I grabbed my bag of school books and folders to head out to my team meeting. It was 6:30 and I had to be at the meeting place by 7. I reached for the door and my cell phone went off. That's odd, I thought, who would be calling me? I already talked to Gram today.

It was my brother. Curious, he doesn't call me often. "Hey, it's your brother. What's up?" He sounded tired and a little under the weather so to speak. We exchanged greetings and then the true nature of his call began.

"So I thought I might do something nice for mom for mother's day." He said.

"Well isn't that special." I said, waiting for the blow.

"Wouldn't you like to have a visit from mom for two or three days so she can hang with you and the kids?" He asked.

Silence.....

"I thought I would surprise her by buying her a ticket to fly up to see you, if that is alright with you." He waits patiently for my reaction.

Silence......."Of course she can come visit us." I say. ( What in the hell am I supposed to say, "Hell no!" Nope, can't say that. He took her in, cares for her by way of groceries and deals with her on a semi daily basis. The guilt enters along with the reality that I am not doing a thing to help him.)

"I thought you might like that." He laughs.
" Great idea. I'm sure she will love that. Just let me know the details when you get them." I say with a slight tenseness to my tone.

We speak of a few other things and hang up, then I go on to my meeting.

So there you have it. I am going to have a visitor next month for three or four days. Prayer. That is all I ask for. For those of you who don't know, I don't really mesh well with my mother. I haven't since around age five. So I ask for lots of prayer.

Woohooooo!!!!

I am so happy! Shad finally got to play a game of softball last night. Okay, the team has had no practice, ( to much rain) and they pretty much sucked, but it was so great to be out on a Sunday night watching Shad do one of his favorite things. The girls and I bought hot cocoa and sat on the bleachers. It was a little cold, but it was worth it.

Tonight is week three of my second class, then it's two more weeks and off to the next class. It's great going to school like this. It is a bit stressful, but at the same time it is just the right speed for me. I am sure that could change as soon as I get into the meatier classes, but for now it is just what I need.

Last night Hailey and I were doing are before bed time reading, and in the story it talked of oil lamps. Hailey wanted to know what they were. She also pointed out that the people in the story had a television and it mentioned turning the dial to change the channels. She inquired as to what this was all about as well. Now, I am only 34, and oil lamps were around my house, but as antiques. I know all about channel changes with dials though. Man, our kids are so un aware of what life has been like for the people before us. Needless to say that today we are doing some research on oil lamps and we are taking a trip down the road to the antique store to see if we can find one, and to see if we can find one of those old time televisions. (smirk, smile) This is home schooling at it's finest.

We are about to go to the Farmer's Market to see what is available in the way of fresh fruit and veggies. We will walk as it is only about three blocks from the house. I love the energy there.

I took the girls to a "game club" at a local pizza place. These kids were so cool, and friendly, not to mention extremely intelligent. The parents were rude and hard to talk to. However, the girls had a good time. Hailey played a game called The Settlers of Catan which she seemed to like. Mackenzie and I played Who? What? Where? Jr. which is a lot of fun. You get three cards that tell you who to draw, what to draw them doing and where to draw them doing it. Then everyone has to try to guess the answer. I had to draw a butterfly playing a guitar in a tree and a donkey sneezing in New York City. Mackenzie got a centipede bowling in a submarine and a seal blowing bubbles in a movie theatre. Very fun game.

We haven't heard from anyone, but are sure it's all good back in Vegas. We will be there in May, then in June we go to see my sister get married in Salt Lake. That should be loads of great times and produce many memories. I get to see my favorite uncle, and my niece who I haven't seen in such a long time. We will take the girls all around down town Salt Lake while we are there and perhaps get in a school lesson or two as well.

check out www.artakiane.com

Blessings

I still don't like the people here, and I am starting to really hate renting, however I started my second class last night and that kind of took my mind off of all of the crap. I am stuck with the same team as last time and I know there is a reason for this. I am doing my best to deal, and approach it in a positive manner. See, one class and I already grew up!

I have a book I came upon at the book store. It is called Akiane - her life, her art, her poetry. It is a super inspiring story about a young girl who is an artist, a poet, and, well, you just have to check it out. Here is an example of her poetry

The Hollow Compasses

Our thirst is drying the distance

There are no longer silent streets

It is not our eyes that see God's love

Time watches us like naked seeds

The liars are timing the truth

With blisters trapped in the strife

When knives of conceit divide us

Who will find our forgotten life?

The doubt we paint is always a prison

The dried-up light escpes last hail

The darkness sheds its poisoned voices

With hollow compasses we sale

-Akiane

Hi Sabrina! Good to hear from you!
I will send you my info.


Blessings and love and peace and chocolate cake!!!!

:(

I am really not likeing Northern California right now. Making friends is a lot harder than you would think. Okay, the place is beautiful, the people aren't.

This is where we go for park day. It is right near a school, and there are so many trees and plants. It is always cold as the sun is always hidden in the trees. I love the green.

The second picture is of my nephew. He was sad that the "big boys" wouldn't let him play Jedi swords with them. He got over it in about five minutes, but those five minutes when he was upset were just heart breaking. So a note to all of you "big boys" out there, try to remember the little guy once in a while. You were little once too.

Jellies!!!!! They are so awesome! I love to just sit and watch them hang out and float around. They are not easy to capture on film, especially when they are behind a huge glass wall, but I got the best picture I could while being surrounded by a huge crowd of on-lookers, most of them children.

These were the big ones, but they had some that were no bigger than the tip of a pen. Crazy!

Jellies!!!!!!! Look them up, they are so cool!!!!

These are some of the shots I took a couple weeks ago when in San Francisco. I just love to take pictures here as there is always something of interest to shoot. The first one is Alcatraz, the second is the City of San Fran and the third is a street in the city. All of the hills are crazy, and I often wonder what this place must have looked like before it was covered in concrete.

I am going to try to remember to take more pictures around here and then share them with everyone.

I finish my first class this Monday night and start my next one the following week. I am looking forward to the new class but am not sure I want the same team to work with. Sadly this is not my choice, and in the end, I will end up learning a whole lot more dealing with the difficult people than avoiding them.

Peace and blessing to you all.