Yesterday night I was at my sister's house and she has been wanting me to paint a mural for some time now on her daughter's wall. So we went and got paint and I committed to painting AND finishing a mural before I left. It went well and I'm happy about it. I wasn't able to see the look on Sarah's face because she went to bed before I finished, but I heard she went crazy over it and wants more stuff on her wall. It took me about 4 hours.I feel compelled to mention copyright infringement laws. In case anyone feels the need to "report" me, I did not make a profit on this. Nor would I tell you if I did.
Other murals I've done.

Update on Tripp

Tripp weighed at a whopping 14lb 9.5oz today. The doctor said that his concern for Tripp has gone down considering his lab results were all normal. Also the fact that Tripp is doing so much and looks so healthy, he decided to treat the patient and not the symptom, the symptom being about weight. So that made me happy. I did not want to put Tripp in the hospital and what not. I just need to keep up the routine of a high calorie food schedule.
And Erick. He's getting aggressive with Tripp. He's always been a little curious about what would happen if he did this... and that kind of stuff. I've been careful about treating them both "equal", as much as you can with a 2 year old and a 7 month old, and not throwing out the word baby a lot. But Erick gets meaner and meaner everyday. He probably gets it from me. My nickname was Evil Devil.

Another candid shot Adam took- this is one of me and Erick.

I'm glad that I don't have to drive to Atlanta everyday for work, sorry Mom, and worry about having to find gas. I mean who cares about the fact that it's over $4 a gallon, where is it? I'm kind of glad that I am being forced to keep money in my pocket, and to have an excuse for staying home in order to conserve gas, but man. Some people have to work, thus need gas. Again, sorry Mom. When things settle down, then I'll go back to complaining about gas prices. It makes me wish I was back to renting a room from a guy named Edward and riding my bike to work. Of course I wouldn't have my wonderful husband and two kids, but it was a nice time in my life. Very basic. No TV, and I don't think I even had a radio, just a CD player. Oh, there was a computer, but it ran on hamster-energy and no internet connection.
I went through a very rough winter there. My window was painted shut except for an inch gap at the top. So despite my efforts with an electric heater, sleeping bag, and a few blankets, I got real sick. Both-my-ears-clogged-up-sick. But I did get in a lot of painting and I got better at chess. That was one thing the computer was good for, but then I got to where I was beating it all the time. I know what you're thinking. Bruce looks a little grey, but the flash reflected. I painted him in acrylic, about 2.5x3 feet. It was a monster. Bruce kicked my butt, ha ha. I much prefer to paint in watercolor. Easier for me to manipulate and I get more satisfied results, for me.
Like this painting.
I love chickadees. I saw them a lot when I was in Finland. This particular painting was for an art project in college. It won second ribbon at the fair, and now resides on my mother-in-law's wall as a gift. Portraits are easier in watercolor as well, because acrylic dries so fast and it's kind of hard to mix the same exact color. I guess if I was really into acrylic I would be better at remembering and predicting color to color ratio and mixing, but I'm not. I did paint a picture of Erick in acrylic, and I'm thinking of doing a portrait of Tripp in clay, like a relief in slab. I've done it with Elvis, Bob Marley, Bruce Lee, again, and Marilyn Monroe. I'm still waiting for the latter to come out of the kiln. Speaking of Tripp, his secret is that he has a tooth. Isn't that great! Not if you're the one that's nursing him. Yep, that's me and yes, he is a biter. Not too bad yet, but he's got a temper. I'm sure I'll be reciprocating the love.

My very good friend Rebeccah and her husband Robert just gave me a pottery wheel. I am so psyched! I need to get a splash guard, but other than that, it is a marvelous kick wheel, with a platform to put my pots on to dry and finish. Awesome. Not that I am really good at throwing. I took a pottery class in high school, and I'm taking a class with Ashlee Meadows, so I know the majority of what I am supposed to do. It's just the practice that I need to develop my own technique, my signature look, if you will. I've been watching a lot of Project Runway, can you tell?

Okay and I'm also subtly trying to potty train Erick again. We got him this really cool Spider Man seat to go on the big potty. I am reading him this very cool book called Everyone Poopsand I DVRed a funny Blue's Clues potty song, where Joe is singing about "When you gotta go", and "let's see what we can do do do do", educational stuff. Erick will tell me when he has pooped, but it's very hard to tell when he has to. He's not one of those kids that goes off to "hide" while they poop. I don't even know if he has a poo-face to make. I've never seen it.

So it's easier to blog without having a title. I mean, sometimes titles are good. But sometimes it makes me conform to only being able to write about something that pertains to that topic, like an essay or something. Yeah. I get it now. Okay so anyway, that's not to say I won't have anymore titles to capture the eyes of some roaming blogger who wants to join in on the fun, hee hee. With all that said and done, I can now blog about nothing.
I really need to stick to my newly made sked. That's short for schedule for all you non-crossword players out there. I have broken down my days into thirty minute increments and blocked off times for certain activities. Well, it's hard to implement when my levels of busy-ness fluctuates so much. And I haven't blocked out time for blogging, man. Anyway, I have cut out a lot of my early morning stuff, like working out. Too bad, but I'm going to try to block out a time for strolling the kids around the neighborhood. It could happen!
I have changed my routine in order to "fatten" Tripp up more. Tripp went to the doctor for his check-up and although he hadn't lost any weight, he hadn't gained any either, probably because he is CRAWLING and oh yeah, trying to STAND all the time. And after having Tripp perform these acts, the doctor was still concerned and had me go to the hospital for some lab work. Well, I wish it was me, because those needles looked so huge in his little arms. They needed 4 vials of blood, a stool sample, a urine sample, and some sweat. They informed me that they don't do the "sweat test" there, so I was to forgo that one for now. My mom was coming to the hospital to wait with me, good thing too. Tripp only poops once a day, so I had her bring that diaper from home. We still had to wait an hour for Tripp to pee, but he finally did his business and we could leave. I haven't gotten the results back yet, but I'm sure he's fine. I wish we knew more about Adam as a baby, but... it probably wouldn't have helped anyway considering his bio-mom's bad habits.
Bringing up Adam, he is going to have yet another cool scar to show off. He had a deep puncture wound in the meaty part of his hand under his thumb and got 4 stitches. Luckily, he did it at work, and luckily, he can still perform his duties. But he's been pretty good at not complaining. You see, he has a very low pain tolerance, which he adamantly defends. I tease him about being a hypochondriac, but he is getting old and when I tease him about that he usually stops complaining. But it's true and when I think about that, I'm more willing to encourage to go to the doctor and find out what's wrong. My mind still tries to trick me into thinking I'm still in my early twenties.
We grew up in pretty much the same type of environment- poor, with lots of kids, only got what we needed, etc. But we have very different outlooks in life.
Adam- I make my own money, so now I can buy whatever I want, when I want.
Eve- Oh, we better save all the money we can in case something happens and we need it.
I think we have a good balance so far. We've been able to have some good family trips and have been able to pay off a lot of bad debt that has haunted Adam's past from a previous life. We struggle a lot here and there, and sometimes I have to threaten to take his bank card away, but it always works out. I just wonder what outlook our kids will have?

Knitting Projects

I have started a knitting project- a Halloween scarf. Right now it's in the very beginning stage, but I will post a picture of it as I am going along.

Tripp is crawling

And not only is he crawling, but he is pulling up onto things. Can you believe it? Six months... why does he want to grow up so fast?! Erick was always so cautious. Tripp is bound and determined to give himself cerebral damage.

Statistics

Well, Tripp is in the lowest of percentiles for height and weight. So low that the doctor wants Tripp to come back in one month for a check-up. I am not only nursing, but I'm stuffing him with baby food and flavored water for extra calories. I feel like the witch in "Hansel and Gretel" and fattening up my baby... to eat him, j/k. But if he doesn't stop moving so much, he'll just keep burning up what I'm giving him. I'm not worried about it though. He's still healthy. I'm trying to imagine him as chubby as Erick was and it's hard to believe he could ever look like that. I don't know, you tell me.
Tripp at 3 months:

Erick at 3 months:

Another Zoo Trip

We went to the Atlanta Zoo for Adam's company picnic. I was hoping for Six Flags again because I'm not pregnant this year, but oh well. I was with Adam this time and I got to meet some more of his co-workers. We also came home with a couple of animals- a tiger and a panda.



Erick ran around saying, "Roar!"