My art studio progress

My dad came and made some major progress in creating a more efficient workplace. THANK YOU DADDY!!!! YOU ARE AMAZING!!!


Eddie came and shared a yummy Winder Farms apple, to give me a little break while I was working. I love Eddie.

My custom kiln furniture caddy. My dad was in heaven while making this in my neighbor's welding shop.

Painting my new and much needed shelves.

What we were listening to while working. :)

Some of my pottery and my student's.

HEAVEN!!!

The next day I spent 6 hours at Red Kiln Studio in SLC, throwing bowls for "Empty Bowls Utah" project. I am a member of "Clay Arts Utah" and they organized a "bowl-a-thon" for this charity. It was tons of fun, throwing with other artists, knowing everything we made will be sold to feed the hungry. Awesome.

The nearly final result of my father's hard work. I just have to put hooks on the wood board to hang my trimming tools. He made this awesome holder for my throwing bats, and a cool magnet board to put up my designs and inspiration for pots. He also reinforced the shelf above my wheel, so it's really strong now, and can handle extra weight.

My new shelves, wedging board, and the mess I'm working on cleaning right after this post. I am still behind on jewelry orders, it's been too messy to get any work done. :( But I am getting to it. :)

I can't tell you how spoiled I feel! I just can't believe this is MY art studio. I'm not even good yet! But I have the space to become so!

** Here are a few updated pictures after I (sort of) cleaned up.

The wheel is kind of a mess because I just threw a bowl for the scouts who came to "visit a local artist and tour a studio" as part of a requirement. :) *and I posted my jewelry orders I FINALLY finished, on my art blog. (so sorry Jamie! I feel terrible it's taken me so long!)

Baby blessing

Sweet little Lucas was blessed last sunday. He is getting so big and sweet!
I can't tell you how much Eddie LOVES baby Lucas.

Since we missed Eddie's BD, Matt and Mica gave Eddie his birthday gift, of a CD of kids songs. Eddie is really into singing, more than Jade and Josh were at just 2. He is doing the action movements to "row, row, row your boat" with Uncle Matt. He listens and sings to this CD EVERY day, more than he watches TV. He is our little singer for sure!

we broke down and did it...

A monster of a tramp

Kids are in heaven, they love it. The neighborhood kids are over all the time now. I don't mind one bit, it's been fun.

Eddie in my Cat Hat.

Josh's hospital update

Saturday Josh was still in so much pain, could not walk around much on his own, so I took him to the ER. They did a CT scan and said he had quite a large abscess behind his eye, as well as his sinuses packed with infection. But the good news was that there were no signs of meningitis or any other infections in his brain, which were the concern when orbital cellulitis is at the point it was with Josh.
We were sent to the ER at Primary Children's Hospital right away, and they determined there was no permanent damage to his eye, but he would need surgery to drain the infections. After that last bit of news, I knew we were in the clear, we just had to stay in the hospital and go through treatments, but at least it was not life-threatening like it could have been.
The next day before surgery, he was showing major signs of improvement, so they decided to postpone surgery and see how well he does with IV antibiotics, (5doses/day) They told me to expect to go home on Thursday or friday. Amazingly, he improved so quickly, we were able to go home yesterday, tues. AWESOME!
We are so grateful for all the prayers, fasting, help, love, and support from friends and family, we have been overwhelmed with the outpouring. Thank you all, you know who you are!

This picture was taken at home during the week. I just put it here again for comparison. It's not really the skin that is swollen, (I mean, it is swollen tissue, but his eyeball is bulging out from the socket), and it sure looked freaky when he tried to open his eye. I wish I had taken a picture of that, it was like some weird half alien face from a cartoon. Poor Josh. He probably would have liked to see that picture. :)
This is in the ER. It was hard to make the choice to go at first, since he does look better at first sight. But his eye sight was fuzzy, his eye still bulging though not as much, and I was still carrying him like a baby all over the place, since it was too painful for him to walk. (he was also very weak, he weighed 46 lbs, he lost SO much weight)

This is yesterday before we left. He is happy, and other than the yucky treatments he had to go through every couple of hours, he was in heaven. I teased him about having so many pretty nurses to attend him. He just smiled and said it was cool to push a button and have them come, like having his very own "butler". I think being able to order WHATEVER he wanted to eat, at ANY time, plus constant movies and video games, made the hospital stay pretty enjoyable for a 6 1/2 yr old boy.

That is the PICC line they put in his arm, I give him his antibiotics through that line twice a day. As long as no once touches it, he thinks it's pretty cool that it's stitched to his arm and goes right to his heart. It kind of freaks me out, but I'm dealing.

YEAH...a happy Josh, FINALLY! Now I get to deal with him for 2 more weeks while he is housebound. (joy, joy!) No really...I'm looking forward to lots of mommy time with my Joshy. I will give homeschool a go for 2 weeks. :)

Thanks again to everyone for all the support and help we have received, we are seriously overwhelmed. Thank you!

Josh and orbital cellulitis

If you want to know why I am kind of non-existent these days, it started with Eddie being sick for 2 weeks, and then the last 2 weeks have been my poor little Joshy-boy.
This is more miserable than it looks. We are going on 5 days of antibiotics, and he still wakes up and screams in pain throughout the night. I feel like a mom of a newborn again. Most of all, I HATE how sick he is, he weighs about 8 lbs more than Eddie, he looks like a walking skeleton. He is so weak and in pain.
I'm taking him in tomorrow again, this stuff can lead to a lot of yucky issues and it worries me that it has not gone away yet. I hope it's not at a serious level, cause sometimes it requires surgery, and can cause blindness and brain infections. Oh joy.
I'm sure it will all work out eventually, I just feel really sad for him. He is such a sweetheart, and keeps apologizing for waking me up at night, (I have been sleeping on the couch next to him for 5 days), and asking me to go up and down the stairs to get him stuff. (he hardly walks because it hurts too much, so I carry him everywhere) I keep telling him I will do anything he wants, I love him so much. He can't get any sweeter! Poor Joshy.

Okay I don't have permission from my mom to exactly do this, but who cares? my mom does. But I'm just SSSSOOOOOOOO exciited!

I DROPPED OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL! AND NOW I'M GOING TO CHALLENGER! ! !

whoa, I feel better after that little outburst, but . . . .

WOOO HOOOO! ya! SUCKERS! HE HE . . . . . published by jade