Silver Parrot Giveaway

Thanks for the skinny on, !

Ok, I admit I didn't get Woot Loot up this month. It's been a bummer, since I've had a ton of fun giving my things away. But thanks to an inspiring blog I love to read, Rose Works Jewelry, I've gotten wind of an awesome bead giveaway over at the Silver Parrot. Just gawk at these pics:

Pics taken from Silver Parrot

Are your salivary glands working overtime yet?? They should be! I can't get over what a honkin' giveaway this is! To truly understand the scope of this giveaway, you have to read the description.

It's nothin' short of an amazing monstrosity of beads!!

There is only one slightly small condition...you must enter by midnight. Tonight! Sorry - you know I would have given my peeps a bigger head's up - but I only found out about this serious "mecca of beads giveaway" like 2 seconds ago. SO...if I can tell you guys about this rockin' giveaway, with my 2-keyboards-and-copy-and-paste-every-space self, YOU can do it, too. So get busy - this giveaway is awesomely humongous and you don't want to regret not entering!

Full details can be found here.

Good luck!

xx

Childebeast Art Continues

This is a small book created by Wix, the just-finished-7th-grade-going-into-8th-grade middle 'beast. The front is collaged with torn paper and aluminum foil. It's a fun composition of bold colors. The bright colors give the reader a glimpse of what's inside...which, to me, is the coolest part.

You open the cover and find this...

The red, blue and green pages each reveal a different portion of the poem. It's impressive, because, well, read on...

I was...
I am...
I will be...

I was surrounded by bars.
I am almost free.
I will be a free American.

I was uneducated.
I am loyal.
I will be a Marine.

I was average.
I am poor.
I will be wealthy.

I was delinquent. (His words...not mine.)
I am making progress.
I will be owning the world.

I was afraid of the dark.
I am better.
I will be fearless.

I was bored in life.
I am bored in school.
I will be interested in many things.

The post tomorrow includes an interview with the author/artist. Trust me - you so don't want to miss it!

xx

My Favorite Part of School Ending

The thing I love most about the end of the school year...besides the welcome respite of quiet mornings - punctuated only with the occasional snore, word or phrase mumbled in sleep, or some noxious bodily function escaping from one of the boys - which are all totally tolerable when you don't have to literally pull uncooperative, growing bodies out of bed at ungodly hours, and can instead bask in the knowledge the house will remain peaceful for another several hours...

The thing I love most about the end of the school year is getting to see all the work the kids bring home. I love seeing the differences between the work they did at the beginning of the year, versus where they finished the year. All the progress they make throughout the year - that you don't really notice when you're with them every day - is so fun to see. Admittedly, my favorite part is looking at their art.

Since they only have art once a week here, all their art projects live at the school until the last day of school. (They do have an "auction" about a month before the end of the school year. They display the student art all around the school, and the parents are invited to have tea and cookies while looking at the art. At the end of the evening, parents are encouraged to "purchase" their child's art (aka, make a donation to the art department) - and the artwork is taken off the walls and "wrapped" safely in butcher paper for the student/family to take home.Very cool idea - I just haven't been able to attend one yet. Um, yeah - I'm already aware I won't be winning Mother of the Year any time soon. I'm even 99.9% sure I'm not even in the running for such title. Pfft!)

Waving good-bye to the Award that was never to be
(My crown is being polished)

If you don't make it to the auction, the art is sent home on the last day of school. Some projects are kept at the school for several years - and it's when those pieces come home that I totally flip. I'll share one of those projects with you tomorrow. Hey..wait!! Where y'all going?? Hey! Come bach here!! You are so not getting off that easy! I fully expect to see you bsck here tomorrow. Nice try, tho!

"___ _____Dolphin" (The elementary school mascot)
Done in acrylics on a paper bag, by the Princess - 3rd grade

(This post is much longer than anticipated...all that backstory, ya know) xx

One Talented Homie

Even tho this card is from a game, it seems to fit this post. Oh no wait...nope. That would be a Crappy Fact. So close!

Hear ye..hear ye..

Typing on three keyboards has been obnoxious - super-duper obnoxious - but I continued doing it because I didn't have a choice. Until now. I still don't have a choice, but there has been a new development. (Please hold your gasps.)

I am now down to two keyboards. The strangest thing happened today (she says sarcastically). Someone was back to his old tricks, no longer content to have taken my "b", my "n", my "question mark", my "space" (both literally and figuratively), my email, or kicking me off-line. Nope...he's now removed my access to the third keyboard. Oh - and he's back to changing my fonts...again. His obnoxiousness is second only to the grating pestiferous complaints of "I'm bo-o-ored" raised by the childebeasts, barely 40 minutes after being kicked off the school bus earlier today...with today being the last day of school.

And any mother - whose offspring actually made it to school age without being eaten - knows just how insufferable that situation is...while having a pretty good idea of how contemptible the ex's behavior is.

So. Here's the skinny. I love you all - deeply, even - but I'm sick-to-death of having to paste spaces between all my words. Seriously. I am more sick of pasting spaces than I am of handing out Ritalin to random, rambunctious childebeasts. Ok, so I'm not totally sick of that. Yet. (It's still early in the summer, remember.) Nah, this is probably closer to the repugnance I feel for having to hunt down a question mark, then highlight it, then copy it, then return to where ever I was working, then find my place, then paste the blasted question mark, every time I want to punctuate a dang question. Which a commoner shouldn't do...and let's not forget I'm the Queen. Does it really matter of what??

Until I get the new computating machine, I'm probably going to stick to posting things that don't require much yakking. Stop laughing...I'm serious. (Apparently some of you think this is an impossibility for me. Eh, who am I kidding?? So do I.) I'm going to at least try. And in that spirit, here is the first one.

A splendiferous painting, done in acrylics, by Middle Beast, 7th grade. I'm so proud!

Let me gloat. The moments happen so infrequently. And are so fleeting...

I Know I Am - but What Are You??

Rather than devouring my young, like I should have many years ago, I took this quick quiz. It's fun - and only 10 questions. Let me know what kind of mom you are by leaving me a comment.

Thanks, Carol, for linking to the quiz on your righteous blog, A Second Cup.

And yes, I'm still having to use THREE keyboards. ARGH! (But lucky for you, it makes me shut up a lot faster...amazing how that works!)

Make this a fantastically awesome week!