Art Meets Life

This painting is at the Art Institute in Chicago.

I have loved it for over three years as it reminds me 

of how my mother looked when she was younger.

This week, my mother visited us in Chicago.

It was a delight to show my mom this painting in person.

O Questions

I am flipping through the November issue of "O Magazine" and came across these questions that Joel McHale ("The Soup" and "Community") answered. I should mention I actually find him...sexy. I can't always explain my taste in men. At any rate, here are my answers to some fun questions.

Best Bowl of Soup
Baked potato soup at Charlestons Restaurant in Tulsa. It is perfection in a bowl.

Best Vacation
Hmmm...Tough one. Vegas and Colorado rank right up there but the winner goes to....

Flying in a helicopter cross country to Pensacola (to visit family) then Disney World (where I saw Cirque du Soleil, all the Disney theme parks, and met Mickey!!!) and driving to Daytona Beach before going to a lighthouse and then on to Cape Canaveral where I saw space shuttles and stayed at a fabulous resort.

The helicopter ride enabled me to see so many sites: forest fires, hunting posts, homes on stilts near the Gulf, Disney from the air, sunken ships, dolphins and sharks, homes of all shapes and sizes, perfectly manicured yards and hoarder yards, the Mississippi River, and the beauty of the American countryside to name a few. The biggest take away from the helicopter ride came after seeing the carnage of Hurricane Katrina - having seen where these people lived and to think it was all gone.

Best Gift
This laptop. Or my iPhone. Can't decide. Both are liberating and life-changing.

Best Pick-Me-Up
My kids telling me they love me.

Best Advice
"Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country." John F. Kennedy. Changed the course of my life at age 11. I believe we should give more to our community than we take out of it. That means volunteering of yourself. Of your time. Giving money to others is nice but giving of yourself is more personal. It is more rewarding. I get to work in a field that I am solely qualified for because of my volunteer experiences.

Best Movie Genre
Action.

Best Way to Spend a Sunday
Beach with the kids, brunch, hang out on Michigan Ave or Millennium Park then home for a nap before J makes dinner, for our family to eat on the patio before having a tickle fight and doing the kids bedtime routine. Afterwards enjoying a glass of wine with my husband.

Best Excuse
"I almost died on the CT table" was the reason I gave for not going back to the office after my test in August.

Whatever It Takes

I'm a mom. I have two children. To get time alone, I sit on the porcelain throne and read my mail. Or flip through my iPod. Or flip through a book or magazine. When they come in to tattle tale, I ask them if I disturb them when they are in the bathroom.

What do you do to get personal time?

Fulfillment

For the first time since I was a computer consultant in my twenties, I absolutely love my job and love what I am doing. There were times between when I thought I loved my job and got satisfaction out of it. Those times pale in comparison to now. 

I do admissions and marketing for a private school. This is a stretch because I studied computers, not marketing. To think, I cried the entire drive in to interview for this job. Well, technically, it started as marketing and events but morphed into admissions and marketing. This has been one of the hardest jobs I've ever done. I've felt more fear and insecurity doing what I do. 

But I also feel successful at what I do. The year before I got there, enrollment was about 96 in K through 8th. When I got there, enrollment was about 106 students in PK to 8th. The next year it was 145. This year, we are at 189. This is a recession and we charge tuition. Private schools are closing all over the city. We are blessed.

There is a challenge to my job that is heightened because we are located in the heart of the downtown core. Marketing is a unique beast because of our location. It's not like we have a 50 acre front lawn we can park a school bus on with a sign that says "Now Enrolling" and call it a day. Interestingly enough, we don't have a school bus. One of the reasons we don't have school buses is because of the cost we would incur to re-paint them several times a year after they are tagged in our parking lot. Not an expense many schools in the burbs have to factor in. LoL!

Want to know what actually works...? Posting fliers with tearaways in local coffee shops, restaurants, and dry cleaners. Want to know what had a crazy great affect? We put 2 ft tall letters with our school name.org in windows at the front of our building (on a busy city street). It put us on the map in the neighborhood. Our best marketing tool of all time though is word of mouth. 

We used to have parent volunteers give potential parents tours. That job has fallen on my shoulders. I LOVE it!!! I get to meet everyone and tell them how unique our school is. We believe that having one or two knowledgeable people doing the tours has helped to provide a consistent message and to give prospective parents the information they need to make an informed decision.

I look forward to going to work every day!

Truthful Tuesday - No Truth About It

The thing about my life right now is that I can't really talk about my life right now. Sigh deeply.

I started to write a blog entry then realized I can't talk about that stuff right now. Then I started to write another blog entry and realized I can't talk about that either.

Seriously frustrating as I often use my blog as a means of thinking things out and expressing my thoughts and feelings. Hmmm.... If you are interested, email me and I may be able to tell you personally.

Bye Bye Bun Bun

I had to take Bun Bun back to the farmhouse a week ago. 

It has been 9 days. I think about her all the time. I miss my Bun Bun.

When J was traveling all summer and the kids were gone, it was me and my rabbit.

I fell deeply, madly in love with her almost at first sight.

The trouble started in the car ride home. J's eyes were watery and swelling and itchy. His throat was itchy too. But we figured it was because we had been in a farmhouse full of rabbits. One little rabbit won't cause that reaction.

Wrong. We should have turned around at the next exit and taken Bun Bun back. My heart would not have broken then. My kids would not have bonded to this sweet creature. 

Instead, we forged on. We fell in love. We learned for sure that J has a rabbit allergy. Who knew?

If J did not work from home when he is town, that would be one thing. If J did not already have this crazy eye affliction that primarily Native American males get, that would be another thing. If J did not do video work that requires him to have his eyes in peak working condition, that would be yet another thing. 

Yes, J could have taken allergy meds. But I'm not going to plug my husband full of drugs so we can keep a pet. Besides, J is my money maker. I need him happy. 

Here are some pics of me and Bun Bun together.

Eating out of my hand

Taking a break under the zebra chair

Coming back for more

Licking my hand

Deciding which bookcase shelf she can fit in

Knowing Me, Knowing You - Oct '11

It's time once again for the monthly interview project... knowing me, knowing you....

1. Are you watching Revenge?
No. I'd like to watch it but I watch enough right now. Well, technically, I DVR enough right now.

2. Do you decorate for Halloween?J started to about 2 years ago so this is the third Halloween we decorate for. J does spider webs and spiders. This year, the kids will be painting pumpkins. We typically have scarecrows.

3. Do you have any crafty plans for Christmas presents?No. I simply do not have the time, unfortunately.

4.What's your dream vacation?Going away on an airplane to somewhere warm with lots of boutique stores with unique handmade items and being able to sleep or read all day and night. Alone. No kids.

5. Which of your relatives live closest to your house.My brother lives 5 minutes closer than my parents. My parents and siblings all live 8 hours away in Canada. They are our closest relatives. Then comes Tulsa people at 11 hours and the Pensacola side at 13 hours.


Head on over to the Fairy Blogmother to see what others have posted and because she really is all that AND a bag of chips.

Knowing Me, Knowing You - Sep '11

It is beyond time for Knowing Me, Knowing You - September 2011. I have nothing to say for myself other than school started back and I'm a single mom these days so I don't get to do all that I would like to do.

1. What's on your bedside table?Lamp. Kleenex. Couple books I'm never going to read.

2. What is your favourite kind of cookie?Hendricken chocolate chip cookies. My best friend growing up's mom always made the BEST chocolate chip cookies. She says it is just the package they follow but I think they must put an extra ingredient of perfection in there.

3. How long does it take you to get ready?Depends. We talking Day One: Shampoo AND condition day or Day Two: Spray bottle of Infusium and mousse day or Day Three: Just conditioner day?

4. What would you like to be doing right now?Attempting to procreate.
Oh, who am I kidding? I just want the part after that, where you fall into a deep, restful sleep.

5. Is your kitchen sink empty?Ummm, yes and no. One side is full. The other is not. Clean dishes from dishwasher need to be put away. Watcha doing tonight?

Now, please head on over to the Fairy Blogmother from whence all "Knowing Me, Knowing You" posts cometh from. 

Day at the Park

The weather has been so incredibly perfect. 

Today, J took the kids to a park while I met up with my 

friends MAM and LRD for a writing date.