My June PoV

So excited about it, it was published at the beginning of this month.  It was not until I saw it that I believed it was being published.  I grabbed so many copies that the lady at the customer service desk in the mall must of thought I was a freak.  I wanted to run throughout the mall and say look that's me, even the pictures are mine.  I know so lame, but this is big step for me and hopefully only the first one to many more.  After I turned in this article, I was asked to do two articles for July so be on the lookout for those July 1st.  How cool is that?
Here's the link to This Old Hotel

Gautreaux's to the Rescue

no those are not our dogs, but they are the neighbor's.  one saturday morning, seth took out our dog smokey and heard wimpering coming from the shed.  on further investigation we discovered 4 puppies, but no mother.  in a rush to get to a baseball game, we decided to leave the puppies there for the morning and take action after the game.  after hunter's game we came back to find the mother adding more puppies to the underneath of our shed, so we followed her to find out where was she taking them from.  it was our next door neighbor's dog and she was pulling them out from underneath her shed.  wasn't sure why until we looked under the shed.  there was a turtle the size of a small dinner plate and it was on top of one of the puppies.  my boys grabbed a shovel and managed to take the turtle out, put it in the back ditch and saved the puppy, but one puppy had already perished.  the turtle had been eating it.  so hunter rushed under and grabbed the puppy ever so carefully to place him in a box and proceeded to carry out a burial with seth.  it was so wonderful to see how much they cared for animals.  we cared for the mother and other puppies in our garage til our neighbor returned home, even trying to help the puppies find milk pumping it into their mouths while we settled the mother down.  the neighbor then came for her dog (that she thought was a male) and left with her and the puppies.  we found out days later that all the puppies had died and that the mother was not taking care of them.  she was really just a young pup herself, i'm not sure she even knew what to do or how to protect them from the rain and sun outside according to the neighbor.  the kids were all devastated.  they took such pride in rescuing the pups only to be disappointed that their efforts didn't save them.  i tried explaining to them that death is a part of life, but alas it didn't ease the pain.  all i could do was express how proud i was of them for taking a chance, making an effort, and doing something - b/c most people don't even do that.

so my first assignment and the art show ...

you can't help but walk away from the art after dark show and really feel inspired by others and though i was a bit disappointed in sales, it was an awesome turnout. i got a lot of interest in my booth.  i have to say it is invigorating to be around other artists and to even think that i would be where i am today.  so here's shot of the show and my work.  If you'd like to see more, I'm posting on my OneCreativeMama site today.

my main goal with my art is to try to upcycle, recycle, repurpose, or whatever you want to call it.  in the picture you'll notice i cut a record into the shape of a guitar and made a clock and then took the covers and made notebooks and bookmarks.  some of the records were broken in the process of cutting so i turned them into some mixed media art.  which was really a lot of fun to imagine what each piece could be.  this one is my fave and it's sold.  i have others that you can see on OneCreativeMama

since the show, i've been crazy busy with so many more things like gifts, prom corsages & bouquets, headbands, softies and plenty of other things like storytelling, prom planning, volunteering for way too many activities at my kids' schools, but the one thing that i had to turn in on monday that i was most excited about was my article for POV.  i was able to write my first feature on the thatcher place in houma, where i featured my art for art after dark.  it gets published in june and i'm just thrilled,  as well as being a little impatient for it to come out.  it's not my first article i've ever done, but it's definitely a step up from the school newspaper or yearbook that i've done before.  as soon as i can i will be sharing.

well, on to my life - i feel as though i'm in uncharted land.  i have learned so much about myself in the last year and opened my eyes to a new me.  i've taken chances on myself that normally i wouldn't have done.  i feel inspired by the little things and i'm definitely taking note.

Another writing from junior high:

Ride of Your Life

Anticipation

Nervousness

Fear

of what lies ahead

no knowledge of where the ride will take us

Jump

Bumpy

Heart Pounding

wanting to get off this crazy ride

wanting to go back

Zig-Zag

Loop

Gripping

tighter and tighter to what's around us

then suddenly

Stop

Release

Ease Out

walk onto yet another ride

another ride of your life

very excited to announce ...

that i've got a offer to be a freelance writer for PoV magazine.  i can't explain in words (note:  kind of funny huh, cuz like i'm supposed to be a writer)  what this means to me.  it's a stepping stone for me, but wow what a great first step.  they are a wonderfully creative staff and i'm so ecstatic to join them.  i love writing so i can't wait to get started.  as a little girl and still to this day, when i begin writing or typing the more passionate i am about it, the faster my fingers go and i actually begin to sweat.  i tense up and words just start spewing everywhere (sorry to those who have been in the line of fire), but my whole body reacts to the words i lay out.  i love every second of it.  i pray this leads me to completing a novel, b/c that is truly something i've always dreamed of. 

soooooo, in celebration of this awesome news i'm turning back the hands of time and digging out each day writings from junior high (when i first started putting my feelings down) all the way through college (where if i remember correctly i really get deep).  this ought to be interesting.

here's one from the 7th grade:

The Truth Hurts

Go ahead give me an excuse

Give me a reason that will make it all better

Think of something to wash away my pain

Imagine up a story to stop my tears from flowing

Because your lies have made me happy

Your truths have hurt

try on my shoes for awhile ...

try on my shoes for awhile
before you judge.
take a close look at my shoes
before you tell me what you have to say.

do you see the worn heels?
do you see the places i've been?
can you see the shoe from within?

now take a stroll awhile in my shoes
before you tell me how you feel.
now start to run and take some strides
before you cast your lies.
slow down and feel the burn
before you finally decide.

because you'll never know until you've fully walked in my shoes, what it's like.
so please don't pretend you do

now take them off and walk back to your life -
a lot easier, right?


editor's note:  this is not intended for any one person, so please do not come back to try to sue me for slander or whatever the heck else you could sue me for.  just taking note of other's lives as well as mine.  sometimes we just need to step back and try on someone else's shoes for awhile and it's just kind of sad when we don't.

our last day

i say our last day, only b/c the day after christmas, we were in the airport and went straight home. 

so back to christmas morning ... of course santa had to find us in new york.  hunter was a little concerned, but i told him if he prayed to god that it would be fine, b/c like santa and god are best friends and they talk a lot.  he was okay with that.  so when we woke up we found our stockings full and presents everywhere.  well, we did have to limit santa to the size of a suitcase.  the kids were actually really surprised at the gifts they got and very happy about our trip. 

after the wrapping paper was torn apart, the cooking began ... a cooked a ham, sweet peas, baked some macaroni & cheese & greek rolls, as the kids played with their new toys and watched christmas story (clint's favorite movie) for the umpteenth time.  (their was a marathon on all day, in case you didn't know).

we ate our dinner, though i have to say i lost my temper when the housekeeper enjoyed our dinner more than the hunter and claire b/c they were being so picky.  i treated the housekeeper to a special dinner by leaving it on her cart and she knew exactly who it came from b/c my cooking was smelling up the halls and i have to say it was really good.

after dinner we packed up and marched out to the snow one more time to bid it farewell and of course leave our mark in nyc with a gautreaux snowman.

clint was asking passerbys if they wanted to take a picture with it.  he said it was so good that people were going to stop and take a picture of it and next to it.

hunter had to end it with an angel and that's it everyone.  our wonderful memorable nyc trip.  it was exhilirating, memorable, and momentus all wrapped into one.  wow, i feel so sad now.  i have no more to share about our trip.  o well guess we'll have to go on another one.  HEEHEE!  wonder how clint will like that!

Christmas Eve

i think pretty much everyday we woke up late and really took our time getting places, not what i had planned. but hey remember i said earlier the plans blew away with the blizzard. the kids woke up with excitement that morning anticipating their long awaited visit with santa @ macy's. by far the best santa i've ever seen. the line was so long, yet very entertaining. santaland had so much going on. we started the line with loads of pictures of santas & parades of the past. we then were called aboard santa's train to the north pole by this guy.

the conductor was so authentic, had a megaphone, great voice, and truly lived his part.

as we entered santaland, everywhere you turned there was something to see. the elves were busy working, getting the line moving, taking pictures, and greeting the passerbys. they were so friendly and really did a great job of getting the line to move.

the details that went into each of the scenes was just beautiful, you really couldn't see it all.

seth has said he always wanted a tree like this and i of course said it would be impossible. again i was proven wrong by macy's that nothing is impossible and there really are miracles on 34th street- seth gets real excited seeing it and states, "look mom, i told you, you could do it."  so after walking through santaland  at the end we met up with santa only to have claire refuse to take a picture - figures!

we spent a little time in macy's exploring the very small toy section and claire loved the puppets.  we thought about venturing out to see all the window displays, but halfway down the kids were more excited about getting to the zoo than seeing window displays.  we walked around a bit and clint got to see the madison square garden, which totally made his day.  yet i'm sure he would have liked it more if we would have seen maybe a fight there.  o well maybe next time.

so we walked to the next subway stop, and along the way were harassed and followed by people trying to get us to buy tickets to the ny skyline and the empire state building.

they not only followed us one block, but some would have probably treked the second if i had not stepped in.  clint was just encouraging him after i specifically said stay the course and don't make any eye contact.  he thought it was hilarious, i found it annoying.  and even more irritating when one of them said we looked like millionaires and i barked back that neither one of us even had a job - so there.  i know a bit overboard, but if you would have heard them you probably would have too, well maybe not, i tend to over react. 

so after that fiasco, we entered the train and got off at columbus circle, wow is all i can say.  there was so many different booths at the holiday market that i'm pretty sure my brain was on creative overload and probably came up with 20 different careers i could pursue.

from there we walked around central park up the east side to the central park zoo.  the park was as beautiful as the day we got there.  here is where the kids mentioned that enchanted was filmed.  that's my kids, they'll be pros at scene it in no time.

we thought about riding the horse and carriage, but they actually stunk real bad, with their poop bag in tow.
when we arrived at the zoo, the kids loved that it was still full of snow and animals that they had never layed eyes on.

we then walked over to the children's zoo and boy was that full of photo ops.  they basically had a playground at every stop.

this old tree was the entrance into the children's zoo and also the hiding place of the very friendly squirrel that ate out of a young girl's hand and followed her around.  that i probably could have handled without a heart attack, but the peacock following us, was no good for my ticker.  i don't do birds, ask my hubby. (just kidding), but really i don't like birds especially those flying around or following me.

so after the zoo we took a lovely stroll from there all the way to our hotel on 72nd, which was a long walk.  i personally loved it, it was invigorating, but hunter of course was complaining again, so we had to make games along the way and he rode on clint's back a few times.  ms. claire the diva she was, had no problem, since i think we would have to surgically remove her from her stroller once we got home.  the walk home was the last thing we did that day in the city, besides me braving the crowds to visit the market for christmas dinner and watching christmas movies together.  it was a great ending to a busy day.

to be continued ...