Human Garden

Convo between Matthew and me when we came upon a butterfly garden:

Me: "You can plant specific flowers that will attract butterflies to the garden. Isn't that cool?

Matthew: "Yeah. And butterflies probably say to each other, 'You can make a human garden if you build a Starbucks.'"

Hahahahahaha!!! So true!

Le Artiste

I have no idea if I really typed a French phrase for my title or not, but it sounded good. :) Anyway, Natalie's been in art camp this week and is learning how to paint with watercolors. So I've been driving there and back every day this week (except for Tuesday, when I had to drive to Maryland and back). Drive, drive, drive...blah.

But, the classes are in the country and the drive is GORGEOUS! This picture does not even come close to doing it justice, but you'll get the idea:



The mountain that you can't really see in the back is breathtaking. It's just such a peaceful, tranquil place.

I stayed for the first class and listened to the different techniques closely. Then I decided to brush up on my own watercolor painting and used this for my inspiration:



And came up with this:



I blurred out my last name on the photo, so that's why there's a weird blue at the bottom. And those three blue dots to the left that look like a Picachu (sp?) face annoy the crap out of me. I tried wetting them out of there but it just faded the area around them.

Natalie's teacher thought it was fine and didn't need to be removed but she's probably just being nice to me. :)

There's a long story behind the meaning of the swan to our family after the loss of my uncle, but I am going to give this to my mom since we all think of him whenever we see one.

Now if I only had the time to study up and practice more. When my kids are grown, I want my own studio and I want to take dozens of classes. And my dream come true would be to have ONE piece in an art show.

My sister is an art major and her drawings/paintings have won numerous awards. She's now into glass blowing, though and made this vase for me for my birthday:



And she wrapped it in this paper that she painted herself:



So the desire to create obviously runs in the family, which is why I enrolled Natalie in these classes in the first place.

And finally a shameless plug, for my other artwork. Check out my Etsy widget in my sidebar to see the personalized children's wall art I sell at my store. The three on "display" are the ones I created for Natalie's room.

I've had zero time to promote my store so I have yet to sell a piece. At least I'm telling myself that's the reason. :)

We Miss You Puppy Monster

It's days like this that make all of the blog drama seem so senseless. Today is the one year anniversary of the loss of a very special little boy, NYC Watchdog's son.

Please head over and show him your love and support. Today, I will be counting my blessings and remembering a smile that was etched on my heart forever one year ago today.

(Thank you to Adam for the beautiful graphic).

AP Coverage of My Video

The AP is covering my video now!! I'm not the star of the story but still. :)

This particular news story is spreading all over the Internet (AOL and such) since it's AP. And in all the places I'm finding it on the net, it features my footage as the main still picture. Here's the video:



Mine is the "amateur video" they're referring to just after they show my footage. The footage following mine is just a storm front taken from ABC 7's helicopter.

The video is getting passed all around my neighborhood and I'm getting tons of emails. Are you sick of me talking about it all yet? LOL

I Love Emily Leatherman

Thank you Emily Leatherman, for being a famous crazy stalker and for doing this to my blog stats:

• Total 43,583
  
• Average Per Day 105
  
• Average Visit Length 1:37
  
• Last Hour 360
  
• Today 1,003
  
• This Week 736

And it's only 1 in the afternoon my time.

Emily decided to jump in the spotlight again, and since I'm the #1 Google result for Ms. Crazy, beating out TMZ, CBS, The Washington Post, etc., my stats are skyrocketing. Booo yeah!!!! Think I'll make it to 2,000 by tonight?

Okay, so speaking of crazy, here are all of the delirious fantasies running through my head, especially after seeing this blogger comment that was left for me:

"How much can I pay The Blonde Blogger to stalk me?"

*blush* Thank you anonymous, whoever you are. I think I love you!

So after my head swelled from the hits, then swelled some more from the comment, I started daydreaming. What if? What if some celebrity person stumbles on my site? What if it's a movie producer, modeling agent (I'm a former model by the way, ahem), talent scout, TMZ person (I'm a writer and celebrity-lover, ahem), or some other fantastic, never-really-going-to-come-by-here person comes by here?

They see my post, think I'm gorgeous and funny, and they offer me a role on a show? Or invite me to a Hollywood party? Or...or...or....I don't know.....some other never-really-going-to-happen-in-a-million-years scenario?



Maybe Brad Pitt will see this and decide that Angie just wasn't the right one for him and he'll start stalking me. I'll have to let him down gently because I am in love with my husband, and I'll forever be known as the "girl who stole Brad from Angie," (and I'll do it all for Team Jen!)

I bet Emily's looking a little less crazy with each word I write, huh? *grin*

***********************
Pee Ess: My daughter wants to be noticed to, so I promised to add this for her. She's getting a new site design today, so forgive her if her site is a little wonky. Let it be known that she is also open to all offers for fame. :)

This and That

~Sophie now thinks her name is "Awww!" We say it so many times around her (because she's always doing something cute) that she now responds to "Awww" more than she does to "Sophie."

~Once again, despite the fact that I live 10-15 minutes from a huge, international airport (Dulles), I have to drive Amanda all the way to BWI instead in order for her to fly to my mom's for a visit. My mom lives in Virginia Beach so it's only a 20 minute flight. If we want her to fly out of Dulles, the cost will be in the $400's. Versus $100 something from BWI. Which really sucks because it is going to be a loooooong drive.



~My Tivo has failed to record the last FOUR...count 'em....FOUR episodes of Big Brother. How do I live after something like that? And I'm on dial-up, so I can't go to CBS to see the shows. The first time, it aired at around 1 in the morning because of basketball (bleh). But it actually aired at like 1:55 so I only got five minutes of it.

Then, it didn't record three shows and I thought it was because it wasn't on. I thought that they were taking a break while basketball was on. Only my husband informed me that there were no games the days that it aired. Crap.

So I made sure it was taping this Sunday. I saw the little red record light on my Playlist along with the name "Big Brother" and thought all was well. Until I went to watch it. And the first 30 minutes was "60 minutes"(ha!). So I settled in to watch the first half of the show for the last thirty minutes of the taping (are you following me?).

But, about five minutes into that, despite the fact there was no rain or wind or any other possible cause, our satellite went crazy and it was all garbled and broken up. I couldn't hear or see anything at all for the entire thirty minutes.

I will go insane if it does not record it tommorrow. And to have missed four episodes of my favorite show? Totally sucks!!!!



~That is the cutest baby ever, little Miss Emma, whose mommy is my best friend from middle school, Shannon. Shannon is the first "real life" friend I've told about this blog (just recently).

~Almost every reality show this season has my kids' names on them: Matthew, Natalie and Amanda. Big Brother has all three, Surivor has Amanda and Natalie, and The Bachelor is Matt with two Amandas vying for his affection. Weird!

I'm Now Officially a Bunny Murderer

We made it to my MIL's for dinner this evening and we had a wonderful time. We watched a home video of the kids when they were little and "Mark" was on them. It was bittersweet. It was so good to hear his voice, but so hard at the same time.

So on the drive home, I was already feeling a little down. Suddenly, a sweet, little bunny jumped out in front of my van. I tried to swerve one way just at the same time the bunny tried to dodge my van. Meaning we both went the same way.

And. I. Killed. The. Bunny. I ran right over him and you could hear him hit the bottom of my van.

On. Easter.

Who kills a friggin bunny rabbit on Easter?!!!!! I feel like I killed the Easter bunny.

I've never hit an animal on the road before. I've always been able to swerve and avoid them. But not this time. Of all times.

I sobbed hysterically all the way home while my husband tried to convince me that "maybe he survived it somehow" which only gave me visions of him wounded and suffering in the woods somewhere.

I wanted to go back and find him and hug him and tell him I'm sorry and bury him. But my family wouldn't let me, which is probably a good thing, because only a crazy person would do that. But I felt SO awful. And I can't stop thinking about the poor, little guy. :(