Not Me Monday

Short and sweet today.....I have a busy week!

• It did not take me several days to configure my High School Reunion outfit because it needed to be based on a pair of spanks and a specific push up bra.

• I did not spend an entire evening sucking in my stomach to the point of abdominal muscle spasms. I am already in tip top shape....and the concept of tummy jiggles is just foreign to me.

• I did not unbutton my pants as soon as I got back in my car to allow my neatly tucked in muffin top to spill out and finally breath....ugh. That's silly. I always wear pants that fit.

• I did not take a piece of cake & then cut off the frosting from the neighboring piece leaving it totally frosting-less and plop in on my plate....and congratulate myself for "creating" a corner piece....mmm....cake.

• I did not haul up several boxes of Christmas decorations & spread the contents all over my living room and then decide 1/2 way through the mess that I should go pay my bills. No way, I always finish my tasks before starting another.

• I did not make my husband go eat his nearly odorless food far away from me because I thought it smelled funny and then eat a plate full of smelly eggs right next to him. I am never inconsistent.

• I do not ask my tired daughter over and over if she wants to sit with mommy or daddy....when I know the answer is always mommy....just so I can hear her say that she prefers to be with me. That's pathetic.

• I did not stuff tissue up Stella's nose in the grocery store because I only had 1 left....definitely not enough to last the rest of the shopping trip. My objective was clearly less tissue waste....and not to humiliate my child.

Honesty Is The Best Policy

I have been honored with an award. I believe the last award I received was in college for "Resident Assistant with the most Programs"....clearly a lame made-up feel-good award....it doesn't count. So thank you Lisa, for the Honest Scrap award....I will accept it with pride.

Lisa is one of my my 45 cousins. (This is direct cousins & not including spouses...or any of Peter's family). She is a mom of 4 who keeps things light hearted with humor and perspective. I've only recently gotten to know her through the world of blogging & FB....which is totally lame....but I am happy to finally feel like I know more than just her name.

Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link to their blog.
2. Share 10 honest things about yourself.
3. Present this award to 7 other whose blogs you find brilliant in design or content.
4. Tell those 7 people they have been awarded.


You can always count on me to be honest....I realize that this is not always a good trait. This post was a bit harder for me because I feel like I've already (in one way or another) listed tons of honest things about me....from lists to food quirks to random facts...so sorry for repeats!

Here are my honest things:

1. I am psychotic about organization bins. I LOVE them! For those of you who have not seen my basement storage area....I'm sure I'll post about it in the near future. It's a sickness. I've embraced it & accept open mockery on the matter....because it's valid.

2. I HATE having my ears touched by anyone but myself. Sofia once tried to tickle my ear & it took all of my efforts to not involuntarily punch her. I did, however, freak out to the point of scaring her to tears....way to go Rach.

3. I need to have the dishes in arranged a very specific way in my dishwasher. The plates need to face away from the sink. I also need to have specific cups lined in specific places on the top rack. If Peter or a house guest loads them differently....I will rearrange them after they leave. There is no reasonable explanation for this.

4. I think they should eliminate cursive penmanship from school. What a waste. I also get annoyed with people who write in cursive....unless they are elderly...because the elderly really do have that extra time.

5. I hate going to the bathroom for a deuce with no reading material in hand....because otherwise I end up reading about my face lotion & Peter's deodorant for the zillion-th time.

6. I hate being hot. I always prefer winter & fall to summer & spring. I hate being sweaty & unable to cool down....because you can only take off so many layers. But if you're cold, you can always cozy up with one more layer.

7. My husband loves to whistle & I hate it....ESPECIALLY in the car.

8. I have lots of cousins. 30-something on one side & maybe 15 on the other? I don't know all of their names & certainly don't know spouse names....and DEFINITELY don't know their kids' names.

9. I love to cook & bake. I love learning about the scientific properties of food....which is why Food Network's Alton Brown is easily one of my top 3 heroes. One of my closet dreams is to go to culinary school...but not to work in a restaurant....just to learn....nerd alert!

10. As an adoptee....I used to wish to revisit Korea & find my birth mother....this wish has since vanished now that I have my own kids who look like me. I also enjoy making people VERY uncomfortable by playing the wildly inappropriate adoption card, "Well, my mommy didn't want me so she left me on a door step...." I do, however, still cry at any movie adoption/orphan related....even if they are lame or animated children's movies. These movies include Annie, Meet the Robinsons, Juno, & Harry Potter.


I choose to award the following bloggers for their honesty in the blog world.

Sandy Pardon My Dust

Lesley The Hassenrik Family

Mandy Never A Dull Moment

Carrie Leonard Life

Launa Little Sweet Things

Michelle The Hayden Family

Not Me Monday

It's been awhile since I've done one of these posts so I'm kinda nervous to start again....mostly because it's so revealing of what an awesome mom/wife I am.....right.

• I did not wear the exact same pair of jeans 9 days in a row because they had no visible dirt and finally wash them only because Sofia said I was "icky" & "gross" & "smelly". (Megan, remember Stef? Barf)
  

• I did not send Peter's cousin Kyle on a bike ride with Sofia to the park (without me or Peter)....only after he finished reading several books to her....so I could nap on my couch and continue my awesome streak of nothingness. I'm sure he loved making a long trip from D.C. to babysit our kids. Not me, I would not force parent duties our out-of-town house guest.

• I did not cry during the last scenes of Meet the Robinsons and tell Sofia the very pathetic line "sometimes mommies just cry". That is so lame. I do not get emotionally overwhelmed by animated Disney movies.
  

• I did not violently bust into the bathroom & force Sofia to pinch one off so I could sit down at go. That is an unpleasant experience that I would never force upon my child.

• I have not finally give in and start reading Stella books while sitting on the toilet....and reason to myself that I was being a "good mommy" by not leaving my children unattended for substantial parts of the day and multi-tasking....and completely ignore the grossness factor.

• I did not tell Sofia that her only afternoon options were to watch a movie, play video games, or nap....so that I could lay on the couch and nap. No way, I always engage my children in educational activities.

• I did ignore my laundry for an entire week and then cry when I saw that our dirty laundry literally went from the ground to chute opening the ceiling.

• I did not tell Sofia to bounce one of those gi-mungus balls to me in Walmart and proceed to back my noggin into a metal rack sending 14 huge hula hoops noisily rolling all over 4 different aisles. Not me, I am not clumsy...and I do not encourage my children to play with display toys.

• I do not continually partake in this Not Me Monday blog thing and not provide the link to the lady who came up with it....giving her credit for the creative idea. Nope, I always give credit where credit is due.
  

In Case You Missed It

Host City: Grand Rapids, MI

When: Sept 22nd - Oct 10th

Winner: cash prize of $250,000.

Facts: Competition was staged at 159 different locations with more than 1,200 artists participating and over 334,000 votes cast.

One of the coolest part about it was that it was all free.
Free to see.
Free to vote.

Peter and I made our way downtown to see the larger entries that were outside. I will post just a few of my favorites.




4th Place: The Grand Dance
Very cool. Right in the middle of the Grand River.
Illuminated by solar energy.





5th Place: Moose
Made entirely of welded steel nails.
This one was awesome.



6th Place: Nessie - The Loch Ness Monster
Sofia's favorite.



8th Place: Table & Chairs on Bridge
Actual title: The Furniture City Sets the Table for the World of Art
That long title is annoying....but the art entry was cool.




So after the voting was all done and the winner was announced....I just had to go see the winner. At this point, I had only seen what was outside....so I took the girls to see what was in the Federal Building. I heard 1st place was awesome and saw some pictures....but they all look like the artist took a massive digital picture....like this one. Nope, it is oil on canvas.

1st Place: Open Water No. 24


So you will have to excuse the quality of my pictures....I only had my phone. But to show you that this really IS oil on canvas....and not a digital picture (because it is that amazing) I took a bunch of up close pictures.


Zoom in #1


Zoom in #2


Zoom in #3




Another jaw dropping entry in the Federal Building was 3rd place entry...by Eric Daigh.

3rd Place: Portraits



Okay....so I know these don't look all that impressive....but they are constructed with push pins!!




Again, these pictures are with my phone...so bear with me.
So here is one of the portraits up close.
This is a pictures of the lips.


Zoom Out #1


Zoom Out #2


Zoom Out #3



AMAZING!!

This was one entry that I did see, but would have really like to.
Title: Ecstasy of the Scarlet Empress
Constructed of balloons




CONCLUSION:
Grand Rapids Art Prize was awesome. I feel guilty that I didn't take more time to look at all the venues and entries....only the ones outside and the few in the Federal Building. The best part was that it brought tons of people downtown. The streets were filled with pedestrians....like a big city.

I am very happy with the winner. Not that I'm some sort of art snob, but I am happy that the winning entry required true talent.

Snapshots

Well, it has been an embarrassingly long time since I've posted to my blog. With the death of our laptop, the opportunity to sit in front of the computer is very little....not to mention that for some reason I've stowed away my camera....not really sure why. So my apologies for the quality of these pictures as they are from my phone. I've also had a resurgence of GI (Gastrointestinal) malfunctions which has left me relatively incapacitated. For GI history, click here. So a few snapshots to catch up.

Two is always better than one


Say it ain't so....Home Depot delivers the $500 check owed to us for the paint spillage. For the background story or if you would like to just be aggravated, click here.



This was a shirt my brother Mike bought for himself.
Nice wool shirt from Banana Republic.
Yeah....it got washed...and shrunk.
Not it's perfect for Sofia.


Griff!
Stella cried & hung on to me for dear life.
Sofia doesn't look all that reassured either.



I teach art to Kindergartners at St. Mark Lutheran.
This was my first project.



Playing with food is fun.


Matching pajamas.
Stella spilled my coffee on them at Meijer.
So we had to buy them.


Proof that I do sometimes feed my children healthy food.



Children's Museam when Grandma Feyen was in town.
Sofia loves the giant bubbles.
Grandma bought us a season's pass....sweet!!


Neighbor girls on a sunny day.


Neighbor girls again


Leaf piles in the fall are awesome.


Stella does not look like a boy....well, maybe a little



Carving pumpkins.
Stella gagged once we cut the top off.


Sofia likes everything except touching the pumpkin.



The final product.
Stella's is on the left and Fia's on the right.


Trick or Treat time!
Nona....Stella's costume is on backwards.
Apparently they were rushed.
No one noticed...except me.



I did not send Nona these pictures to her phone earlier that week.


Halloween 2009
The original costume was reversed with Peter as the devil.
But to be more true to form...we switched.
...and I wanted to win the prize.
...and I told Peter he would never dare to do it.
I was wrong
Awesome.


Made white cheddar asparagus soup for a fundraiser chili/soup cook-off at church. I was going to post the recipe, but it was waaaaay to much work because I had to fill 2 crockpots. I'll do it some other time. p.s. I won (yes!)



Last weekend Peter and I hosted our first house party.
We had a beer tasting competition.
We think people had a good time.
5 correct (of 12) was the winner.
90% only got 3 (or less).