Headlights in the Fog

Super 8

The other day while the kids were at school, I watched 'Super 8.' It's a film directed by JJ Abrams and produced by Steven Speilberg. The story is about a group of kids who are shooting a zombie movie and happen to film something that they had no idea of the importance of. One of the dvd add ons is a documentary about how Abrams, Speilberg and others grew up making movies with friends. As I watched it I was jumping out of my skin knowing how much Jack would get out of seeing these charasmatic men talk about their love of film making. At 3:30 I picked up J+K from school. Once home, Kitty settled in at the computer watching 'Futurama' and Jack and I watched 'Super 8.' I snuck glances at Jack and could tell he was really in to it. After it was over he left the room to go and find his Flip camera so he could start filming.
There is nothing more satisfying to me than participating in my childrens' passions. Finding a book, answering questions, offering my viewpoint, finding sources, gathering the necessary tools and supplies... and most of all... getting out of their way so they can figure it out for themselves. Before I had J+K I knew one of the key parenting stances I wanted to have was honoring my childrens' passions. There really is a magic to childhood... to learning things for the first time. To be able to let yourself be totally immersed in what is at hand and be swallowed up by it. Their journey is a journey for me as well. It is also a study in patience as J+K use my studio all the time. I'll go to cut fabric and find my worktable is covered in crayons, drawings, sculpy clay in little clumps, books and sharpies. I'll tell the kids I'm annoyed and that if they want to continue to use the studio they will need to respect the space, their materials and leave the work surfaces clean. Silently, though, I'm so happy to see them creating and feeling free to experiment.
I love you Jack and Kitty!

It's the Holidays!

Hello, hello... we travelled to Buffalo for Thanksgiving to see my in-laws. We always have a fun time when we visit and this time was no exception. The day after Thanksgiving we went to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery with Thom's Dad(Yoshi), Sister(Karen) and her husband(Ed.) We had a great time despite the fact that they had sent the 'Mirror Room' to some other museum. The other wonderful thing about our trip was getting to spend time with Sunny, my MIL's (Gretchen's) dog. We met her after Gretchen got her this summer and we all fell head over heels in love with her. That is saying something as Jack is NOT a dog person.

Recently, Thom and Kitty were going out to go bike riding. Kitty told Thom she wanted him to take her training wheels off. Thom was a bit leery of this as he had taken them off once before and it hadn't worked out so well. Well, Kitty is a bona fide big kid bike rider now! It is an impressive thing to watch.

Here is a picture of Jack on his bike:

We had conferences for both kids last week. All of their teachers raved about them. I said to Thom that I wished I had had a tape recorder because the enthusiasm of the teachers would be a nice thing to relisten to if ever I feel down. Also, both Kitty and Jack's teachers told us we must be doing something right to have such nice, studious, funny kids. Jack's math teacher said that sometimes he'll make a witty comment that goes over almost every student's head except he'll catch Jack's eye and Jack will be laughing because he understood the humor. That, in itself, makes me so happy. If there is anything we stress here at home it is witty banter... that and making inantimate objects talk.

This past Saturday we had lunch with my parents and then went to see 'The Muppets.' The movie was awesome... I think Jim Henson would approve... it was that good. We then went to my Parents' house and helped trim their tree. Actually, the kids helped for 5 minutes and got bored and moved onto other things and then my dad, mom, Thom and I worked on it. My parents always have such a beautiful tree and I always love going through their ornaments and remembering them from my youth. There are a couple of ornaments I did for various cats over my lifetime and it is wonderful to have those trigger warm memories of cats gone by. I am thinking I will start that tradition with our tree... starting with Gus, who passed away 2 years ago.

Yesterday I turned 42. The kids both bought me presents with their own money from our local art supply store. Kitty got me a drawing pad and Jack got me 4'x3' piece of matte board. I was really touched by their thoughtfulness. Thom was also thoughtful and got me an iPhone 4gs. It is awe-inspiringly awesome. I didn't think I needed one but now I wonder how I did without it! Isn't that always the way?

I'm close to being done buying presents. I have 3 'secret projects' I'm working on in my studio that will take me the better part of the days left before Christmas. There are a couple of presents this year that I am really excited to give and to see the reaction they cause... I can't say anymore than that because, well, it would give the surprise away.

I am blessed to be able to spend this Christmas at my parent's house with them and both my sister's and brother's families... I don't get to see them very often and love their company... so being with them at Christmas always makes for a great holiday!

A Ninja and a WWII Soldier goes walking...

!0 Years!!!

Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary. 10 years! What a beautiful day it was... sunny and warm for a November Saturday. What a blessing it was to be able to say our vows in front of friends and family.

What a blessing to be able to pledge to spend my life with Thom. Our lives were very different then. It is awesome to be together on this journey. So awesome we made 2 people together... 2 very wonderful people. 

Thanks Sweetie for being my partner... I love you!

Checking In

School photos are back. Both Kitty and Jack look like they've grown so much. Now that they are both in school fulltime, I find myself thinking I wish we had had more children because I miss them during the day. I totally get how parents get depressed when their child goes to college, i.e. 'empty nest syndrome.' I get it and I still have my kids living at home. 

With a lot of hard work over the past month, Thom has finished the retaining wall. Jack, Kitty and the neighborhood kids have been using the unfinished earth at the top of the wall as a 'dirt box.' Like a sand box but with dirt. Honestly, I love that they are having so much fun with it. The downside is that it makes the front of our house look unfinished, uncared for, and not very enjoyable to look at. Our plan of planting a groundcover there had Jack very upset. Thom has decided he will build a large circle in the center of the bed with edging stones and that can be the dirt box. I've tried to get Jack interested in the dirt we have behind the house, but for some reason the front of the house spot is all so more enticing.

I've been making costumes. Kitty is going to be a ninja and Jack is going to be a WW 2 soldier. I'm 95% done with Kitty's... I used a pattern for the coat and then made up the belt/hanging part of sash as I went along. She's going to wear it with black pants. I need to make her a hood and red straps to go on the bottom part of her legs. Jack's is shaping up to be harder... I've made him an amunition belt which I am very proud of and took 4-5 hours of work. I bought a man's shirt to fashion as a jacket, but after trying it on him I've realized how stupid this huge shirt will look when I've tried to resize it. So, I'll be off to the thrift stores tomorrow to try to find something suitable. I also want to make leather-looking spats that will be his 'boots.' Of course, it goes almost without saying, that I will be making him one of my custome made duct tape helmets. This will be my third... the first was a medieval helmet for Halloween '09 and the second was the Roman helmet for drama camp this year. I've been in a bit of a cerative slump recently, so I am happy for the energy and enthusiasm making these costumes gives me!

First Day of School

The first week has come and gone. Jack and Kitty are both excited about school and enjoy going every morning. We had a 'snow day' this week when the heavy downpours knocked out electricity from several schools. Both Jack and Kitty were sad they couldn't go to school that day.

Drama Camp

Jack and Kitty attended drama camp in August at the Arden Theater's Drama School. They both love, love, loved it. All week long they took classes in playwriting, movement, musical theater and more. Friday there was a special performance in the theater for all of the parents. My mom and dad joined us. There were about 6 plays... each about 5-10 minutes long. Inbetween the plays were musical numbers and demonstrations of things the kids had done like movement class. The plays were written by the campers. Each camper got to come up with their own character which made for some ecclectic, surreal plots. Jack was a Roman Centurion. He wore all red and a helmet I made him out of duct tape and fabric. I'm quite proud of this helmet.

Kitty was a snow leapord. I took a white t-shirt and used a fabric marker to draw on stripes. I also made her ears... but I don't have a picture of her wearing them. Below is the best shot I have:

I really am so impressed with this drama camp. I would reccommend it highly. The one major downside is that it is in downtown Philadelphia. It wasn't too bad a drive at 8am as one might think... but still, it's a stressful, all-systems-go kind of experience. One day Jack stayed home from camp after throwing up. Thom drove Kitty in during a torential downpour which had lots of traffic lights out. When they got to the round about in front of the Art Museum, Kitty threw up into Thom's reuseable grocery bag (oddly enough, it hasn't been reused since then.) He brought her home and missed a meeting he was supposed to lead at a once a year convention. Luckily, his boss has many kids and totally understands the language of 'My daughter threw up in my car.'

My parents came with us. I nearly killed us all when I inadvertently drove through a red light. I was travelling too close to a Deer Park water truck and didn't see the traffic light until I was already in the intersection. Everyone was very nice about it and even allowed me to drive home. Part of that could be the fact that I was the only one who knew how to get home... but I'm sure that wasn't it.

School starts next Tuesday. Yesterday the kids both go back to school haircuts. They both look very studious!

Kitty turns 6!

Kitty turned 6 on 8/14! Above is Kitty after being face painted at her camp's carnival. I was quite impressed... being a card carrying face painter myself!

Jack and Kitty on Kitty's birthday. The brother/sister birthday photo has become a tradition. 

I made Kitty (at her request) a horse birthday cake. It is (again) a design by our favorite cake decorator, Liv Hansen. Liv always makes making cakes look so easy... in reality it is quite an undertaking. The cake is practically 100% (I'm exagerating a little bit) icing. The icing served as a kind of plaster and is holding everything together as the cake was falling apart as I was icing it. It was eaten and enjoyed with no one being the wiser.

One of the games we played at Kitty's party was 'Guess the Ice Cream Flavor.' Everyone was blindfolded and fed 4 different flavors of ice cream. They then had to identify what was what. The most frequently missed flavor was chocolate. I found that surprising... I thought chocolate would be the easiest to identify!

New Beginnings

I finished the commissioned quilt I have been working on for the past year. It took so much longer than I thought it would. I delivered it on Monday and Susanna (the client) was so happy with it. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Now I am beginning to do new projects in the studio... like my new bag!

I love it. It is smaller than my old bag and firmer... I used more stabilizer... so it doesn't flop around.

Last weekend we did a thourough cleaning of the living room which involved removing all of the sofa cushions. Jack stacked them in the kitchen.

Thom has been dilentgy working on the wall. He made great progress this past weekend. Below is him at work:

When I download photos from the camera, I often find pictures taken by a girl I know. I'm not quite sure how she managed to take the picture and pour water... but I found it most impressive.

Summer Update

Above is Kitty's camp photo. Isn't she awesome? She's been having a great time... even this past week when she couldn't swim due to an ear infection... said she had fun hanging out with her favorite counsleor during swim times. 

Jack finished his computer camp and says he'd like to go back next year. I think he really enjoyed hanging out with all of the other kids... boys between the ages of 8 and 18. There was a part each day when someone could give others a 'golden bead' for things the person had done. One day one of the older boys gave Jack a bead for being 'The Best Little Kid.' I guess when you are 18 you think of an 8 year old as a little kid. Jack came home the last day with a flash drive with all of his work on it. He proudly showed us his video game which was amazing... my game playing skills are lacking because I kept getting sent back to the beginning of a level for touching a sword or spider. He also showed us his flash animations and the robot he built. It's awesome what he has learned... though he also learned some 'sick' new sayings ('sick' means cool) from the older kids. 

By the time bedtime came around each camp day, Jack was exhausted. One night Jack knocked something over and started to walk away. Thom told him to pick it up. Jack sighed heavily and said, "I wish I was the kind of kid who didn't listen to his parents!!!" We assured him that it is, in fact, good to be someone who listens to his parents.