This blog has gotten a bit dusty since the last time I posted, but just in case anyone manages to find this in their search for the end of the internet I'll add one more destination. My portfolio is now posted on my website esimmonsallen.com. Check it out. I plan to keep the blog section up-to-date with a little of what is going on in my studio. Thank you for your support!
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| Last night I made peanut butter Oreo Rice Crispy treats. |
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| Need I say more? Maybe...Don't lick the screen. ;) |
I kind of wonder if he was laughing at me as hard way back then as he was last week. There I was, with a fussy baby begging to be fed, about to nurse on the couch. My father comes into the room with a stack of Polaroid photos. He lays them face down on the table in a line and gives me strict instructions to flip them over in order. The mischievous look on his face let me know that there was something I needed to be suspicious about. (As my dad has gotten older his mischievous look has just gotten more and more wonderful--it cracks me up.)
After I finished feeding my wee one, I flipped the first one over. Oh, goodness. No one warned me at the time about how these pictures would endure. I was only thinking of the present and not of the future. If only I had known. However, I am willing to show you.
The following pictures are from my fifth or sixth grade science project--The Effects of Emotion on the Heart Rate. I was the test subject, and the series of photographs were the visuals explaining the different emotions. Doesn't everyone understand what it means to be angry? Why did I need to take pictures? I don't know, especially as my "angry" photo doesn't really look too angry. The only purpose I can come up with now is so that I can share publicly my awesome early 90's outfit.
These cookies I made the other day were good:
The incredulous look on his face was pretty priceless. It was the morning of our Primary's Christmas activity, and several of us were at practicing for the puppet show we were going to put on for the kids. The script was a silly, cute one located somewhere on the far reaches of the internet. In it, animals in a stable find a small "intruder" lying in manger and try to figure who he is and what in the world he is doing there. One of our actors, a guy for whom English is a second language, was playing a camel with a Marxist streak. Anyway, the camel is supposed to soothe the intruder. "You want me to say what?!?" "Cootchie cootchie coo." Yeah, it's pretty absurd, but I'm sure there's an equivalent in his native language. After all, I've found that children turn even the most serious of adults into balls of silliness.
I have first hand evidence. Not that I would consider myself the most serious of people, but I do tend to have a shy streak in public. My hubby draws out the part of me that will make absurd noises and even give an encore performance, but it has taken our daughter to send us over the edge.
R first laughed in the middle of February, and we have since spent our time with her trying to elicit those wonderful sounds. We pop out from behind furniture, beeping, honking, and something akin to a bleat may have escaped, too. But one of her early favorites has been us singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." Apparently I have no sense of humor because I had missed its hilarity all these years. R pointed it out.
"Head, shoulders, knees and toes." Giggle
"Knees and toes." Giggle
"Knees and toes." Snicker
"Head, shoulders, knees and toes." Guffaw
"Eyes, ears, mouth and nose!"
It does seem that the punch line of the joke is somewhere between the knees and the toes because that is where she gets the most giddy. My husband tries to milk it for all it is worth. Up and down he goes over and over again. Sometimes it feels like listening to a broken record. "Knees and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes..." Do you know what it is like listening to that? The anticipation of the "eyes, ears, mouth and nose" is enough to kill you; what a relief when it finally comes.
I can only imagine what it looks like to others in public. Yes, I have sung a solo of that masterful song in public, trying to get that giggle to come. Of course she only smiled at me that time, perhaps a smile to her self about what a ridiculous mom she has. Oh well. I've resigned myself to years (especially if more wee ones come our way in the future) of singing, babbling, snorting and making other sundry sounds in public. If it makes her happy, a few funny looks is worth it.
I hinted in the last post that I would be making more art. And I will...at some point. We've been a bit busy during the last few months, you see. First of all came the house hunting, with us finally settling on a house in the Tower Grove East neighborhood of St. Louis. We closed on the house at the end of April and moved in mid May. But I still don't have a studio. This is simply because the room that will become my studio is a total and complete mess.
There is a reason for that! A lot of you who may actually check this blog out probably already know, but I shouldn't be lifting anything too heavy right now. I shouldn't eat unpasteurized dairy products or sushi with raw fish, either. They also tell me that I should avoid cold cuts that haven't been heated to steaming. Yup, we're expecting a baby! It's really cute how excited my sweetheart is about it. He's also super excited that it's a girl (although he would have been just as excited for a boy)! Yup, a girl.
So, you can see that we've been a little occupied during the last while. Our house is slowly coming together, and my bump is slowly getting bigger. Here is to the next few months!
It being the beginning of the year, a lot of people are trying to make some changes in their lives. Well, I'm one of them. In fact, I'm making a radical switch. After a lot of soul-searching and long discussions with my husband, I asked to be released from my teaching position. Last Monday was officially my last day, and I have turned in my keys. My school has been so supportive throughout, making this difficult decision just a little bit easier. It really was such a privilege to teach at that school, and I made a lot of good friends. There is a lot that I will miss. However, now I'll be able to do some things that had been shelved. One of those things was art. I haven't done anything truly substantial for a long time, and I'm looking forward to trying my hand at it again. I hope to have something for y'all to look at pretty soon. I'm excited, but still a little nervous. Wish me luck!
