New Blog

I needed a creative kick, so I've created a blog specifically for my arts and crafts. Same name, new channel. I will be keeping up with both of these.

repletewithclass.wordpress.com

Unhappy

I am in a creative funk. For two and some odd years now I have teaching children about creativity and the basics of art. I'm sapped and have nothing other than a large portfolio of art projects to show for it. My teaching skills and organization have grown exponentially but where's my artistic growth? It's not there and I'm unhappy. Don't take it the wrong way, I love to teach and I love the things that are created in my little neck of the woods, but I need something for ME gosh darn it.

This may not seem big, but it is. Conclusions:

Work on your own art dammit!
Get rid of cable (deep breath)
Work on your own art dammit!
Take back your space for creativity.
Commit.

MLKing weekend

There is no such thing as Columbus Day in the South. We do not have the day off. Instead we have Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This holiday provides another day off shortly after our return from Christmas holiday. This past year we went to the Outer Banks with some friends from VA. We stayed in Corolla at Erin's Uncle's house. This place was fantastic. We had a room that faced the ocean, a pool that was frozen over, a hot tub (delightful), a large kitchen, a game room, a half keg from local brewery Carolina Brewery, and other delights. Mike's birthday was this weekend and Erin baked him a cake. We had frozen pipes for the first two days which made things really fun. The weather was amazing that weekend. It rained for the beginning of the weekend and by Monday it was warm and we could sit out on the porch. We had nosy neighbors, a moonlight ocean dip, some hot tub time, pizza shaped like Obama, puzzles, Swedish games, and other general merriment. Here are some photos of this hopefully repeatable weekend!

It took all of us to complete this puzzle.

The men cooked the pizza.
Steve loves America! (but he's open to other countries too)

Mike enjoying the warmer weather and the porch.A walk on the beach.
Casa de Young People.
Before we left it was warm and sunny. We had a snow day the following day.

take THAT recession!

Mike has gotten himself a job. An honest to goodness, full-time job. It's the electric violin shop in Durham and we couldn't be happier. He starts tomorrow and it calls for a celebration tomorrow night! It's been a tough four months, but God is good.

Pictures to share

All from New Years 2008 at Diana's. All long overdue. All fabulous!

Forgot about this!

I was cleaning and sorting photos the other day and came across photos from the 4th of July in 2008. A beautiful hummingbird flew into a window and was slightly stunned. It stayed still long enough for me to take a bunch of photos. Here are a couple (not the best ones though, too special for blog-world).

This is Big John holding the little thing. Amazing!

Scared but not panicked

A local school which shares our feeder middle school most likely has cases of H1N1 (swine flu). All three of these schools are year-round and most people think that it's a matter of time before it reaches us. Just keep my school in mind, like I said, I'm scared but not panicked.

Three generations of Wagner women

I only have one grandparent remaining. Sometimes I think that people take for granted the fact that they have all four of their maternal and paternal grandparents. Mike has all four of his grandparents. My mother's dad passed from complications of lung cancer before I was born. My step-grandfather (the only one I ever knew, thus really grandpa) passed in December of my Junior year. I vividly remember my girls from the hall being very supportive while I drove back and forth to Pittsburgh the week leading up to his death. Grandad (my dad's dad) passed the following Summer. Mike and I were dating and this was the first family function we ever attended together. My Grammy passed the day after Thanksgiving this year. She was 90 and a tough old cookie up until the end. She died from congestive heart failure. I am left with Grandma Alderson and though she is not as old, she has aged considerably in the last few years. She took care of Grandpa for several years as his health deteriorated. I think that anyone would suffer the same effects. Well, I was recently in Pittsburgh and my mom was there as well. Throughout the years we have taken photos of us together. I have one from when I was about seven and it has Great-grandma Wagner in it as well. She passed a few years after that so we've been left with three generations for quite some time. I wasn't sure the next time I would have the chance to see her alive (don't think I'm so morbid, just realistic at this point) so we took what may be our last three generation photo. The funny thing is that I know exactly what I'll look like when I'm 80. Do you see the resemblance?? Anywho, here's the Wagner ladies. Enjoy.