My Favorite Artist

Joe has been making the rounds around some local art shows, and I couldn't be prouder of him.
First off, Joe submitted a few pieces into the Drawing In Alabama show. The show is an exhibition of artists from around the state. All submissions must be current, and they are selected by a juror each year. This year the juror was the curator of drawings from the Whitney in NYC. Up to three pieces can be submitted for consideration. Joe submitted the maximum three, and two of them were accepted. This is huge considering the statistics we were quoted:

• 208 pieces by 83 artists from 27 communities around the state were submitted.
• A total of 42 piece by 37 artists from 18 communities were accepted.
  

This information was a huge boost for Joe, since that means he was in an elite group chosen, and he was among an even more elite group of those who had more than one piece accepted into the show.

The show was on display at Auburn University's Biggin Hall, which is the art building on campus, and the location where Joe spent many a late night during his undergrad years and the building where I was taking an art class which led me to Joe nearly 13 years ago, so the venue was a familiar place that really felt like home. So familiar that the kids cared NOTHING for being at the opening because the leftover toilet paper was still covering Toomer's Corner from our recent National Championship win. As you can see below.....



Enjoy some pics from the opening......

Above you see the following pieces:

on the left......
Canary
Ink, wash
22 X 30 inches
Joe Dyer, 2010

AND

on the right......
Still-life?
Charcoal
19 X 23 inches
Joe Dyer, 2010

Since the show has been taken down, Joe has learned that he won the prestigious juror's choice award with his "Still Life?" piece, which means his piece was the best! Of all the pieces in the show, Joe's piece was the stand out, most amazing, wonderful, excellent artwork that won the prize! So, in my book, this means that Joe has officially been recognized as the best artist in the state. Of course, I already knew of his amazing talents and mad skills, and I certainly think that he's probably the best in the world (biased much?), but it feels great to have recognition from an outside source.

The Drawing In Alabama show was held on a Friday night, and the very next night Joe and I headed out on the town sans kids to enjoy the membership party for the Auburn Art Association which was held at the Jan Dempsey Arts Center. In conjunction with the party, an invitational show was on display of local artists. The show was titled A to Z, and each artist was assigned a letter. The submitted piece had to represent the letter in some way, and it could be a piece of the artist's choice (sculpture, photo, drawing, painting, etc.....). Joe created a piece called "Nectar" which was beloved by many. He was honored to be voted one of the most creative pieces in the show, and it has already sold.

See the artist below posing with his work:

Winter 2011 has been a successful one for Joe and his artwork.

Sometimes he gets to feeling like Mr. Holland - for those of you who remember the film Mr. Holland's Opus, Mr. Holland was a high school music teacher who intended to spend his spare time creating his own music, but he spent the duration of his teaching career focused on his students and their successes. Although this is an honorable and valiant pursuit, it is still rewarding to be allowed to become an artist in your own right while teaching young people the value of the craft, and this is certainly a lifelong dream for Joe.

I am bursting with pride for my darling husband.

Happy Birthday to Joe!!!

My dear husband's birthday is today. And I didn't forget. Not even at all. It's okay, I'm not bitter about my birthday. I know it will be made up to me. I'm not sure when, but someday. Possibly on my next birthday, but at least I know it's out there somewhere.

So the weekend started off really HUGE with Jacks finishing off a very important chart. Without getting too embarrassing or graphic, Jacks has had some difficulty maintaining regularity in the past year since he's been totally potty trained. And lately we've been having to part with some of his favorite underwear due to soiling past the point of no return. So, Jacks has had to sadly throw away The Hulk, Wall-E, Lightning McQueen, and a variety of characters who have graced his delicates.

I decided that we would make a 2 week chart in which he would have a daily goal to keep it clean and make it all in the potty each day. Check out how well he did....He was so happy with himself that he gave his sister some sweet kisses. That was heartwarming.
In other news, Nealy has been letting me put her hair in pig tails, which pleases Joe to no end. I told him that this was his birthday present, and he was sooooo happy with that (it wasn't his birthday present, but it would have been a lot cheaper than his new national championship sweat shirt). This picture is a little out of focus, but you can see the Fraggle Rock hair situation we've got going on here. I think it is so cute it could put you in a mild cute coma.

Jacks had yet another birthday party to attend today, so we went ahead and took the whole family. Nealy managed to work herself into the party here and there like she usually does.

Notice how she's just casually strolling by during the group picture.....


Joe's birthday tends to be easy peasy because he loves strawberry cake and pepperoni pizza. This year, I had my friend Mandi at Cakeapotomus whip up a strawberry cake emblazoned with a Luche Libre wrestling mask. She finds the masks terrifying, but she was a sport about it and saw it as an opportunity for some creative sprinkling work (notice the yellow stitches).

Why Luche Libre, you ask? I really don't know. It turned out cool, though, didn't it?
Jacks was especially pleased about this cake, and he's known of its existence since yesterday when I showed it to him in its hiding place in the back of van. He walked right in the house and said, "Daddy, I'm not allowed to tell you about your cake. I know all about it, but it's a secret." I guess I should have expected as much....

Can you get over this smile?

Anyway, we enjoyed a great dinner of pepperoni pizza from Mellow Mushroom and salad from Olive Garden. I mean, whoa. I really knocked myself out on this dinner. I also managed to get the entire dinner for free! How, you ask? I have my ways.

And here is an example of why I shouldn't be allowed to use Joe's camera.....
Happy Birthday to Joe!!! I hope you loved your day, your dinner, your gifts, your pig tails, and everything great that happened today!

It's a Celebration!

Auburn University graciously decided to swing the doors of Jordan Hare Stadium wide open in order to celebrate winning the College Football National Championship. And people came. Boy, did they ever come. I won't pretend to have any idea of how many people our fair stadium holds, and I'm certainly too lazy to open another window and Google it right now, but it looked to be pretty full. I mean, look at this......

I mean, there wasn't a game being played here, folks. And these pictures were taken nearly an hour before the whole shebang started, so there was more to come.

I guess it didn't occur to me that people would come in droves from the farthest reaches to attend a celebratory presentation, but they did.

This dawned on me as I was standing in the concession line making friends with people. More on that concession line in a moment....

The best part about this whole thing was that everyone there was Auburn folk, so everyone was friendly to each other. There wasn't a lot of pushing or shoving or acting as if everyone was an enemy, but mostly smiles and War Eagles and apologies for bumping into one another.

Which is how I made friends with Amanda from Oxford, AL and her mother in the line for snacks. I apologized for standing 2 inches away from her head in order to scooch out of the way of traffic and insert myself in the line. She turned and smiled warmly which of course led to chit chat and intros. I don't know her last name, but I told her mine so I'm still waiting on my Facebook friend request.....

Anyway, she asked me where we lived. To which I was about to point toward the direction of our house and count the number of blocks we walked over to the stadium. Then I realized that she was asking from whence I hailed because she, in fact, was not a resident of our lovely village. She drove a distance to attend. And then I looked right and left, and I realized that lots of these people came from far and wide. I mean, this wasn't a celebration just for US? The residents of Auburn alone? How clouded have I become living in this town to not realize that the rest of the world loves this place, too?

Long story long, this celebration that we nestled into our already packed Saturday schedule was a pretty big deal. An estimated 78,000 people were there. And trust me, that's an estimate, because I don't think anyone counted us as we waltzed through the open gate. Joe read a number that was something like 78, 274. I kinda made that up, but we were greatly entertained that someone had an exact count that HAD to be fabricated. Either way, it was a celebration enjoyed by WAY more people than just the inhabitants and students of Auburn. Which is pretty amazing.

Now I don't even want to tell my concession stand story.

It seems trivial. Okay, okay, here it is.

Basically, Jacks begged for popcorn, I debated over standing in the longest line in the free world for burnt, overpriced popcorn versus listening to him whine about wanting popcorn for an hour, and I opted for the former. We stood in that line for an hour, were terribly disappointed with the lack of efficiency when we made it to the front of the line and felt incensed over the reason we had been standing there for an hour, dashed back to our seats which we couldn't find for a while, Jacks started to cry a little out of fear and discombobulation, I kind of wanted to cry a little over the same thing, Joe left his cell phone at home so I couldn't call him, I considered leaving at that very moment and killing Joe the next time I saw him, I used Jacks as a human shield to bust through throngs of people until we finally made it back to our seats in tears and a little sweaty even though it was freezing cold out. See? It was all pretty trivial. I mean, look at this smile.....


In the end, I'm glad we went. I'm glad we took our children to such an important event at the University that is so important to us to honor the biggest football win of all of our lives. At least for now. We hope to live to see another National Championship for Auburn. War Eagle and Amen.

We did manage to get a stranger to take our family picture in front of the stadium, which was very nice of her to do. You can lead a stranger to an SLR camera, but you can't teach her good composition now can you?

Our feet are cut off, the sign behind us is cut off, we're not centered..... No wonder we hardly get any good family pictures without paying for it. (Big shout out to Amy McDaniel at Dewdrops Photography, what what!!!). Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. Of course, minutes after this we ran into Joe's fellow art teacher Clay Cox who would have taken a gorgeous photo of us, but we had clearly moved on to tracking down our wagon that we had secured on the bike racks under Parker Hall.

Overall, it was a great experience. We came home and Nealy promptly fell asleep, and then Jacks and I whisked away to yet another birthday party. Such is Saturday life in the world of a four year old. Enjoy this pic of one quiet moment I enjoyed that day.....

Ahhh, mah sweet bebe.

War Eagle, everyone!

Ice Storm

Well, we didn't get snow. It was pretty sad and upsetting, especially since I bought Nealy some boots exclusively for snow. Okay, they're rain boots and therefore useful at other times of the year, but still!

We did, however, get two days off of school due to the threat of black ice on the roads. For those of you who DON'T know, the buses are a huge part of running school. And if the buses can't run, can't nothing run. Transportation rules the world.

Needless to say, we have all been getting a little wacky being cooped up in the house all weekend. The most activity we had yesterday was a walk around the yard to check out the ice. The kids didn't seem to care that they didn't get snow, because they seemed pretty excited about the ice. Of course, they could have just been excited to be out of the house even if it was for about fifteen minutes until their hands and noses got too cold, then they wanted back in for hot chocolate and cookies.
So, we started school last week with a four day work week, then we got a four day weekend. This week officially starts tomorrow, which means a three day work week followed by a three day weekend thanks to MLK. I think I could get used to a schedule like this, but the kids at school will never get back on track at this rate. Every day will be like the day before Spring Break!

Either way, back to the grind tomorrow to make a school full of overjoyed Auburn fans focus in school for a few days until the weekend. Wish me luck with that!

National Champs!

Well, it's been over half a century, but Auburn has managed to win a second national championship in football. It has been a very sweet victory for Auburn fans of all types and ages, and our town has never been happier!


We were invited to watch the game at the lovely home of some dear friends of ours (see the celebratory brownies pictured above that I made for the occasion), who are also some of the biggest Auburn fans around. The entire night was so enjoyable, with the exception that we were all extremely tense and on edge about the game. It was not an easy win for Auburn, and we wanted the best for the team and fans, many of which went to great lengths to travel to Arizona for the game.

Nealy made it until about half time when she was ready for bath and bed time, but Jacks and Joe stayed to enjoy the festivities until sometime around the 4th quarter when Jacks started to get a little nutty. The game started at 7:30, which means it was a late night for the little ones.
Although the kids were both home and bathed AND still awake come the amazing end to the game, it was way too late and too cold outside for us to attempt the Toomer's Corner experience (which I was kind of torn about given the importance of this win). We settled for enjoying it via web cam as the kids finally gave in to the excitement of the evening.

We did venture downtown this afternoon to witness the aftermath of the rolling of Toomer's Corner, as did tons of other fans and students.

It was a little crazy down there - certainly nothing compared to the thousands down there at midnight last night, but still crazy considering the roads were open for traffic, clean up crews were busy with rakes and trash bags, and hoards of people of all types were down there just wandering around and attempting perfect photo opportunities. In fact, a college girl who was trying to climb up on one of the entrance gates nearly kicked one of my kids in the face, and she successfully ignored me when I yelled at her.

Also, since schools were closed AGAIN today due to icy roads, we got to keep Jacks's school friend Tristan for the day since his parents had to go to work for a little while. We loved having Tristan, but every time we add another kid to the group, it is a valuable lesson that Joe and I are good with having TWO kids and not MORE than two. Adding a third to the mix might send us directly to the funny farm, which we actually wouldn't have the time or money for if blessed with another child.

ANYWAY, enjoy some pictures of downtown Auburn on the morning after the big win.

Just a little bit of catch up

Well, Christmas ended, and all of a sudden we are in the second week of January with nothing new to report. Plenty has happened, but it all happened during those long, lazy days following Christmas that seem to pass so slowly, but then disappear quicker than you ever expect. Those days defy the laws of space and time. It's a period of recovery, I suppose.
So, let's catch up....
Immediately after Christmas, we traveled to Pensacola for a visit with my parents and my sister's family.
We had fun with mustaches. Apparently a lot of fun, because we didn't get any pictures of anything else.

New Years was thoroughly uneventful with no excitement, so we don't have any pictures from that. Happy twenty eleven!

I had another birthday - they come every year - and it was okay. I had to go back to work that day, and no one in my family remembered that it was my birthday in the morning before work. I kind of felt like Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles. Joe made up for it by treating us to a sushi dinner followed by cake! It was good.

Joe made these fun badges for several people at my school. It was lots of fun!
The work week started on a Tuesday, and by the time Friday rolled around, we were already completely exhausted. Several people in town were headed to Arizona to celebrate Auburn playing in the National Championship, so we anticipated a quiet opening to the week on Monday with several kids and teachers absent. Thanks to an ice storm, we will get an even quieter opening to the week as we'll be spending it at home.

We spent all day today ready for snow, and as the day wore on, it became apparent that we are looking at an overnight icing more than a snowy morning. I hope we have some white stuff to play in tomorrow, but it will probably just be a thin layer of dangerous ice coating everything come morning.

Since we spent all day waiting for snow which never came, we planned to cook and play and stay close to home. We didn't go anywhere, and by about 5:00 this afternoon, we were all getting a little punchy. Soup and treats had been made and enjoyed, movies had been watched, toys had been played with, art had been made - what to do? So I whipped up a batch of oobleck. If you're not familiar, it's a substance made of cornstarch and water that is wicked fun to play with. It's not a liquid, but it's not a solid, it changes and morphs as you move it and run it through your fingers. It looks slimy, but it's smooth like silk. You've got to try it sometime. Joe had never seen it/heard of it/knew anything of it, and he was amazed. It's possible he had more fun than the kids.

We'll probably be making another batch of it tomorrow. Maybe we'll add food coloring this time!
If there's snow tomorrow, expect the obligatory snow day post. If not, I don't know if I can bring myself to post depressing pictures of a gloomy icy day.

Oh, and WAR EAGLE!! Auburn's gonna win tomorrow, y'all. Good stuff!

Christmas 2010

I am sitting here on Christmas night enjoying the quiet calm that always comes when the excitement of Christmas finally subsides. We've spent the past few weeks enjoying the scenes of the season, with many ups and downs. As usual, I have feel haggard and tired throughout this month, as I spend the bulk of December scurrying around trying to complete all of my shopping and crafting and envelope stuffing and mailing and wrapping.

I have found that I am never at that point of completion at Christmas. I tend to buy a lot of supplies to make things, in addition to a few store bought items, and then I have to find the time to actually make the things! It is an ongoing struggle. I never have that sense of relief at being done with Christmas shopping, because I never really am. The season brings several rounds of gift giving due to work parties, friend parties, kid parties, family visits, other family visits, and last minute gift delivery. This means that I go through several rounds of preparation based on the next event that I have scheduled. So I have spent many, many nights this week in my newly cleaned and reorganized basement sewing and ironing and cutting and gluing and framing and writing and wrapping. I has been exhausting, but fun, of course, because I really like that kind of thing.

I wish I could be one of those people who just buys everyone a gift and is just done with it. I wish I could be that practical and sensible. Maybe one day I'll get a little smarter.

Okay, enough about my yearly gift giving struggle. On to the family.....

Jacks was an elf in his school Christmas program. It was the first year he has been old enough to be in the program, which means it was the first year we attended. It was a little crazy. I arrived on time, as told, but didn't realize that the only parents who got front row seats arrived an hour early. So, I wedged myself in the back where I had to stand on top of a chair to see anything, and Joe sat on the floor in the aisle with Nealy. We figured she should get to come watch her brother in his first program. Turns out she was more interested in playing with Joe's phone and eating the tic tacs from his pocket.

Long story long, I didn't get a single good picture. He takes tumbling and Kindermusik, and both classes did a short demonstration before the actual program began. I couldn't have been prouder to see my big boy so involved. This is maybe the best picture I got, which is terrible on account of my poor placement and the bright window behind the kids.

See if you can find Jacks!

Our next big event was a visit to the Oaks farm in Lafayette, AL to see Santa. The pumpkin patch that we visit in the fall is at the Oaks, and this is the first year we have done their Christmas time event. They take you on a hayride through the woods where they have set up some Christmas lights, and you end up at the barn where Santa is waiting.

This picture isn't great, but it's pretty funny. The Oaks was a much better Santa experience than the mall Santa. We took our own pictures, there was no line, the accompanying hayride was fun all on its own, and then we got to pet bunnies and a cow when we were done!

This was the first year that Jacks was okay with talking to Santa. In years past he has been panicked, screaming, nervous, and just plain scared. This year, he went right up to Santa with his list of desired items, as if he had been practicing exactly what he wanted to say. I was very proud of the little guy.
Nealy, on the other hand, wouldn't get within three feet of poor Santa. He tried, bless him, but she was clinging to me like a screeching monkey, and there was no way I was getting her on his lap. Of course, once we walked away, she got really bold and pointed at him saying, "Santa, Santa." But when I got close to him again, the clawing monkey came back out. It was like when you try to put a cat in a tub of water; it ain't happening. You can see in the picture how close I was able to get to Santa with Nealy in tow.
I highly recommend Candy Cane Lane at the Oaks next year. They don't do it every night of December, so you have to call or email in advance to double check their hours.

A few days ago, we made a trip to Huntsville and back to visit with Joe's grandmother. It was a wonderful visit, and we hope we get to go back soon. Jacks and Nealy were very well behaved overall, except Jacks tried to fall apart a little just before we left, and Nealy managed to eat an entire lollipop the size of her head during our visit, which put her into a sugar coma we thought she'd never come out of. You can see her clutching said lollipop in the pictures, as well as evidence of Jacks's ill behavior. He seems to be attempting a smile through clenched teeth, which comes off as pained and leering.

Needless to say, it was a long ride home.....

I like this second, less posed picture a little better. Next, Jacks and Nealy dressed up a little Christmas casual for a cookie decorating party at a friend's house. Here they are posing, but it looks like Jacks is strangling his sister. She doesn't seem to mind.

Immediately after their party, Joe's dad, Rick, came for brunch. It was a great visit, and we wish he would come more often. He brought the kids each a pillow pet, which they are still loving a whopping 3 days later, which means they'll be loving them for a while.

Then, as if time had gone in warp speed, Christmas Eve arrived. Joe started a new tradition of making a large snowman and Christmas tree for the front door with Jacks, just like Joe used to make with his mom.

After a big family dinner at my friend Bev's house, we got bathed and ready for bed. The kids got dressed up in their matching Christmas pajamas, and we all read The Night Before Christmas, which I have read every Christmas Eve since Jacks's first Christmas.

Then Santa's elves got to work once the kids were fast asleep, and we were up until about 2 in the morning. But it was worth it when the kids awoke to their gifts. Jacks had been very concerned in recent days that we didn't have any presents under the tree (see earlier explanation of my tendency to wrap as I go), and he was thrilled to see a pile under the tree this morning. Plus he got the Bat Cave he had been asking for, which kept him busy playing all day long. And Nealy got a new play kitchen, which means she now has two. We bought a used kitchen from a friend of ours this week, and we planned to give that to Nealy as her Christmas present. But when we saw this new one at Toys R Us, we had to get it since it is so little and perfect to set up in our kitchen (not to mention the colors match our kitchen - can you beat that?). The other kitchen will be set up in the downstairs play area, which makes me happy to no end to have a toy down there that they'll both love.
And that, in a long, long, long, long blog post is our Christmas. There is plenty that we didn't take pictures of, but that just means that we were busy enjoying ourselves. And there were a lot of activities that we didn't end up doing since the stomach bug hit this house a few weeks ago, setting us all back a few steps.

Did I mention that it snowed tonight? That's right, we ended up with a white Christmas after all. What could be more perfect?

We'll be traveling to Pensacola this week to visit with my family. So there's still more to tell of this Christmas. I hope all of you had a busy but wonderful Christmas season. I'm not ready for it to be over. It has been so much fun.

I think I'll have one more glass of egg nog and enjoy this last viewing of Scrooged before collapsing in bed to the sounds of dripping snow. I love this quiet, calm night. So lovely.....