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.