The package may not look the same as it once did, but inside I am still young at heart! How did this day get here so fast?!!

Happy Thanksgiving

(postcard to Mr. J. S. Glen in West Toledo, Ohio, from Harry in Chicago, Illinois. Reads, "Very best of wishes ahd hope you and all enjoy the occasion immensely and partake plentifully of the famous bird." Postmarked November 21, 1921 at 11pm.)

and the other engagement!

My nephew, Dan, and his fiance, Sarah, will wed next August - aren't they cute?!! Sarah faced alot a few years back when she was stricken with a serious medical emergency as many of my CollageCat art friends may remember as they rallied to send her some wonderful art pieces to decorate her hospital room and lift her spirits. She still talks about the generosity of that with me and how much lifted her spirits.

the night before...

...getting ready for tomorrow!

It's been a long time, two months, since I have blogged. My world turned upside down about that time, and although I know there are far, far worse things going on in the world than what I am dealing with, nevertheless the challenges I face are my own, the disappointment and heartache that which I have to live with every day. With that I have had to focus as much of my energy as I possibly can on my new job and career, and it has left little time for much else - to say I've been exhausted, both mentally as well as physically, an enormous understatement.

So I decided taking time off for a weekend up north last week was exactly what I needed as I continue to try to clear my head and heart and deal with keeping this old battery charged. My boss gave me keys to his cottage for a few days when I'd asked for a friday off, and I delightedly accepted his generous offer (well, to interject, he thought they were keys to the place, but we had to actually break in!). It was the last amazing weekend of the season, the weather in the 80's for the whole of it, so wonderfully warm we actually swam in Lake Michigan - in October (absolutely unheard of in the nearly 50 years I have been alive, anyway). We had a very few sprinkles of rain, not enough to keep us inside, and this picture I took as we walked down the beach saturday afternoon. That moment served to remind me that even when life seems to be darkest, with hope and faith, it can, and will, get better.

I am not going to let him defeat me, not again.

engaged!

My niece, Becca, (our only girl), is a doctoral student (microbiology) at the University of California at Davis. She and her artist boyfriend, Chris, had some vacation time and took a trip north, up the coast, where he proposed at Crater Lake this past weekend! They plan on marrying next summer at one of the Lake Michigan beaches. There will be two weddings next summer as her brother and his fiance (Dan & Sarah), are in the planning stages for theirs, to be held next August. Happy times, as we open our hearts to two wonderful kids and expand our family.

I am an optimistic person. I do believe in signs. That said, I don't know what kind of day must be ahead that I wake up with the words to the most annoying song on the planet running through my mind, "achey breaky heart" - what the ?!!?! It doesn't bode well, I don't think.

****must have been the $439 vet bill, the rest of the day was great! Thankfully it was mostly preventive maintenance stuff I was paying for, along with the chronic floppy-ear syndrome-type ear infections he is prone to which require swabs and tests and cleaning fluids and medications to make my little guy comfy and healthy. All a day in the life.

3 things

Three things I am crazy about: stones, shells, & books. These two clever books are so adorable and artistic, with simple sweet stories. I can certainly relate to the message of infatuation, who doesn't come home from the lake or ocean (and bookstore!) with as much as you can carry - well, I do! The stones in this picture were picked up along Lake Superior this past fall, the shells, some of them from Sanibel I know, the little tan one in the forefront of the pile had a hole in it when I found it way, way back when (high school) so it seemed perfect worn on a chain, which I did sometimes in the summer. As for the books, they are written by a very talented Tracy Gallup and picked up at B&N, one a month or so ago, the other today. Simple, simple pleasures, just the best.

let's hear it for 'chick flicks'! This is a beautiful movie.

it's raining, it's pouring...

...and god knows we need it, but come on, it's saturday! And it's only 66 degrees - inside my house on a July morning, sigh.

not so good ideas
~clean the house.
~organize the art room.
~purge.

good ideas
~socks.
~coffee (lots).
~stacks of magazines (started perusing old issues of ME Home Companion at 3:30am - seemed like a good idea at the time and one to continue now it's so dark and dreary).
~a nap under the covers.

better ideas
~if Yesterdog delivered.
~if my new Netflix movies had arrived.
~someone to play with.
~that nap.

birthday party!

We (Cathy, Dad & Karen, Peggy & Kevin, and I) went to the first Grand Rapids Symphony Pops concert of the season tonight at Cannonsburg to celebrate my sister Cathy's birthday - as you can see from the first photo as we picnicked it was a gorgeous evening. That is right up until just before intermission when the sky reminded me of the one in The Wizard of Oz just before Dorothy's house was picked up and spun away (fittingly the program was Sci-Fi music, and the orchestra was playing the theme from Star Wars when this blew up)! Thus the evening ended earlier than expected as the place tried to empty out before the storm hit. However, as we were waiting in the parking lot to exit, a gorgeous rainbow appeared!! Had to snap a picture of her (and her new car she just got yesterday) as it seemed another birthday surprise just for her! This picture was shot well before the time the sun actually goes down - you can see how dark and ominous things were, luckily we didn't get but a few sprinkles of rain on us out there. Here at home it appears the heavens let loose.

they all seem to run together - ahh, summer!

it seems i am posting all out of sequence these days, but isn't that what summer is all about - a wonderful blur of fun! here's what my 07/07/07 looked like, complete with a picnic from a perfect vantage point for another perfect sunset which was to come (in mylifetime i will never get enough of them)!

Had a health scare last week, entered the hospital in an ambulance and spent the night. Upshot my potassium level was very very low, and the symptoms I suddenly started to experience mimicked what I've always associated with stroke. Thankfully they were able to put me on an IV and get it to a normal level and there are no permanent repercussions. And as you can see from the last post, I was able to go on and celebrate the holiday just wonderfully. I am very pale this summer which put a bit of a scare into my sons when they first saw me thinking it was due to being sick, however, being I've been studying and working thus little free time and no pool as we'd been accustomed to all their lives I am undergoing quite a change in lifestyle. It hopefully a very healthy and long one!

I am being gently chided to eat more bananas now from all concerned - it will take more than that but I appreciate the thoughts!

Yesterday's 4th of July celebration was a great one, spent the day in Muskegon with friends on their boat. Both the boys were here, Luke from Seattle, Joe from Ohio. We had gorgeous weather, good food, fun with friends - the ultimate summer holiday, couldn't have asked for more/better!!

I'd like to know how many times I have said lately, 'I should have bought a condo', I may have already mentioned it here, in fact. It takes alot to maintain a house by myself, and with also trying to clear the back yard (think I whacked down about 14 trees on a whim last night) too, it's just nonstop work. For the most part I enjoy it (well, sorta), yet usually I am just too exhausted to get much in the way of art done because of all this, when I finished school thus thinking I'd have so much free time again (what, I now have to find a job?!!) - it was time to buy a lawnmower! The only painting I've accomplished is two doors yesterday, both side entrances into the garage, this one on the front porch. Tomorrow I am going to do the front door - I do love the color! Haven't even had time to go out and get new cushions for the chairs yet, I just noticed.

BREAKING NEWS - I did find a job, have been hired by the greatest people on earth - will be working with the wonderful people pictured a few posts back that helped train me!!! I'm working on getting my x-ray certification right now and will begin working a bit in July (doctor taking the month off) so will kind of be easing into it until August. This is just the greatest thing that has happened to me in a really l o n g time!!!!!!!

{sunset}

Nothing so beautiful and relaxing to me as sitting on the beach and watching the sun go down over Lake Michigan, this last saturday after a huge thunderstorm had gone through.

I've done a little bit of art, this is for a swap through The Creative Underground. What we were to do was purchase 30 packets of seeds, and then using the front of the packet as a base for an artist trading card, make one which will then fit into the seed packet. These will be assembled into books, one for each of 30 artists. I am particularly excited to see the end result and receive my book, it was hinted at the cover will be done in ceramic. Just put my contribution into the mail today, and as soon as the wonderful women who work their magic on these swaps assemble and mail the books out, I will reveal here!

silly

Ernie - just like one of the kids! I was outside planting flowers today, thought I'd check the sprinklers to make sure they were aimed where they needed to be, it's starting to get dry here. He jumped right on that one!

In times of sorrow the bond of family and friends strengthens as we come together in grief. Our lives are so busy day to day, but when forced by a death to slow down it is in the remembering and sharing that I am enveloped with gratitude and love. I am so thankful for my blessings as to all the people that have crossed my path in life.

My heart goes out to my dear friend Pam and her amazingly strong family as they deal with their loss.

This is the team from Grand Dental Care up in Rockford - I can't say enough about these wonderful people! Until we land a job those of us in our class have been given the option of signing up to work in the office to get experience, I've done a few days there now. I'm sure it has been disruptive for them to be over run with students, but all of them ~ Jan, Sandy, Jennifer, Elizabeth, Sadie and Dr. Ron are so very patient and kind, are wonderful teachers. They have made me feel so very welcome and are not stingy with their praise, either - very good for the ego!

And now - I think it's time I wade through my art room here and get busy with making some ART!!!!

happy mother's day

my mom and me!

~ Whether making new ones or reminiscing over those tucked away in your heart, here's to cherished moments and beautiful memories ~

Whoa, it's been a long time since I've blogged - but the end is in sight, I am done with my dental assistant program this saturday!

I am so very proud of my friend Catherine that I had to take a minute to brag her up! She was one of my dear friends in Charlotte, and if you go to the archives (sorry I don't even have time to look up the exact date) from February 2006 you will find where we went to her photography exhibit at Winthrop University just prior to my move back to Michigan. And now she will be having her photographs featured in an event this coming Monday that is being hosted by Cokie Roberts entitled, Mothering Across Continents: Care and Compassion for AIDS Orphans in South Africa. Catherine came to the US from South Africa, this is a very special cause to her. You can go see what it's all about at www.motheringacrosscontinents.org.

Don't we all like to think we are unique - and of course we are! However, I just came across this site that sort of gives me a weird feeling in a way I don't even know how to explain. Apparently, there are 716 Mary Boyer's in the United States - 716?!! I guess it doesn't take anything away from me, for instance how many of the sweater I am wearing (yes, still sweaters) were sold - thousands of women out there wearing this exact one I'd guess? But my name, well you'd like to think that is exclusively yours - or I would! Yet that too though the way I wear it, the way I present it, the way I use it defines me in a way those other Mary Boyer's are different. Hmm...

Guess what would be fun would be to have a club, - hey any of you Mary B's out there, check in, we could have a convention, wear funny hats, -I'm always ready for a party!

just a few simple wishes for today ~

~ sunshine
~ the snow to melt &
~ spring to return
~ reprieve from stress
~ to find my muse (which has apparently run away and hid)
~ a good night's sleep
~ hugs & kisses
~ the boys to sit at my dinner table

wishing and hoping for spring - come back, come back wherever you are!

I've enjoyed a bit of a self-indulgent morning which included watching Martha Stewart. As if bacon isn't decadent enough, something I reserve for special occasions these days, she had a quickie recipe on her show today for brown sugar glazed bacon. Oh my, sounds perfect for a brunch with french toast or waffles, lots of frosty orange juice... Easy, too, sprinkle some brown sugar and pepper on bacon which is laid out on a rack over a jelly roll pan, pop it in the oven at a low heat until crispy. Now if we could only throw the doors open and eat this outside the deck!

(this bunny can be bought at Bayberry Cove, isn't he a darling! I was going to take some pics of some of my many bunnies which reside all over the house but my camera needed to be recharged -so here is one I wish I had, instead!)

joy & peace

I suffered a melt-down last night. One of the casualties of being a perfectionist, after a long and stressful week I felt I was just blown apart. Today was one of slow and quiet as I tried to gather myself together, tried to find focus and a new supply of energy to face tomorrow. Deep breaths, naps, and advil.

I've been studying so much I am literally dreaming of teeth, but it all paying off as I have aced my first two tests!! I have not taken an exam in over 30 years, it has been quite alot of adjustment and dedication for me to get into the groove of this. I guess not all the brain cells have yet vanished!

The weather has been absolutely incredible since saturday afternoon, it is so nice to throw windows open wide, to hear birdsong and smell spring!! I feel everything a new leaf for me right now, I am so invigorated!

Got a call this morning my sister, Cathy, was in the emergency room. Turns out it was a kidney stone - thank goodness. Although do not think she has uttered those words yet, the pain still too fresh on her mind. Too scary - but this is exactly why I am back living here, getting those type calls when you are too far away to do anything but sit by the phone and wait so stressful, and I never seemed to get the full story at the time precisely because I was so many miles and states away and there was nothing I could do anyway, or so they would say. At least this way I can jump in the car, be there in a matter of minutes so as to be able to assess the situation, ask doctors questions, etc. And offer comfort and distraction - the main job of a sister in this exact situation. Amen, because then on the way home I decided I was going to stop at this fish place I'd just gotten a flyer in the mail about as I hadn't yet eaten today, turns out the guy who owns it graduated the same year as I (why do all us "almost 50's" feel the need to talk about our age this year so much??!) and went to school with alot of people I knew from catholic elementary school, and one of his best friends was my now-deceased sister's boyfriend of many years. Which made me just shake once I was in the car and heading home from there as all those memories and this-day-could-have-been-much-much-worse thoughts started flooding my mind. Thank you, God.

ahhhh, spring!

technically, we've made it!

I've definitely got spring fever!

Back to school?!*!! I began the dental assistant program saturday. Wow, a lifestyle change from the one I've been living, I will no longer be a "lady of leisure" as I've been this last year, but one where I will be studying my butt off! It will be good for me to stimulate brain cells I question at times I even possess any longer these days, I certainly have alot to learn and absorb. All round, a good thing - I am happy with having made this decision, it's a step in the right direction as to getting my life in order. It's sure taken awhile but I feel everything led to this point, that I had to experience it all - good, bad, and ugly - to get to where I'm at and where I'm now headed.

...and so it goes, guess we are returning to "normality". Except I can't see my mailbox for the snow banks anymore, the mailman couldn't even make it up the street so just left anyway, and I somehow managed to bash my ankle which hurt like heck. You never know where you are going to find that silver lining however, as putting on my well-constructed snow boots for two+ hours while I went outside, shoveled and heaved the snow seemed just the thing for the ankle, although still ugly and bruised no longer swollen and hurts very little! There ya go.

I still remember my mom dressing us all in this get-up and telling us we were to go out and stay out for an hour - fresh air was good for us. (And her sanity?!) Invariably someone always had to go to the bathroom before she'd even finished getting everyone ready. Once out there I'd go and lay down, make snow angels, and watch the clouds in the sky. Although I do remember once standing with my nose on the back door begging to come back in. I've never liked winter much.

enough already!

More like slapping one silly because, it's official - we are having another blizzard. Yesterday was downright weird - rain, thunder and lightning, sleet and snow and then today, high winds and a continuous snow that has been blowing so much there have been times I can't even see across the street. My class which was to start tomorrow cancelled until next week now, and again ~

h o u s e b o u n d. I've had enough.

This so does not resemble any view I have outside my windows today - another wintry blast came through beginning sometime during the night. A good day to snuggle inside and forget about what is out there! I prepared this time - groceries, new coffee, magazines, books, movies, a few new art supplies, nail polishes, etc - so I have all kinds of stuff to cocoon with. So much so I could probably stay in here a good month. (If I were only so lucky wish in that case I could just hibernate until spring '~)

However - taa-dah!! I finally have made a career plan and starting next week will be studying in a dental assistant program until May. I have done alot of soul-searching and experimenting the last nearly four years since my divorce what with moving from Ohio to North Carolina, working at a couple part-time jobs, and when I came back home to Michigan decided to give myself time to really once and for all figure things out - good gawd it is scary never having worked much in 25+ years. This coming week marks my one year anniversary being here (where oh where does the time go??), most things in order as far as I can control, so -- on with the show!

And as I sit here drinking said coffee out of my (still) snowman mug I've been perusing some blogs today and came across this idea of Danny Seo's for storing ribbon. Well, I have much, much (much?!!) more than this which is all in drawers now. Got to thinking, wouldn't one of those retractable clotheslines work great for that purpose? As soon as I can get out of here I'm going to go buy one and try it out. And the possibilities of those empty drawers... simple pleasures, here!

isn't he cool?!

A long-distance hug of a postcard from Marie,

way down under, arrived today - miss you!!

life is just strange.

hearts on the brain ~ think it more wearing them on my sleeve!?!!

Have had fun today playing around with making the wool felt flowers, something new. Definitely will be doing more of these.

happy valentine's day

"May all your hours in sweetest bliss be spent,

crowned with friendship, happiness, content".

love to all ~ Mary

charms for a cause

I participated in a valentine charm swap through ArtErratica, and just got a sneak peek of the charms I will be receiving made by a great group of wonderful artists - they are fabulous (mine the red glass heart on the upper left-hand side of this photo). Melissa McCobb Hubbell has assembled all the charms onto a bracelet which is NOW being sold on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220081583929, with all profits from this auction to be donated to Meganaid to help Patti Gibbons' daughter Megan, a very brave young woman who served in the Army in the war in Iraq, in her fight against cancer. The bracelet will come packaged in a small altered heart shaped candy box, and will include all the tags, etc that were attached to the pieces, with a complete list of artists involved included.

oh, the things you can do ~

in under five minutes while on the phone!

who knew...

...I'd be living in a winter wonderland again when I bought this car over two years ago?!! And today a dead battery, sigh.

**news flash**news flash**news flash**news flash**news flash**

Even you don't drive it on a given day, start and run it in subzero temperatures.

(many days I feel I shouldn't be allowed to live on my own).

a little love

Today's art, so far!

I may never get out of here!! Apparently there's been 17 inches of snow which fell, blew and drifted about since friday. Everything still closed today, including all the area colleges. It's going to take forever and a day just to clear the driveway, yet at -4 degrees it isn't going to be done right this moment!

****It took over two hours this afternoon to do my not very big driveway, but it's done, whew. It was heavy, it was cold, and I am exhausted - I think I am almost getting too old for this! (~9:09pm)

I like to mail the boys a gift card or two at this time of year for stuff like gas, fast food, music and/or bookstores, movie theatre, etc. This time around I will slip them into these pocket cards I just whipped up.

art + chocolates

...what could be better?!! These certainly are beautiful, "artisanal chocolates" by Maribel Lieberman. The ultimate, I'd have to say.