Amazing

I suppose the one good thing about having insomnia or your child having insomnia is getting to tackle some of the to-do's on my list...emails I've been meaning to send, photo uploads I've been meaning to do, writing a new blog post, etc. etc.  Of course I doubt I'll be getting up to go running at 6 considering it's now 3:30 and I've been up since 2 and I'm not sure when I'll be able to cajole Teagan back to bed without one of her epic tantrums ensuing which would wake up the entire house, if not the neighborhood :(  Oh well, it doesn't happen every night, in fact this is the first time and hopefully the last, at least for a while.  Yay parenthood!

I really do wish I knew the key to the ups and the downs...it would make life so much easier, to be able to avoid the triggers that cause the downs and encourage the ones that bring on the ups.  Such is the big quest of my life.  Had some down days and had some up days over the last week.  The downs suck, the ups are nice altho I suppose that would go without saying.  I feel I'm on an upward swing right now which feels good and the astrological website I refer to talks about this time having a lot of energy and forward motion...if I can handle it and not get caught up in frustrations and dredging up old wounds, doubts and reactions.  Hmpf.  I don't think I'll go that way :) 

Had an interesting conversation with my best friend the other night over dinner after our waiter asked how we were and my friend replied "I'm Amazing!" and both the waiter and I thought that was quite great.  And so the topic ensued, finding the "amazing" in your every day, "making" each day Amazing somehow.  I tried it today and it worked quite, well, amazingly.  That's not to say I wasn't bugged at points, like when at 9 am while loading my kids into the car to take Tyler to school I encountered 3 guys who'd just stolen a giant bottle of vodka from Safeway around the corner and stopped to bang off the security cap on a metal gate 2 doors down from my  house then sauntering off to get their drink on after leaving the cap on the sidewalk.  I calmly thanked the guy for littering then went about my business which afforded me the position only to see that the guy was mouthing off back at me but not to hear his choice words.  Oh yeah and then there was standing in line at Michael's when Teagan showed me a new trick of picking up some candy (I swear I hate that all stores have that crap right there at the checkout line where you end up standing and waiting and arguing with your kids about why they can't have any crap), opening the package and proceeding to eat it before I notice!  WTF?!  So after I took it away and scolded her a huge flaming tantrum erupted and I was lucky enough to have 3 fellow moms of varying ages in line with me who chuckled along with me and shared their stories of similar encounters as Teagan screamed, flailed, kicked and cried on the floor.  Sigh...have I said Yay Parenthood yet this blog post?!  :)  At any rate, at the dinner table over fresh homemade pumpkin ginger soup when Tony asked me how my day was I straightened my back a bit, lifted my chin and proclaimed "it was Amazing."  He was a bit taken aback by that so I just explained to him all the "amazing" things that happened.  It felt great and I hope I can try to adopt this new attitude every, or most, days going forward.

My art pieces didn't make it into the art show that I submitted to last week but I was and am totally ok with it.  When I picked them up I was able to peruse the other "rejects" that hadn't yet been picked up and I was pretty amazed and stoked to see there was a lot of really good, creative, fun, unique stuff that also wasn't selected.  Hey, you can't win 'em all but it takes guts and confidence to submit and you never know until you do.  I went to the show opening Saturday night with a friend who did get her pieces into the show and it was a nice time.  I'm also now the proud owner of a new art piece called "Second Chance" which now hangs in my dining room...my first sculpture/mixed media purchase which reminds me of a figurehead, a mermaid, a cross and an angel all at the same time.  I LOVE it!!  I'm so glad it was so reasonably priced :)  I also met up with the artist who has the gallery in his converted garage/first level of his house and after a great conversation and review of all my work that I brought over to show him he suggested/offered/accepted hosting my upcoming big 40th birthday party art show!!  I couldn't be happier, he's a really nice guy, very talented and his space is perfect.  Things are really falling into place!!!

So below are the visual journals since my last blog post - yep, I'm managing to keep it up and actually start to get a little creative with some!  Hope you enjoy.