Painting Inspirations from Pinterest

Hey there....went a period of time where I couldn't log into my own blog account and just about gave up! I literally felt hijacked!  I hope I'm back on since I've missed writing about "stuff".  I've been collecting lots of fun picture on Pinterest...not too sure yet what else to do with it.  I love the recipe ideas, and pins from some who seem to have my same cracked sense of humor. 
It's been so hot, I come home from work and melt, even though my intentions are to take long walks, hikes, and buy a bike so that I can ride through the park on soft summer nights.  Right!




Here are a couple of pictures that have amused or amazed me from Pinterest lately, and will be inspirational in my new projects:

Dirty Mouth?

Wow! It is amazing how fast the English language changes.  I enjoy the study of the changes and how teens really influence it, so my job as a teacher keeps me fresh.  Well, kind of.  Old lady smell is fast overtaking my speech patterns!
I don't have much trouble with words used by kids that finally make it into the dictionary like "bling" and "grill" because they have been around so long.  Ones that take me off guard are off the wall words that now mean something totally different to young ones than they did for me.  For example, English teachers have forever spoken of old cellars that are dark and dank, but when I said this, sniggers were heard all around.  What did I say?  Well, it seems now that "dank" not only means "marijuana," but also is a way of saying that something is really good.  "Boy, that food tasted dank!" the cool guy exclaimed.  And please remember that thongs are no longer worn on the feet, but on the can...but then, the can-can is no longer at the rear, but on top.  I ought to just stop talking because everything I say seems to be worthy of a mouthful of soap! 
On the upside, mayber some of the old words that have taken a bad rap will go back to their originally harmless state.  "Gay" sometimes means "lame" now and is just a limp away from meaning "happy" once again.  One can only watch, wait, and hope.

Putting my Toes in the Water Again

Brrr!  It's been a long time.  I was excited to start teaching again, and REALLY thought I could do it all: work, blog, craft, sell.  That's me,  a superwoman in my own mind.  But, the reality is that the last year has been a difficult adjustment.  It's hard to remember myself this time last year because my new job seemed so hard, and my personal life was a mess.  Practice has made my job tons easier, and I'm back home giving it one more try with my husband. 
I have been putting together more of my art journals that leave for personal entries, art or magazine clippings, photos, poetry, ephemera, souveniers, etc. I found a book on old men's adventure magazines, and that has made for some fun journal pages!

I'm going to start small and hopefully add momentum, and can't wait to get back in with the likes of y'all!

We've come a long way since the dunce cap!

I'm cuter than Miss Simpson was! J/K!

Wow!  It's been a long time!  I decided to go back to work.  Even though my husband and I are still trying to work things out, I don't ever want to be in the position of not being able to fend for myself if his paranoid jealousy ever raises its head again.

Looking for work was interesting.  Even schools are cutting back.  They are enlarging classes, and even combining them to keep from hiring.  I was offered two jobs that later were pulled out from under me because it would be more financially feasable to just give the existing teachers more work.

I finally found a very interesting job in the state mental health system as a secondary English teacher and as the school's coordinator.  The students are challenging, but I'm learning a lot as a teacher.  I have been an aide to an administrator before, but there is so much to learn in this job, that I'm a bit overwhelmed for now.

I miss staying home and crafting, but it has also been nice to get back out there and meet new people and learn new things! School policies change quickly and try to stay in sinc with the times.  No more students in neat rows, no paste made with flour and water, and no more film reels that used to break in the middle of movies films narrated by the same guy in every film watched from elementary to high school.  In the same way that many parents are confused as to what discipline to use to make their children behave, so teachers have become.  We would like well-behaved boys and girls like we used to see in "Leave it to Beaver" but without any of the stern methods that old Miss Simpson would have used to ensure this great behavior.  It would be great if good ole-fashioned respect worked, but our kids have been rightly taught to be wary of strangers and therefore they don't give respect automatically any more it seems-it needs to be earned.  Well, I'm going to be very busy in the near future figuring these things out.  I'll let you know when I come up with the answers.

Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder

I have been gone so long, I might be writing to thin air, and I wouldn't blame my few readers for abandoning ship.  The reason for my absence feels like a foray into hell.  I know it could be worse, but my life was literally turned up-side-down!  I've tried to be very private about this, but I think it would be therapeutic to write about it.
I have been happily married for 36 years, and one of my favorite movie songs and scenes was from The Wedding Singer's "I Wanna Grow Old With You!" Just before summer began, my husband  asked me to look him in the eye and tell him if I was cheating on him.  If you know me, you know that's laughable.  I was puzzled and thought, "How cute!  He still thinks I'm hot!"  But the amusement ended quickly as he began to claim to see me "about town," heard neighbors "talking" about my exploits, and began to spy on me (he even secretly placed an audio recorder in the house).

I had just had major abdominal surgery, but ended up having to live with my youngest daughter for about three months because I just couldn't convince him of my faithfulness.  My daughter decided that they needed to move shortly before I had to have another minor surgery.  Because the two surgeries were so close, I didn't do well, and needed to be cared for constantly for a few days and ended up back home with my husband.

He says he no longer believes I cheated on him since I've sworn innocence on my dad's last dying breath....and everything is fine now?!?! It is like the last several months have not happened as far as he's concerned.  He thinks he is fine, but is seeing a therapist (I am, too--although separately for now), but it seems up to me to forgive, forget, and to trust that we can go back to the happy marriage that I thought we had until spring ended.  I can't talk to him about it at all, and I promise not to bore you anymore with my saga.  Hopefully, I can get the desire to blog and craft back and continue gaining friends, ideas, and insight from you lovely folks out there.  Wish me luck

Channelling Crafting Genious

When I went to a local thrift store the other day I did not expect to channel someone from another blog.  I felt a little guilty because there was a windfall treasury of lovely Christmas items there that my sweet friend, Diane,from Saturday Finds would go crazy for. She would know exactly what to do with all the wonders that I ended up buying myself for my birthday.  The possibilities are endless, but I have to admit that I would have to search Diane's beautiful blog for inspiration before I decide what to do.

Plastic icecubes? that came in a cute wire basket.

A VERY sixties looking candy dish.

If you haven't been over to Diane's blog, you can see her ingenious work with items like this!

Bruised, Beaten, Broken, and Bitten

I just returned from a weekend at the beautiful Bear Lake in Utah.  The water was so blue, it was so much cooler there, and the food tasted better than it does in a hot summer kitchen.  I sat on the shore and just let the waves lap feet and legs.  Friends brought their cute dogs who had me play fetch with them until I worried that I would work them to death.

I have to sleep almost sitting up in my old age, and I thought I had a stroke of genius when I decided to sleep with my sleeping bag on a chaise lounge.  Very bad idea!  My body feels like I slept on nothing but metal bars. Night two, I slept on the traditional blow-up mattress and just stuffed a rolled up comforter under my head.  Much better!
Some of the couples who I camped with had small children.  I was playing with a little boy and girl of about age three.  The little girl said I looked delicious and pretended to eat me.  The boy must have thought so, too, because he bit my hand so hard that I screamed.  He just wanted to eat me, also, but didn't realize we were pretending.  It's been a long time since I've been so amused while being in such pain.