Almost three days? Really?

Morning 2 of Morning Pages... this is harder than I thought to immediately get up and type them out. A- people call before I can even get out of bed with a list of questions. B- it's raining and I need to cancel plans I've made outside. C-Tea or Coffee, the maid is out so I must make it myself. D- the pup's are adorable and giving me photo ops. 

Speaking of such, coffee with this french vanilla coffee mate is amazing. It can not be good for ya. Oh looky there it isn't. Poop.

I worked in the studio all day yesterday. Well I got distracted. Alot. Like I always do when I don't want to clean. But alas it is clean(ish). And today I need to finish up. Perfect day since it's rainy outside and the boys are coming home.

The boys have been gone for 7 days. I had big plans to deep clean my house. Instead I finally went to Ferrari's Little Italy, painted at art class, enjoyed the weather poolside, visited with my sister and her dogs, visited my parents, met a friend at Dilly Deli, watched Salmon Fishing in Yemen, spent mornings and evenings on the porch with the dogs reading and cruising pinterest and facebook, HOWEVER I have cleaned like a mad woman the last 2 days and there isn't a dirty article of clothing or a dish in my house. Until they walk in and dump a week's worth of fishy clothes on the floor.

Let's talk imprinting. That's the word Tim used when he talked about us getting Stella early enough. My expirence with the word imprinting comes from Twilight's Jacob so I thought it was odd to use that word. And yet... as soon as we got her she would stare into my eyes. She likes to come jump on me then just gaze into my eyes. Odd and yet I think that's exactly what she is doing. Imprinting. You are my mother. Hello.

Yesterday I listened to/watched the Pelican Brief. Forgot how absolutely wonderful it is. Then today The Fugitive. My how we forget all those famous people way back when. Cynthia Nixon, Susan Sarandon,  Jane Lynch, Stanley Tucci, wow.

I just realized I have not seen another human being in over 2 days. Tuesday I came home from dinner and a movie to an empty house. Wednesday I cleaned all day, Thursday I cleaned and then organized all day and now Friday I worked in my studio and am just waiting for the boys to return from their fishing trip. Humm. Didn't even realized it has been over 48 hours with just the dogs. Of course I talk to them and talk on the phone but no one has seen me.

Hoping to do more of this in the days to come...

 After watching Marina check out the catch...

 Stella does the same...

 I used the umbrella to shield my reading.

 Last lecture took us to Mr. Sushi for dinner and their wonderful Plum wine.

 Last Saturday Yolanda and I went to Ferrari's Little Italy for dinner with a Groupon.

 Then took an art class.

 On our walk some ducks were enjoying someone's pool.

 After graduation me and the girls headed to Yo's poolside.

 Her Hub's delivered Starbucks in the morning AND cooked us breakfast. 

 Marina waits for the OK to jump in.

 Refill please!

 Started this tome. How about that little heart leaf?

 Graduation went well. Of course we had our resident crazies and some harsh words from an uninformed person who made me so angry I almost quit. Then I remembered who I do this for and thought better of it. 

 Graduation is exhausting. 

 Met a friend at Dilly Deli and went to see Salmon Fishing in Yemen. Lovely film. I should go to see Mariemont films more often. 

 Stella's a fast learner. Sit on her feet she won't move.

  

Morning Pages and Summertime Plan/Goals/Dreams

Wrote a whole post yesterday and poof it's gone. Poop. So here we go again...

I started reading The Artist's Way by Julie Cameron and she assigned morning pages. 3. I'm going to tweak it a little and make blog posts each morning. I know not as private as she wants it but seriously who reads my blog anyway? If you are then beware this is stream of consciousness stuff.

So I've put on some tea and letting that steep while I come out on the back porch to type for awhile.

Yesterday was the first day of summer I was home all day and trying to work on my Personal Plan Summertime edition. I started the pile of laundry that doesn't seem to be shrinking! I can't even blame it on the boys since they've been gone almost a week. I have got to kick it into gear.

I put dishes away, cleaned off the tables and put laundry up and yes that took relatively all day. Today's task is cleaning my studio. It is a disaster.

Mom's having a yard sale today through Saturday and I need to get a ton of stuff to her tomorrow morning. Yuck. Last year was so unbelievably hot so at least the weather appears to be cooperating today.  I have got to get some things done before the boys come home tomorrow. Amazing how I saw a whole week ahead of me with them on vacation and all the things I would get done only to end up scrambling to get the house in shape before they returned. Scary.
Tea's ready!

And look at that, blogger just auto saved my post. Why oh why couldn't you have done that yesterday when I worked on a post all day long? Too much to ask? Of course.

Well I'm falling in love with this borrowed MacBook from work. I checked yesterday to see if I could afford one. Alas not yet. Hard to reason I need it with my desktop, iPad, iPodS and such. But it's so nice!!! I can work on my blog outside and in bed. The iPad objects.
The dogs are in heaven that I am home 24-7 with them. Well 24-2 but I took them to Yolanda's Sunday Afternoon and we stayed till Tuesday morning together. All the dogs got along very well. My two are meant for each other. Really. They hang out and wrestle and share and generally drive each other crazy. I really think Marina loves Stella.

Listening to ...
The Milk Carton Kids- Maybe it's Time
Afrojack-Take Over Control
Kelly Clarkson-Whyyawannabringmedown
Bare Naked Ladies- One Week

Sipping Green Tea
Eating PBJ

I felt like I made headway yesterday upstairs. Closets straightened and laundry starting to be taken care of, and counters cleaned off but geesh so much to do still. Are normal people like this? Several houses I frequent puzzle me with all the sparseness they have. No hobbies, no passion, no creativity. That's not what I want but neither is this .... cluttered mess. Happy Medium. That's what I'm looking for.

Summertime.... sipping Arnold Palmers, reading/napping in the hammock, roasting hotdogs and marshmallows on the fire pit, playing board games on the porch in the evenings, watching movies in the evenings, reading on the boat, visiting farmer's markets, riding bikes, actually doing projects on pinterest, kayaking- that's a new one, sitting on the porch morning and night.

And some things to do... deep clean the house, BASEBALL ROOM: organize papers to scrap upstairs, complete some scrap projects, LAUNDRY ROOM: catch up on ironing, catch up on hand washing, fix things on counter in the laundry room, MASTER BED: clean the trunk downstairs and bring up to the bedroom for sweater storage, BUB'S ROOM: help him get his act together in there with the fridge and tv, SPARE BED: hang old hats, find a better way to store scrapbooks,
use up food stuff and restock with clean eating food, and then that STUDIO- whew that's gonna take some time to pare down and get some projects done, mainly get caught up scrapbooking and ordering photos, get cards stockpiled,
get Bub's started on some SAT problems via counselor who says he has a chance at a Merit Scholarship if he keeps his test taking skills up- that's very exciting since apparently that means a full ride!

Watching 2 hawks soaring. Wonder what they are looking at?

Okay back inside working on the studio.
Watching and listening to The Pelican Brief. I forgot how wonderful this movie is. Amazing and has so many stars in it!

Never thee mind

We are almost there. Back to focusing on catching up and then moving forward. Although we only have 2 student days left, we have another official day then a few more until my graduation duties. So another week really then I'm outta here.

I've fallen behind because, well, we've been busy...

took a field trip to the Rumpke landfill

 one of the last fires of the season

 hail storm in April

 the girls have fallen into a routine

Moving into May

Hub's was unable to make it to prom so a friend asked me to accompany him and our other couple friends. We ate at the fish house prior to prom then went to the club upstairs for drinks, music and dancing afterward. Good times.

 Bub's taking Stella's pics

 Another friend turned 30 and we christened a friend who is now DJing. 

 Mother's Day we ate at The Belgium Waffle place downtown and then I took in a show at the Aronoff- Les Miserables

 Bub's introduced me to CamWow

 Stella gave me a snuggle for Mother's Day

 the boys capped it off with coffee and donuts

 Bub's had a final quiz bowl of the year

 then bubs turned 14 and chose to eat at Terry's turf... goofy boys

 fried cheese? yes please!

 we went back to Yo's and the boys hung out in the hot tub while I visited with the visitors

 again with their favorite pose

 yesterday's wedding here at the lake

 and we ended the day taking Stella out for her first ride

 where she took her favorite spot

 today i spent the afternoon like such...

 never thee mind the problems of tomorrow as we wile away today

Yard Saling

Lorelei yard sales were yesterday. Some scores: books, DVD's, a wooden bowl, acorn ornaments, clothing, a Bybee pitcher, dishtowels, a Grolsch bottle, necklace, a halloween rug, a little birdcage, and a lighter.
The lighter is a Ronson Queen Anne Lighter I bought for a quarter. It's worth 15-60$.
Bub scores 2 chairs for his room, a safe and a pocket knife.
I really enjoy going with him. He called late the night before to ask if we were going early the next morning. We've been running in different directions lately.
Prom was last night at Newport Aquarium. An awesome location!
We ate at Mitchell's Fish Market for dinner. Hubs took Bubs to his fishing tourney so I went with some friends. There was a photo booth with props. We went to Jefferson Hall afterward and it was really fun. Danced till the wee hours of the morning.