My World for Valentine's Day

Matt and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. As Traci has once said... Everyday is Valentine's day in our house, because we love each other ALL THE TIME!!! OK, just kidding... we only love eachother SOME times and try to coordinate it so that those times fall on Valentines day. We don't usually exchange gifts either, but Matt gave me two wonderful gifts this year- he stepped into two of my worlds that he had previously avoided.

First, he joined Facebook. He wasn't too smart about it though. He joined on Thursday, two days before Valentine's day. When I accidentally discovered through a mutual Facebook friend that he was, in fact, a member of Facebook I felt betrayed, not knowing how long he had been on it without befriending ME. But now we are Facebook friends (AND Facebook spouses) and all is good. And I'm gonna kick his butt at Scrabble!!

Secondly, he came to Dr. Sketchy's with me for the first time. He might not be as good as me at drawing, but he's very clever, which counts for a lot at Sketchy's. Vivienne Vavoom, the actual host of Dr. Sketchy's switched roles and was the model for the night. I really appreciated her homemade creative costumes- some very unexpected basement finds turned into sexy attire: like a double joystick bra, a top concocted out of computer circuit boards, goggles, and other sparkly things that aren't usually worn on the body. It was lots of fun to have my best friend (Matt) along for the monthly sketching fun, even though I suspect he won't be coming back next month. Click here to see the all of the pictures from the night.

Now I wonder which of his worlds I have been avoiding and need to step into... maybe I should show up at his work... or in the men's restroom.

Family Fun Magazine

I'm going to do a little free advertising for Family Fun Magazine. OK? In my opinion, everybody should have a subscription to Family Fun Magazine. It's only like $10 a year, and every issue has the greatest ideas in it. This magazine makes me LOVE being a mom. BUT there is abosolutely NO parenting advice, or articles on how to keep your child from throwing temper tantrums, or potty training, or stuff like that. It is just strictly fun stuff to do with the kids (or without them!). A great deal of our craft projects are inspired by the magazine, but it also has stuff like science projects or other activities to do together.
Above Roxanne shows off the jellybean necklace we made yesterday, as suggested by the magazine. Below, she gracefully models her new jewelry. Then we made jellybean bracelets for all the kids in her class for her to hand out at the Valentine's Day party which was today. It was a fun project. This morning, when I went into her room to wake her up for school, I said "it's time to go to school Roxanne". Then her eyes popped open and she said, "I am SO excited about going to school today!" That doesn't seem like a big deal, but it caught me off guard, because I don't think she has ever voluntarily expressed something like that before. It totally warmed my heart up, so I smiled and kissed her on the cheek.
This is a wallet Rocket and I made on Monday, because he didn't have school, but Roxanne did. It is made out of an orange juice carton (the kind with a screw off spout). You have to unscrew the cap to open the wallet. He decorated it with markers and magazine clippings. Family Fun referred us to the site with a cutout template that you can trace onto an empty carton. Below, he is showing the back of it. He has been extremely ambition about doing chores and saving allowance ever since he got an Nintendo DS for Christmas (from my parents). I refuse to buy him noneducational games for it. So, he has to earn the brain eating games himself. Now he can save his money in an awesome wallet instead of a sock.

Family Fun magazine also gave us this idea. It is a notebook entitled "Family Questions". We fill it with paper, that each has a different random question on it. We get it out a dinner time somtimes and each family member answers a question. It is fun to look back at the older questions. I am reading it now and it's making me laugh. About a year ago, we asked the question, "what makes you angry?" and Rocket answered "Three things. 1. Spankings, 2. When I am about to get spanked, and 3. Right after I have gotten spanked and it still hurts". The next question was "what's your favorite vegetable? " Matt answered "tomatoes"; I answered "avocados"; Rocket answered "pumpkin pie", and Roxanne answered "macceroni and cheese".

Rocket designed the cover of our "Family Questions" book.

If you do order the magazine and like it, during Mothers Day they run a special where you can order 4 or more magazine subscriptions for only $5 each. That's when you should order the magazine for every mom you love.

Valentine Show- A Divine Night

Last night was the Valentines Art show, "Bleedin Hearts and Busted Knuckles". I had four paintings in the show, along with a callaborative impromptu sculpture that Jodi and I (shown below) created together instead of watching the super bowl last Sunday- now that was time well spent!

Here we are showing off our matching necklaces which I made for us to commemorate our new artistic partnership that we have yet to come up with a title for. Before the show, Jodi and Traci and I dropped into a random Mexican restaurant for some dinner. So we totally knew that God had blessed our evening, when Jodi's Margharita arrived and almost perfectly matched her hair. That could only be divine!! The next indication that the night was divinely directed came shortly after our food arrived, when Jodi recieved a text message from her friend who was already at the show. The message said that our callaborative sculpture had already sold!

There's the sold sign. And here is the sculpture that we threw together last Sunday. It's entitled "First Base" (because the two people are kissing). Jodi created the face on the right and I created the face on the left out of random trash and nicknacks we both found around our houses. Here we are imitading the artwork that we created- mostly we are just gloating by the glory of the "sold" sign.
I was quick to spend my newly earned cash on this awesome wallet, made by Buddha.

The next sign that God was involved, came as soon as I started digging around in my purse looking for my keys. Worried that we wouldn't be able to get home (and the Santa Fe art district isn't a place a couple of women want to stranded at night), we trecked back to the car in search for them. It was pitch dark out, so the only way to see in the windows, was to take a picture with the flash, and then view the picture on the camera. Can you see em there on the floor? My King Soopers card shows up pretty well.

We decided to deal with that situation later.

Here's me with two of my peices. And a wall of art.

After leaving our "low brow", show we walked North on Santa Fe where the artwork increases in class the farther you go from the gallery we were at. There we found some of Jodi's friends, who took us back down to her house. Then we drove to my house. Got a spare key. Drove back to downtown. Then finally made it safely back home. But it was a good night anyways, because Jodi's margarita matched her hair, our art peice sold quicker than quick, we enjoyed a lot of low brow and high class art, and didn't spend the night on Santa Fe.

Here is Traci's rendition of the night. She left out the part about the keys being locked in the car and having to ride home with people we didn't even know. I think she is in denial about it even happening.

Roxy and Friday