USNA Commissioning Week

We spent last week in Annapolis, Maryland at the USNA Commissioning celebration.  We are priviledged to be the parents of a 2011 USNA graduate.  We are priviledged as a nation to have an amazing group of young men and women wanting to serve our country. All of our service academies are awesome!   Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave a wonderful and encouraging speech to those graduating and to those of us there for the graduates.  What a patriotic week to end with Memorial Day weekend.

From cook outs to award ceremonies....

To the Graduation Ball!

It does take a village to raise a child.  When I think back on the friends, teachers, coaches and family members that helped to raise our children I am so thankful for the loving support of each one of them.  We don't raise our kids alone.

Taylor with his JROTC Instructor from high school!

We are the proud parents!

.... but he gives his girl his hat and his heart!

This is a special Memorial Day for me for sure.  I am proud to be an American and proud to be from a family who has served and will continue to serve this great country. Thank you to all of our service men and women and their families!  Happy Memorial Day!

Lavendar

Ok so it is spring!  I have also been working in lavendar... another spring color that I am seeing outside.

It was windy when I took this picture so I couldn't get it opened up!  Although this looks more blue to me than lavendar it matches the polymer beads that I made...

Lovin' spring for sure!

The End of the Beginning

My youngest is graduating from the United States Naval Academy on May 27, 2011.  The past four years have gone by so quickly!  We are very proud of him!  He will graduate with an aerospace engineering degree and is in the top 100 of his class.  What is interesting is that when choosing his service selection he chose Marine Ground... not what mama wanted to hear.

I will say that he has a strong faith and seeks guidance for his decisions.  I can't argue with God.  He feels that this is the path he is supposed to take.  He originally wanted to fly for the Navy but due to medical reasons he was not selected to do so.  In the four years that he has been at the academy he has been very impressed by the ethics of the Marines.  He also has found that he likes to be a leader.  So my aeorspace engineer is hoping to lead a group of Marines on the ground... in harms way.  So I am proud of him and scared to death for him!  I am thankful that he is a prayerful young man and I know that God has a plan for him... but the next five years will not be easy for mama!  Graduation week will not be easy for mama either... there will be lots of tears from this girl!

Taylor is the midshipman in the front.  He was the Company Commander last semester.  We all need to proud of these young men and women because they are amazing!   We have had several midshipmen at our home for holidays and weekends because we live close to the academy.  They have all been so polite, so interesting to talk to and just plain nice kids! They all work very hard at everything they do.

So I am blessed to have all three of my children graduate from college!  The end of the beginning for me too!

Yellow-Yellow-Yellow

Not my favorite color but I have a friend who wanted something in yellow and white and I have so enjoyed yellow this spring this year after a cold wet gray winter.  We have a few yellow flowers out in the yard!

 Even the dandelions look refreshing this spring!

The yellow polymer clay that I have is translucent so it doesn't make a crisp transition with the white.  I had to sand the pieces that I made to make the white more white.  I made a block of yellow and white layers and cut a 1/2 inch slice off of it.  I rolled the slice into a snake and twisted the snake to make a candy cane  with a white and yellow stripe.... the yellow over powered the white so I did not get a candy cane look.  What I did get was a really interesting design when I cut the snake in half lengthwise.

These are thin strips of the design over a yellow base.  I also bought some pendant blanks from B'sue Boutique.  I was not sure how much the clay would shrink so I cut an oval to fit the pendant and baked it all together in the toaster oven.

It did not shrink too much so with a little glue it will be a pendant!

I also made some beads by covering a white ball with slices of the same snake.

And then I smooshed all of the leftovers and made some beads with pearlex powder on them.

So I am liking yellow a little more these days.... now I have to figure out what I am going to do with them!

Robin Egg Blue

Finding a robin egg in the spring was a treasure when I was a little girl.  I always found parts of an egg.  My wonderment would have been to find a whole one. I did find whole eggs in the nest but we were taught to leave the nests alone because the mother bird wouldn't come back if we touched them.(not sure if that is true or not but I wasn't about to cause a baby bird not to have a mother!)  I grew up on a farm in the small town of Saxonburg, PA.  Life was simple back then as I amused myself by playing outside. Unusual rocks, locust shells and bird eggs were part of a treasure hunt for me. 

If you asked me my favorite color I would say blue... but when I really think about it my favorite crayon was always blue green and now that I am playing with polymer clay I keep chosing to work with turquoise.  So this spring I thought I would try to make a robin egg. 

Even though color is something that you cannot memorize I think I did it!

I found part of an egg in the yard this morning so I was excited to see how well I did with matching the color and I think I did it!  Of course I am a muse follower and don't measure anything so who knows if I can do it again!  It was fun though and I made a bunch of tiny egg charms and this nest.... not sure what I will do with them but I have had fun with it so far!

Sunday Afternoon

This has been a busy weekend...  My three grown kids were home for my oldest daughter's 26th birthday!  The interesting part of this story is that their dad, my ex-husband  and his girlfriend were also here for the weekend!  I know it sounds strange but when we divorced we made an agreement that we would work hard to be friends so our kids would have happy memories for their special events.  I had a friend who had divorced parents and that was her advice to me when we were splitting up... so we actually have become friends.  We do not live close to each other so we only visit a few times a year.

So my kids had fun... Tiffany said she was two sheets to the wind... not sure what happened to the third sheet but I guess that isn't so bad...

They stayed up and partied until just after midnight.... ( they are getting old since that is all the later they stayed up!)
So today we are all just really tired...  even the babies.

 I love having all three of my kids home at the same time.  It does't happen much since they are 26, 23 and 22 and two of them live in different states.  I spent every minute of my free time last week getting ready for company and a birthday party for this weekend.... and it was worth it.  I did get to spend a few hours in my studio this afternoon.  I have laundry waiting and the floors could use some attention but I needed some time to be creative.  It is always a struggle for me to allow myself to spend time making beads or painting but it really is soul food for me! Hope you all get some "me" time too!  Sometimes you just have to take it!