Here in Utah

I haven't been here in Utah in many years (I don't mean layovers at the airport). Although it's been mostly work so far, we have had a chance to visit with some family and friends.

My mom and AnnaMae are with me. Mom is watching her while I do my demos and teach my classes. Wed, after we flew in and got into our hotel we had some of my mom's relatives come and visit, along with Brent, Brian's old mission buddy.

Now it's all work. My class yesterday was at the historic Armstrong Mansion. This was the home of the former mayor of SLC back around 1893. It was a small class, that lasted all day, then I went and visited 2 more stores after the class. I didn't get home until almost 10pm. Now I've got another day of work. I'll try to post photos soon.

My Garden

There are a lot of Hispanic people in our neighborhood and one older gentleman who lived across the street from us last year would always comment "You must be a farmer's daughter. You always have such a nice garden."

Tis' true. I am a farmer's daughter. Any land that could be growing something edible, should be growing something edible. I'm glad that the Whitmers let me put planter beds all over their property, since it really gives me lots of food each summer. When we first moved here there were no beds and just some big plants along the side of the house. I looked at the lawn along the driveway and I knew it gets perfect sunshine for tomatoes, so my bed-building began.

This Saturday I was finally able to go down to Jerry's and pick up my tomatoes and pepper plants. All the other things I grow from seeds I harvest each year, or from food I find growing in my fridge.

This is my front garden bed. I have 6 different varieties of tomatoes, two potato mounds, Lemon Thyme (come get some if you want it), the purple flowers are chives, onions, cucumbers, two pepper plants, parsley, mint, and the big pot that looks bare has mixed wildflowers. I'll also have a couple sunflowers up front, since it's kind of become our summer landmark.

I put a fence along the driveway side because by August, those tiny tomato plants will be 3 or 4 feet high and consuming my driveway.

My side garden has two beds, only one of which is done right now. I have green onions, carrots, and a beet I planted 3 years ago growing in it, along with a giant onion I should just pull out. If you need carrot seeds I have tons! I let a carrot grow for 2 years and it turned into a tree! I had so many seeds off that monster it was crazy! My other side garden bed has garlic and potatoes. It needs another load of mint compost before it will be presentable. On Thanksgiving I had my nephew go out to the potato bed and dig up potatoes, onions, and garlic and we had sautèed potatoes with garlic, chives, rosemary and onions that I grew all of it from my own garden. It was soooo yummy!

My back fence is lined with sunflowers, like I have growing each year. It's a mix of small, dark-centered sunflowers and large yellow sunflowers. If you need seeds I have plenty, and now is the time to plant.

Those are strawberry plants you see in the foreground. When we moved in here 4 years ago there was one strawberry plant inside our back fence. I let it spread and now I have 3 or 4 inside the fence and 5 or so outside the fence. These are covered in berries.

I hope they taste good- they have in years past, but some people say that you shouldn't let your plants spread like this or else the berries won't taste as good, or something.

My inside back garden is all garlic, sage, rosemary, and a few stray strawberry plants. I was able to dig up a couple hundred garlic starts from cloves I left in the ground this winter and passed them on to people at work, church, and to my mom's neighborhood- all from my little back garden! I still have garlic starts if you need some.

Here is the giant rhodie that is in bloom right now on the front/side corner of our house. I love the color but it always gets in the way as I'm trying to coil up my hose. I put in a small flower-bed along the front walk to the door, and it has day lilies, daffodils, a giant purple iris, and some marigold seedlings that I hope will grow big.

Every year I feel so blessed to live in Oregon, where my garden grows with ease and minimal effort. I enjoy the bounty all year long and I love sharing what I grow with those around me.

Now I can't wait for berry season to start... U-Pick strawberries and blueberries, here I come!

13.1 miles and two blisters later...

I did it!

I completed the Eugene (Half) Marathon on Sunday. And I beat last year's time by 16 minutes!

Sunday morning, 6:15 am I went down to Hayward Field and lined up with the other 6,000 people who were taking place in the marathon or half-marathon. It was steadily drizzling and about 40º or so outside. There were people from 45 states and 13 different countries at the race. And little local girl Marianne who was going to live up to her last name and be a Walker.

There were about 3,000 people doing the half-marathon. 2,000 girls / 1,000 guys, so I was in good company with lots of other women. You can check out the course map and other stats at www.eugenemarathon.com but basically, we went up towards the base of Hendricks park, down and around to 24th, up Amazon quite a ways, then back down Amazon, past Hayward again, across Franklin Blvd, down by the river, across the footbridge, over behind Autzen, and back across the river to the Millrace Art Studios and across Franklin again to finish at Hayward.

13.1 wet, long, walked miles.

At about mile 5 I developed a blister at the base of my big-toe on the left foot. A few miles later I got a matching blister on my right foot. By the end of the race my feet were throbbing and walking around the house on Sunday was very uncomfortable. Did I mention that I had picked up a cold from the kids? I was coughing and blowing my nose the whole race. Having it drizzle rain for 10 miles also didn't help. Needless to say I felt pretty miserable by the end (except for the free cookies they were passing out at the finish station).

But I finished, and I beat my time last year by 16 minutes. Final time: 3 hrs, 30 min, and 36 seconds. Not bad (for walking). The average half-marathon time was 2 hrs, 26 minutes. Those are people who jog a good portion of it, which I didn't. I walked. I jogged a few short bursts, but that was more to use different muscles than to actually try to get somewhere. Still, 16 minutes is pretty good to shave off my final time.

My goal next year is actually jog some of it and finish somewhere between 2hrs, 50 min and 3 hrs. 10 minutes. Since I was walking, I ended up finishing about 150 from the last place which is pretty pathetic, especially when I compared it with my age bracket I finished 307 out of 315. Ouch. Next year I'll have buddies to run with. NO one from work ran with me and no one from church came either. WHERE DID YOU ALL GO??? Back in January there were a lot of people willing to do the race and they all disappeared come May. Since no one was there I don't have any photos of myself in running gear. boo hoo!

Monday I was stiff and sore all day. I forgot how much my lower-back hurts after a workout like that. I needed to keep moving so I wouldn't stiffen up entirely. My blisters felt much better, but my co-workers would laugh at me every time I walked around at work. We got a new person in the front office to help out. She ran the full marathon in 4 hrs and 20 minutes or something. Gaaak! It must be nice to have so much time to devote to training your body to take that kind of cruel and un-wholesome punishment.

Today I'm much better. Still a little stiff, but I think that should work out and not hurt tomorrow. My cold is getting better as well. Still, it was a good race and I look forward to next year (too bad these races are always on Sundays- I feel bad skipping Church). I'll be ready next year, with good training and prepared to jog a bit, not just walk. You who are going to come next year already know who you are...no backing out :)

Dreams- Martha Stewart Saves the USS Enterprise

I occasionally have full-length feature movies as dreams. Complete with scene changes, flashbacks, the whole nine yards. I've had Harry Potter dreams, dreams about some of the other books I read, murder-mystery dreams, but this dream takes the cake so I had to write it down.

Setting:
USS Enterprise NCC 1701-G.
It is a brand new, giant enterprise, more like a space station than the original or last enterprise Enterprise. It's been about 4 1/2 years since the majority of old crew has moved on- they've all been promoted or retired. A few secondary characters from the original Next Generation crew remain, and/or their children.

Opening sequence, we see Data up close. Remember, he's been sorta humanized, so he's acting a lot more fluid. He's bending over a dark console/table in a dark room, suddenly he looks up. His pupils dilate, contract, dilate, contract, and then we see that he is mechanically massaging a corpse in the morgue in rhythm to his pupils. We shift to the corpse and it is becoming re-animated. It wakes up and although it's legs are stumps it regenerates what looks to be a whole, healthy body in a nice, crisp uniform and it leaves the room, a young officer zombie, excited about it's new body and hard to tell that it's not a human crew member.

We see more of these zombies scattered throughout the Enterprise now. The only way we can tell they're not real is when they sit down to eat the food goes right through them and gets re-absorbed by something larger/scarier/hidden (all you see is a hand) that reaches into each stomach and takes the food as it is consumed (it looks a lot like the corpse stomachs from Pirates of the Caribbean). We see signs of a struggle here and there, but otherwise things look like they're running smooth. Business as usual around the Enterprise.

Out of a service chute in a small hallway slides a perfect, nude body in a loose plastic bag. It's still breathing, as there is steam inside the bag. In some secondary bags come a few loose articles of clothing. The person in the bag works her way out and we see that it is a naked Martha Stewart. They have only given her pants and shoes to wear (so that she can be told apart from the Zombies). She defiantly gets up, puts on her clothing and holds a conversation with the "captian" over the Enterprise P.A. system

Basically we find out that she was kept human becuase for some reason this alien Zombie found her much more useful than anyone on the bridge or any other main character and needs her unique talents (which we still haven't figured out yet and in my dream I kept questioning why they saved the interior designer). She screams her defiance at the alien over the computer, makes a mad dash to the bridge, which is only a short ways away, and then proceeds to dodge zombies.

In this sequence we manage to see a computer roster of the commanding crew. We see a few names on the roster that denote them as children of the past generation, but 75% of the important officers are considered deceased. Some of those remaining alive are like Martha except they have been brainwashed and wholeheartedly support the zombies (they act like the zombies but are actually alive). Rememeber, the Enterprise is a city unto itself, so although the main officers are all zombies there are still hordes of regular people behind the scenes- families, children, teachers, etc. that make up a working space station. Martha figures out that when she "woke up" out of the plastic bag she hadn't been totally brainwashed yet so now the zombies can't utilize whatever latent talent they saw in Martha beyond her ability to arrange flowers.

Martha curses at the computer, (I never realized how sleek her body was, how athletic she is, and how she can curse like a sailor in her neat accent when she wants to), works her way into a storage bay where there are lots of shuttle-craft and steals a sleek black number that looks like the Star Trek team hawked from the Star Wars reject pile (Definitely un-trekkish- it's armed totally wrong as well). Anyways, harrowing chase scene inside hangar ensues, she's dodging little flying computer drones, fighting off everything that the zombies can send her way. She narrowly escapes crashing through a gorgeous wall of windows into outer space and having the vacuum of space suck the entire hangar contents out the window. The shuttle she stole has awesome shields- it must be the private spacecraft of the captain or something because it is NOT starfleet regulation.

At this point in my movie, the young family in the seat in front of me got up , the mom wanted to use the restroom and she was concerned that all the shooting was getting her young son riled up. I was thinking- lady, why did you bring small kids to a Star Trek movie? The son wanted to go play video games (this was much better than a video game, kid) Her husband stayed put- probably still mesmerized by the scantily clad Martha (who by now at least had a loose fitting jacket on that she found in the shuttle- you can still see cleavage though). The family gets re-settled with some sandwiches, and we see that Martha has managed to evade all the computer drones. She hid the suttlecraft behind some storage and is proceeding to escape on foot down a hallway.

After some intense struggles with a few zombies- we find out that the zombies don't seem to be all there mentally, but still enough that it's hard to tell who is a zombie and who is normal- she is suspicious of everyone she meets. Breathlessly running, Martha manages to make it into an old AV closet- the type you see in school libraries, you know, with a couple of TV monitors on carts, and walls of media that are hand-labeled. For some reason this door has a manual lock- not computerized at all and she thinks that this will trick the zombies.

She is hotly pursued by a slightly portly man in a tan, different uniform and a nervous-looking woman. They don't seem to be the main officers that the zombies have so far inhabited. Martha peeks out and they start talking to her, trying to lure her out. What convinces her is that the portly man is trying to catch his breath. Martha timidly steps out and we find the woman to be just an average, secondary support level person- like a minor operations lady. The man however is wearing a uniform because he is a local cub-scout leader. Woo Hoo for the 24th century! The Cub Scouts survive. Way to go! Anyways, they thought that Martha was a zombie and they were trying to kill her. Now that we find that all 3 are not zombies you can tell that we've reached a turning point of the movie.

The 3 start filling in Martha on how much of the ship has been zombified and how the few of them have found to deal with the zombies. Plot wise we're starting to get somewhere.

At this point Anna Mae wakes up and comes in my bedroom crying. Aaaaagggh!! I tried to go right back to sleep to finish the movie but it didn't work (sometimes it does). So I figured I need to write it down somewhere. Sorry to all my readers. I'm sure this was NOT what you were expecting from my usual blog posts, but I have very vivid dreams. Usually I am in control of my dreams (called Lucid Dreaming). Even with these movie dreams I know it's a dream movie so I can throw my two rational cents in as I'm watching the movie. I'm bummed that I couldn't see the end because it was bound to be good-

As I was waking up my mind was throwing spoiler/hints my way about what was going to happen next. It involved somehow getting a message to Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco, collecting up the old crew (Picard and everyone) and they somehow sneak onboard, team up with Martha and her now large band of secondary characters. Somehow they manage to get Data away from the zombies which is the key to winning.

I'm bummed that I couldn't see it in it's full glory though, and my mental hints didn't include any Klingons or Vulcans (double bummer!). This must be my brain's subliminal way of celebrating Star Wars day (FYI Monday was Star Wars Day- May the 4th be with you). I have always been more of a trekkie than a Star Wars fan so I must have mentally retaliated with a Trek Movie. Speaking of which, I probably should go see the latest spin-off and see if it's worth the digital film they printed it on. Ok, back to bed or on to a real post.

Check out my new Summer stamps!

It's time for the Summer Releases for the company I illustrate for, Our Craft Lounge. I only drew 17 of their 24 new-release sets this time. You can check out all their new sets here. This box and tag are just one example I made from the set "Let Freedom Ring".

I love illustrating for a company that makes people's lives happier. Our sets are made in the USA, and many of the sets I design come from old artwork I made years ago that is just sitting in my sketchbooks wasting away. One of the sets this time, "the Tribe" is from artwork I drew about 5 years ago that was sitting unloved in a box. This is now one of the favorites for our Design Team. It makes the crafty ladies very happy to have unusual stamps to color and when they're happy, I'm happy.

I wish we had one of the stores nearby that carries my stamps. It will be a while before we even want to get into Michaels or Jo-Anns, but we are in a chain called "Archivers" which is a very trendy scrapbooking boutique. They have over 40 locations in large cities across the country. It's neat to think that people across the land are playing with my artwork.

I have been accused of drawing this old granny based on my mom. For those of you who know her I don't see too much of a resemblance, do you?

Anyways, I gotta catch up on my rest. The half-marathon is on Sunday and I need to be ready. No more lazy Marianne!

Coming and going and coming and going...

This is a weird travel month, even for me. Usually I go on one long trip a month, 4 or 5 days then I'm home. So when I checked my April schedule last month it was easy- one two day trip to San Francisco. one night, two days. Easy. Then I get a call and I end up having to go to Phoenix for one night, two days. OK, that's not so bad, there's a two day break between the trips. Then I gent an e-mail and guess what, One night, two days in L.A. with a two day break in between. Aackk! This was supposed to be a light month. Next month I have have one small trip and I'm sticking to it. No more little day trips to random corners.

So I went to Phoenix for Friday and Saturday. Tomorrow I go to San Francisco and I'll be home late Wed. nite. Saturday I go to LA and I'll be home either Late Sunday (but it's really hard to get a late flight into Eugene on a Sunday nite) or Monday morning.

While in Phoenix I ran into my hair stylist from Cleveland, OH. She was coming to the event I was teaching at and she knew I was going to be there, so she brought my highlight haircolor and her scissors. I'll have to get a photo 'cause I look different :) She already arranged to do my hair at some of my other upcoming events for the next year. It's pretty neat- I have a stylist who will travel and do in-home haircuts (or at least in-Hotel haircuts).

When I got home the kids and I just hung out on Sunday and destroyed the house in the glorious sunshine. My sunflowers are starting to come up and my brother brought me fresh soil for my front planter boxes, so I have big gardening projects I need to start on. Too bad it's still early to plant my tomatoes.

On my Phoenix flight I took the "Twilight" book with me. It was very fitting since my return flight went from Phoenix to Seattle. I like taking books with me that have vague references to where I am traveling to. I really should spend more time drawing than reading, as I have a LOT of artwork I'm behind on.

Speaking of which, I gotta get going, since I only have one day before I leave again. See you all later!

Niagra Falls, Toronto, and home!

Whew! I'm back! I'm not really sure what time zone I'm in, nor do I have a clue what's going on, but at least I'm home again and I really only have a small trip next month so I've got a bit of downtime.

Monday night I was picked up by a dear Canadian named Laura, who obviously was nice if she shares the same name as one of my BFF's. We negotiated our way through customs with minimal confrontation (we've found that if you have one american and one canadian then you get through either border much easier). We found our way over to Niagra Falls, Canadian side (I guess the American side isn't very exciting). They've built up their side of the falls with casinos, amusement parks, hotels, and all sorts of entertainment which you can tell in the Summer becomes a really happening place.

In the winter everything is dead and frozen. Can you see the lump of white among the falls? That's not an iceburg, those are frozen trees on a little island. They're so caked in ice that you can't tell from far away that they're not a solid block of ice.

Brrrr! It was freezing! The mist off the falls was collecting on trees causing them to be encrusted in ice and to split. I hopped out of the car to take photos and in the minute I was out of the car my eyes were watering from the cold. Everything close to the falls was caked in ice.

The locals informed us that they had already had their Spring thaw. Thaw? What Thaw? I can only imagine what it looked like before all the ice melted off. I guess in Deep winter they have a colored light show on the caked ice. The falls themselves never totally freeze from what i've heard, but there is so much ice on everything that it looks really cool.

Then I taught workshops in Toronto for a couple days. This is a typical scene of what my workshops look like. Imagine 50 ladies in a room huddled around tables with piles of little things to color. Each class is about 7 hrs. and all we do is color, talk about coloring, and then we airbrush and color. It's a really hard job, but somebody has to do it!

After my class on Wed. I got to scramble to the airport in Toronto in a Pakistani taxi (there are tons of immigrants in Canada). I did purchase one touristy thing at the airport becuase I couldn't resist, which is saying a lot because I also don't buy t-shirts for my kids. This t-shirt however, was perfect for little AnnaMae.

Elmo Loves Canada

It's a little large, but it's the smallest size they had. She was very excited and kept running around scraming Elmo! Elmo! I'm glad to know that someone was happy about my trip.

When I got home from the airport at midnight the family had made me this fabulous sign on the garage. We took this photo Thursday morning so you could see it. It's now hanging in the garage so I'll know just how much they miss me when I leave home. Note: the garage door now works! WhooHoo!

Thursday afternoon it was so nice that after work we headed down to the playground at Skinner's Butte. As always, this helped brighten up the kids and wear them out, even though Luke got his fingers slammed in the car door. Ouch. Now it's back to the same old, same old.

I think I really like Canada. They're nice folks and they have a good view of all the foibles of America without having to react the same way we do. If I ever wanted to immigrate I hear it's pretty easy, since they had this ad in their national newspaper. It's now hanging in my office at work: Immigrate the easy way with just one spray of Instant Eh!

Shuffle off to Buffalo, and CT, and MA, and...

So I'm in Buffalo, NY right now. I got in a few hours ago. Where have I been in the last week? It's more, where have I NOT been...

It's easiest if you look at this map to get a scale of where I've been and what I've seen in just 4 days or so.

Wed I got in at 10pm and had to drive in the dark an hour and a half to find where I was going down along the coast of Connecticut. THank goodness for GPS! I have relied on this sooooo much this trip. I love it. Google maps are one thing, GPS is so much better. I was staying at my sales rep's condo. She lives alone with her cat overlooking a gorgeous lake within a mile of the famous Mystic CT Aquarium (which I couldn't go see since i was teaching).

I taught all day on Thursday in Mystic CT, then Friday I did a shorter training session back up near the airport where I flew into, so another 1 1/2 hrs driving back up to Hartford. Then I drove up to my sister's in Pittsfield Mass. I met her at her school where my nephew had play practice, so we sat around during rehearsal, had a quick pizza dinner, then ran off to my nephew's band concert.

Saturday we drove to Boston, since my sister's ward had a temple trip there. It is a very small temple, about half the size of P-town's and it was packed because it was a Saturday. Here I am in front of the lovely Boston Temple. It is only 9 years old, and the interior decor feels very clean and modern. Their stained glass is simple yet elegant. I'm sure that if the flowers were in bloom it would be even prettier.

My sis. lives about 2 1/2 hrs from Boston, so we were driving all day to get there and back. Then we got home, ran errands, and headed to bed. It was my nephew's birthday, but he was never home for us to celebrate.

Here's a picture I worked up of my niece, Hannah. I was showing her some of the simple things you could do in photoshop to turn ordinary photos into things that look like they were custom designed. She loved it!

Today I had to get going back to the airport by 10am so I could return the rental car. Here's a photo I shot of one of the beautiful churches that dot the New England landscape. Everything was rolling hills, piles of shoveled snow, and it was bitterly cold with the wind. They thought it was warmer than usual. This is why I could never live there. All their grass was dead and brown. It looked like our lawns look in August. I'd rather have my green lawns from Sept-June rather than April thru October, since i know that with a little water I could have my lawn green the other 3 months whereas they have no hope of green during their brown season.

I flew from Hartford down to Philadelphia and then up here to Buffalo. Here is my view from the airplane window of the frozen great lake. It's starting to melt around the edges, and you can see the other cracks, but that's a lot of Ice.

The lakes around my sister's house were still covered in ice, but they said it was kinda risky walking out on it this time of year. Lots of people were out on the ice though. I guess the ice gets a couple feet thick in the winter. BRRR! I can only imagine how many people have fallen into frozen lakes and died! My father used to tell me about how int he wintertime they would take their old Model T ford out on the ice after church and drive around in circles, skidding around on the ice. After seeing where my father grew up and the ice in march I really can believe it.

I had Korean food at a little place across the street- I've never had it before. I loved my main course, but the side dishes were odd. The little Korean man brought me a tiny bowl of every odd thing under the sun and I tried a bite of each. THe only thing I liked was the broccoli, which is saying something, since I HATE broccoli. The main dish was some marinated, fried pork and rice. It was great. Now I wish I had some good american dessert to cleanse my palate.

It's late, and I need to get to bed. I miss everyone, but I still have 3 more days and one more country before I'm home. Tomorrow after my class I drive up to Niagra Falls and then on to Toronto. Sleep well!

My Itinerary this week

This post is more for my mom and family to know where I am, but you'll get a flavor for what one of my business trips is like. I'm sitting at Eugene Airport typing this up:

Wed, March 18: 6:30 am Eugene to Seattle, Seattle to Cincinnati, Cincinnati to Hartford. Pick up rental car at 10pm Eastern Time. Drive 1hr, 15 min to Mystic, CT where I'm staying at my sales rep's house.

Thurs, March 19th: Teach a class from 8am to 4:30 pm. Go to my rep's place for dinner. Workshop from 6 to 8pm.

Friday: Drive 1 1/2 hrs to visit a store in West Hartford, CT from 10am-12pm. Get lunch. Drive 1 hr, 20 mins to get to Massachusetts, meet my sister at the school she works at. Evening, Band Concert for my nephew.

Sat: Drive 2 1/2 hrs each way to Boston to visit the temple. On our way back stop to watch my Nephew's play before going to bed.

Sunday: Drive to Hartford, return the rental car. Catch a 1:30 flight to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Buffalo. Get some dinner.

Monday: Teach a class from 8 am to 4:30 pm. Get picked up and drive up to Niagra Falls, have dinner, then go through customs. Drive to Toronto.

Tuesday: Teach a class from 8 am to 4:30 pm. Go out for dinner with my Canadian friend.

Wed: Co-teach a class from 8 am to 3:30 pm. Catch a taxi over to the airport for my 6:30 flight home. Toronto to Denver, Denver to Eugene. Arrive back in Eugene at 11pm a week after I left.

The upshot of this trip is that I'll see my Brother-in-law, Niece, and Nephew who I haven't seen since I was preggers with Luke. I haven't been to my sister's house since I was 15. Aaannnd... since I'm staying the weekend with her I'm not using any vacation days! Woo Hooo! Weekend visit to my sister paid for by work. Now I just need that trip to SLC and Denver...maybe May?

I'll try to post photos for everyone. Have a great day!

Garage Doors

We have a love-hate relationship with garage doors.

We love that in a happy world you can drive up, push a button, and the thing opens. We love that it allows you to park your car within the privacy of your own home so that if you have forgotten something inside said car you don't have to get fully dressed to go get it (and we even put carpet remnants up to the car doors so you can do this without getting your feet cold either). We love that in this world of having too much stuff we can proudly say that our garage has our car like it should, and not just stuff like everyone else on the street whose garages are full of stuff. We love having a clear driveway because we only have one vehicle and it stays in said garage. This means that in the summertime my tomatoes get full sunlight and the world is a happy place.

However, there comes times when our garage door does NOT make us happy. Like when it comes off track and jams through the ceiling (that's happened a few times). Or like when the main spring breaks...

Sunday morning we had a slight opportunity to get to church early enough for the opening song and for them to announce my new calling (teaching R.S. once a month). We scramble to get everyone in the car and we hit the button and for a slight, blissful moment we hear the whirring of the electric marvel that is our garage door, doing it's duty and lifting, lifting...

Nope. not gonna happen. Today we shall NOT get our car out through our garage door.

You can't squeeze a sedan through a 6" gap no matter how much you stretch the laws of physics. Grrrrr... It's raining and cold, so we're not gonna walk with two kids.

We call up my mom and get a ride to church and inform our landlord, the Whitmers of the horrible plight (this will be the 4th time we've had problems with our garage door in 4 years). We get rides home from church from our friends. All our Sunday evening activities where we thought it would be cool to drive to were stymied. Our dear home teacher, Bro. Stanley looks at the thing after church, as does James, and they both see that there's no way it'll work.

Bro. Stanley has been itching to do some kind of service for us for a long time now. We have taken him up on the offer once in the last year or so that he's been our Home Teacher. Finally, we capitulate and agree to service, so Stephanie comes to get Luke in the morning to drive him to school.

I however, will ride my bike the 6 miles one way to work. It has been at least 9 months since I did this, but I NEED to do this to train for the half-marathon in May that I'll be walking. Lazy Marianne took about 1 hr. and 15 minutes to ride 6 stinkin' miles in a nice morning drizzle. My legs are sore now. Last year I got it down to about 45min. on a good day. I'm just not that fast at riding my bike. I got a ride halfway home so I only had 3 1/2 miles home, which took me 40 + minutes. Joggers were passing me up. From Autzen Stadium to my house took 19 minutes! I could do it in 10 before (Actually, it might be longer than 6 miles to work, now that I think about it).

I get home and they tell us that they can't fix the garage until WED??? I'll be on a plane to CT on Wed. !! They were supposed to at least come and help us get our car out Monday. Hah. that didn't happen. So today I get a ride because my little legs are not up for a 12 mile round-trip stress again. Oh look, it's raining. Even better...

I MISS TECHNOLOGY THAT WORKS!!! Whaaaahhh!

From Florida to Oregon

Mom, Dad? Where are you? When will you get home? We miss you!

But we were having so much fun on our first vacation together since 2006! If only Luke were a little older he could have come and enjoyed everything we were doing. It would take AnnaMae a few more years and she could have come with us. As it was, we had 4 flights to get home, and running through airports with the kids then shoving them on airplanes would have been a supreme pain. All things must come to an end, but not without lots of fun and enlightenment in between...

USS Alabama
Saturday we left New Orleans and headed toward Pensacola FL. To get there you cross the bottom of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and then Florida. It's only a 3 hr drive, but you see 4 states. On the way along the Gulf Coast we stopped at the battleship USS Alabama where they have a giant museum just outside of Mobile. It's really an all-day event, though we only had about 3 hrs. There was so much we didn't see!

I'll leave you a few pictures from the experience. The thing was massive...A true marvel of modern engineering, and it was de-commissioned over 60 years ago! All the wires, steel, and maze of hallways. With a full crew it held 2,500 men. I don't know where they all fit because once you get inside everything is so small. Where did they fit all the food for that many hungry men?

The thing was covered in guns. Almost every inch of open deck space was a weapon. We climbed into gun turrets, around gun turrets, and over gun turrets. Brian sat at many gun stations, some of which still moved around. We got photos of guns, saw the munitions storage, gun repair facility, and training areas where people practice loading the guns. This truly was a weapon of war. In 1944 it was on about 11 different missions, mostly in the Pacific, attacking Japanese positions and defending Aircraft carriers. We were interested to note how many Japanese tourists were visiting the battleship, taking photos and climbing around. How far relations have come in 60 years!

It took over a hundred men alone just to operate one battery of the giant guns you see in the photo behind me. A hundred men! I know little about today's military, but I have a feeling that it takes many fewer men to run our current large guns.

And think of the conditions- humidity, heat, storms, surrounded by enemies. All alone on a desert of blue. This is what sat out there protecting our Western shore from Eastern invasion. This ship was authorized to be built in 1934, although it wasn't commissioned until 1941. or '42. We knew early that we were going to war, and we had some incredible technology for the day. You can read typed reports of the Kamikazi attacks and what they recovered off the bodies of the dead pilots. Think of the honor and glory the Japanese were bestowed by their Emperor to attack the American ships. We also bestowed honor and glory for defending our way of life, and they proudly show how many Japanese airplanes they shot down painted on the superstructure as well.

What an honor to be allowed to travel back in time to see the real live tribute to our grandfathers. Boy Scouts can stay the night on the sip and really get a flavor of life on the sea.

On the ship they have a list of all the men who served there. I found a "Carl Hallock" which is the name of my uncle who has passed on- though I don't know if it's the same person (all Hallocks are related). He would have been the right age. My dad always lamented that he was too young to go to WWII, so his older brother was enlisted, and my grandpa Hallock was too old, however he was still re-commissioned as an electrician on the large ships (I don't know if he went out to sea or if he just worked in dock though). Every able hand was needed back then. America was pulling out of the Great Depression and we were more productive than we had ever been before.

An interesting side note, but when I took economics in High School, we looked at market trends. In America we go through 7 year cycles. Every 7 years we cycle from prosperity to recession. Every 70 years we have a much larger recessionary event. This current recession falls perfectly in line with the cycle and we had been warned a few years ago to be prepared. We should know better, and learn from history.

A question- do I look better with or without my glasses? I have the same glasses that I got back in 1994. I only use them for seeing things far away and driving at night. My office-mate, Justin, says that I act smarter when I wear my glasses. I think I just look more like a know-it-all librarian. Sophisticated or snobby? what do you think?

Pensacola, FL
We got into Pensacola late Saturday nite and found the house of the dear, sweet lady we were staying with, Jan Marie and her husband, the Colonel. Both were retired military, which is not surprising, since there are 7 military bases in Pensacola, and even NASA has a base within an hour of there. Pensacola is the oldest city in America, and it is celebrating 450 years this year. The King and Queen of Spain visited just last week (as all the locals were quick to tell you a dozen times while we were there).

Laura had visited here about a month ago, so when she was doing my nails before the trip she made me get my toes done in glitter so I could have pretty toes for walking on the beach. Everyone in my Sunday workshop LOVED the glittery toes, since papercrafters love "bling". Here are a few feet shots, just for you Laura, proving that my glittery toes out-sparkled the white beaches of Pensacola.

I had a workshop Sunday evening, so lunch time on Sunday was my only chance to visit the beautiful white beaches of Pensacola. Pensacola proper is on the mainland. To get to the beaches you need to drive across a 3 mile bridge and then out another bridge to get to Pensacola Beaches. This is a strip of land 1 mile wide at it's widest and 28 miles long.

All we could think of while visiting the beach was "Why would anyone be stupid enough to build out here when it is in a hurricane zone?" And according to our hosts, sure enough, during hurricane Ivan or something, the ocean water completely submerged the area.

The day we were out it was super cold and windy. They were also getting ready for their own local Mardi Gras parade, which we couldn't attend since I needed to be teaching a class that afternoon. So we had to park as close to the bridge as possible as not to get stuck by the parade. There were thousands of people out to see the parade. Parking was nearly impossible, and cars were parked between palm trees on the meridian of the road.

We really wanted more time to look around, but since it was so cold we ate our lunch and headed home. Brian went down to the water front the next day when I was teaching and he said it was warm, with no breeze, and no one was around. Go figure. As it was we wandered around the first main shopping area on the beaches, got some touristy photos and tried to stay out of the wind.

Did I mention it was cold? It was cold. I was in capris, a sweater, a scarf, and a jacket. Brian was without jacket or anything since he thought Florida was supposed to be warm. It's February for crying out loud! It's gonna be cold! I get cold just thinking about how cold it was, OK, maybe it was only in the 50's. But with the wind it was cold.

My class on Monday went very well, with about 30 - 35 people attending. I somehow picked up a cold on Sunday, so I had a sore throat sunday afternoon for my evening class, then was fighting a stuffed nose during my Monday class.

Monday during my class Brian headed down to the Navy Base to visit the air museum. They had over a hundred different restored planes. The best part is that it's free to visit.

Brian didn't have the camera with him, so no photos. If you ever get the chance to go he says it's great. Perfect for little boys wanting to climb in and out of airplanes, ride the flight simulator, and listen to war stories. If anyone needs a place to stay while in Pensacola, they can go look up the family we were with, since they have 2 guest rooms and a pool (too cold to go swimming though). Their house is a fabulous collection of antiques and trinkets from around the world.

Tuesday we flew home, and let me tell you- having your sinuses stuffed with 4 flights on one day was not a pretty event. Pensacola airport is about the size of Eugene, so we had to fly Pensacola to Dallas, Dallas to Denver, Denver to Portland, Portland to Eugene. In Portland we met up with Peter Raven who was on his way home from Arizona. Since it was fat Tuesday we left him with a few Mardi Gras beads to take to the family (out of our 80+ lbs that we shipped home). We got in around 9:30 to Eugene and got home around 10:15 pm.

Wed. I stayed home since I was sick and still recovering. The kids were thrilled to see us, and we promptly made a mess of the nice clean house we left last week. AnnaMae loved all teh beads we brought home. I think she would have played with them for hours if we let her.

Thursday I felt a little better, so I was hoping to only do a half- day of work. Hah! A week being gone and I had over 200 work e-mails waiting since Friday plus 70 some personal e-mails (most of which are work related). I am really behind on my artwork. So I had to work all day on Thursday.

Today is my 29th birthday. I don't feel 29. I don't know how old I feel, but it's not 29. Either older or younger. Younger when the kids aren't around, older when they are around. I guess it's the same with most people.

I gotta get going back to bed, but I had to update my blog, since it's my family journal. Have a great weekend!

Mardi Gras!!!

Brian and I are here in New Orleans, it's Mardi Gras weekend, and we're exhausted. We got in late Wed. nite/early Thursday morning. The flight from Eugene to Denver was gorgeous. Frost was forming on my window as I watched. Tiny, delicate patterns etched in an ephemeral crystal while I stared intently at a blank slate. The segment from Denver to New Orleans was delayed, so I got to chatting with a lady named Risha from Toronto. She also had business in New Orleans, and was going to her first Mardi Gras. She was my age, an engineer for some oil pipeline company, and was so sweet that we gave her a ride to her hotel as we headed to ours.

Thursday I worked for a few hours- I went and made presentations at a Fine Art distributor here that carries our product, then we headed down to the nearest spot to catch the parades for the evening. The locals are amazing! We are NOT in the French Quarter, nor were we down by Bourbon St. so we were in a group of locals who come to the same spot for over 50 years! They were really nice, with their kids, their friends, and they told us lots of lore about each parade. No flashing to get beads, you just stand there and wave and cheer. However, everyone had way too much to drink around us, so there were a lot of high-spirited people all trying to get the cool beads.

There were 3 parades on Thursday - Knights of Babylon, Knights of Chaos, and Krew of Muses. We got 2 LARGE bags of stuff that they were throwing from the floats. The Krew of Muses was loading right outside our hotel so I was able to get a few snapshots in broad daylight. Good thing, since the parades were so dark you couldn't get photos. This photo is the flavor of the Krew of Muses- lots of satire about current events, politics.

It was all women on the floats. To ride on a float you have to be a member of their club. It costs thousands of dollars, and you have to buy your own beads to throw! However, Muses has some of THE best throws (the locals can also vouch for that). I got some really cool stuff from Muses. Knights of Bablylon were a revival of one of the parades from the 1800's so their floats were on the original wagon beds of the old parade. We're talking wooden wheels creaking along under modern floats. Wow!

Between floats are regular parade things- Lots of stunning high school bands, dance teams, cheerleaders, and people on horses. Someone fell off their horse about 2 buildings down from us, which stopped the parade for 10 minutes. By the end of the evening (parades came from about 7 pm to 11:30) we were exhausetd and ready to trudge the 6 blocks back to our hotel.

Friday I had to teach my all-day workshop. Luckily there were only about 10 people in the class, so I wasn't asburned out as I usually get from my workshops. At luch I went to Mulates, a famous local restaurant. I had a fried-Alligator Po-boy for lunch. When we asked teh waiter what Alligator tasted like he said "Like Chicken, squid, and frog-legs". I don't know what frog-legs taste like (nor will I ever, thank you Muppet Movie) but now I do know what Alligator tastes like. Like sweet, rubbery chicken. I liked it. Brian didn't care much for it. For our evening repast we had Asian Fusion. We figured we'd had our share of local food, now we could get what we wanted.

Krew De'Etat, Morpheus, and Hermes were the parades on Friday nite. We thought they said "Herpies" as the parade name,so the locals really got a kick out of those two crazy oregonians. Friday night we had signs saying "love from Oregon". That was the best idea we had all weekend! I got so many piles of beads thrown right at me- it was great!! The locals just thought we were the most exuberant, happy people that they'd met in a long time because it was all so new to us. If anyone wants a good, clean Mardi Gras parade experience, head down to the corner of St. Charles and St. Joseph. On the south side of the street, on the East corner, go down about 1 building. There you will find the nicest, sweetest locals who will give you the best advice on what beads to get.

I gotta get going now. We're driving to Pensacola today. Have a great weekend! I'll try to post more photos later...Until then, we want you to ponder the name of the New Oleans Police- NO PD!

Check out my new stamps

My stamp company, Our Craft Lounge, had it's second release today. You can go see the new stamps here. They are showing 28 new sets and I drew 24 of them! Talk about cool. You can buy them at specialty papercrafting stores across the country. Soon they'll be in Hobby Lobby (they're like Michael's, but only for 2/3 of the country). There are over 400 Hobby Lobby stores in the US. Wow!

this is a card I made from one of the sets. this is the kind of thing people make from these stamps. pretty cute, eh? you should see some of the other sets...and come say hi to me or my nephew at the Asian Celebration this weekend.

Asian Celebration this weekend!

Are you going? It's this weekend! I drew the artwork for the poster and you really should go, 'cause it's fun. See what they did with the beautiful fish I drew! There's tons of stuff for kids, teens, and adults. Plus the food is really good and pretty cheap (there are some noodles I get each year, and teriyaki chicken kabobs that are soooo tasty! You'd have to go to their website to find out cost www.asiancelebration.org



Here is a larger version of the artwork I created for them. They really like the fish this year. I think they like it more than the Shoes (07) or the Boat (08) I drew the last couple years. It might rival the popularity of the Manga guy I drew for the 2006 poster, which was the first time they had ever sold out of the t-shirts.

Marianne at Work in California

I have been busy this whole week. I super-miss my family, but I am on a business trip in Anaheim. Nope, no Disneyland, though you can see the rides from my hotel room. All I do is work. In fact, this video was posted of what I do at work when I'm on a business trip. Here is me, teaching people how to color, posted by a company from the Netherlands.





However, I did get to have dinner in Downtown Disney, so I stopped by the Lego store to pick up a gift for Luke. I saw this little guy who was just waiting to quietly follow me home to help Luke defeat the evil Vader/Daddy. Too bad he wouldn't fit in my luggage.

I've been talking for 6 days straight. I'm tired, and I need clean water to drink. I am very ready to go home and get some love from my family. Have a great week!

on bellybuttons...

I have one. Most people do. I never thought mine was all that fancy until one of my friends on the swim team long ago thought mine looked funny. I guess mine is a half-innie/half-outie, so it looks like a little deep "C" shaped wrinkle with a tiny nob. When I was little I would always try to turn it inside out (I will save some decency in this post and NOT share a photo of my stretched out skin and odd bellybutton).

Bellybuttons are hereditary and also based on when you were born. I can't remember exactly, but if you were born a premie then you have a higher likelihood of getting one style or another. I wasn't a premie, but AnnaMae looks like she is getting my bellybutton. Luke definately got daddy's (actually Luke IS daddy, it's his split personality reincarnated in child form).

My bellybutton usually doesn't play a big part of my life. I'm sure the majority of you feel the same way. HOWEVER, when I get preggers my bellybutton gets stretched all out of whack. I mean, that's a lot of stretching, and my poor skin doesn't stretch nicely. So when my belly returns to pre-baby state the bellybutton suffers.

Which brings me to today's point:

After Luke was born and my belly went back to normal I kept getting bellybutton infections. Weird, huh? I guess warmth and moisture get trapped in my little stretched wrinkle and then I get an infection. They quickly go away, just a little dab of neosporin does the trick. Now I have a minor one again. Nothing serious, but I had always thought that when a baby is born, it's the baby that's supposed to get the bellybutton infections, not the mom. Oh well, one of the unspoken joys of being a mom.

on Jolly Ranchers...

A word of advice, don't try to walk and talk and suck on a Jolly Rancher all at the same time. In 2007 I tried this very stunt. I did not succeed and I have a molar that can vouch for my failure. Now, because of my ineptitude I spent monday with a numb face and a temporary crown, just waiting for my gold crown to come in a couple weeks. I'm not one for jewelry, but this is a piece of gold I'll probably be better off having.

I hope that Jolly Rancher appreciates that it was worth about $800 in gold. At least it was watermelon, my favorite flavor.