedroom door, thinking that since he was three he should learn to stay in his room without being trapped in there. I was thinking in terms of nap time, and putting him to bed, I didn't think very much about if he were to wake up during the night, since he normally sleeps pretty well all night long. The other day I accidentally tripped on the cord to the cd player in his room and it fell and is sort of broken, so he hasn't had music the last couple nights. I think that might have been the problem last night when he decided to wake up at 3:45am and come tromping out of his room. He got mad that I didn't want to get up and make breakfast and so he went back to his room for a little while, which surprised me. A couple of minutes later he was back, and when I told him to go back to his room as it was still night and he needed to sleep he said "Good Night" and shut the door. It cracked me up, because I didn't expect it. So, I waited to hear his door close and didn't hear anything and so I went to find him, and he was on the couch in the living room. I took him back to bed, and tried to get him to sleep but for some reason he just couldn't sleep. He finally went to sleep after 6 some time. Fun stuff. Lesson learned, one- I have to lock him back in his room so I don't have to worry about him getting out and turning the stove on (I caught him doing that the other day mid-afternoon), and two- I need to buy a new cd player so he can have his music when he sleeps. He didn't always have the music, but I found it really helped, and now it appears he has some trouble sleeping without it. There is also the possibility that he's getting to the point where he doesn't need naps during the day....but I REALLY have been dreading the day that happens. It won't be horrible, but I really enjoy nap time...

Whats for dinner?

I found this food blog recently, and I love a lot of the recipes. The author, Elsie Bauer, has a lot of good recipe ideas that I can tweak to my specifications. Plus, she gives additional tips and thoughts along with the recipes that I have found helpful. http://www.simplyrecipes.com/

Room of Lost Things

I hate losing things. This time it is my car keys (it happens repeatedly). I found my phone this morning, so that's no longer lost. Some day I will lose my mind and it will end up with all of the other stuff that I have lost over the years. One day I will find a room somewhere and it will be filled with all of the things i've lost, from earings to clothes to homework. I'll walk in and say, Hey! My red jacket that I was only able to wear once before I lost it back in High School! I've missed you! Sounds like a childrens book idea...I might have to do that....

Brussels Sprouts

When I find a new thing that I like, I tend to get a little obsessed with it for a while. So, I recently, in the last 6 months or so, have discovered Brussels Sprouts. I had never had them before, and then I had some at a cousins home when we came for her newest little girls baby blessing. In my opinion, they were absolutely delicious. Since then I have been experimenting with them, i've tried several different recipes, however I'm having difficulty producing the same dish each time I cook them. For some reason, even if I follow the exact directions, they don't turn out the same each time- one day it will turn out wonderful and the next time i try the same recipe I can barely eat it. Ryan is not a fan of brussels sprouts, so his opinion is they are just bad to begin with...:). If anyone has any good recipes for brussels sprouts, I would love to have them, especially since I went and bought a bunch more...

Recent and not so recent sketches

These are several drawings I've done recently. Ryan challenged me to draw something new every day and post in on my blog, so that I would be constantly creating new things. unfortunately we are having some technical difficulties with our scanner, so it's taken a while to get them uploaded (I had to wait and use Ryan's mom's scanner). I drew these all in pencil, I'm not a big fan of pencil, I prefer charcoal, but pencil is less messy to work with. I want to thank Kim, I used several photos of her boys for several of the drawings. Kim, you take the BEST children photos, I frequently look at your blog for reference photos.
These are some basic figure sketches I've been doing from a worksheet I got back in college. They are very good for teaching you the very basics of anatomy. It would be nice to actually study anatomy, but these work pretty well also.

Several sketches from college. The first set I did from photos I had or my roommates had. The second was of one of my roommates, Tina. I started to draw another girl leaning on her shoulder, but that girl got a phone call and left before I could draw her in. It would have been really a cute picture to have them both in it.

Waking Up

Pearls

Since losing my wedding ring several years ago, I have been looking off and on for a replacement ring. One of the problems I've faced was that diamonds have increased in price so much. My original wedding ring now costs almost 3 times more than when Ryan bought it in 2004. I loved my ring, and was very sad to lose it, but as I've been looking at diamond rings I just don't find them "that" pretty, like when you see something you think is pretty in a store, then you check the price tag and think, never mind, its not that pretty. Plus, when I think of paying that much money, I think of all the other things we could get....bigger and more important things, and I talk myself out of it. Then I happened upon some pearl engagment/wedding rings and I fell in love. I've always loved pearls, and honestly I find them prettier than diamonds. I think they are timeless, elegant, and beautiful. At one time pearls were more valuable than diamonds. Also, the tradition of a diamond wedding ring was started in the 1920's (my source might not be credible, but it sounds about right) as a marketing scheme to boost sales of diamonds. So, this is my new ring goal, for when we have the money for a ring, I think I want a pearl ring with diamonds on the sides. I don't know what color of pearl yet, or what design, because there are so many beautiful ones to choose from.