31 1/2 weeks

8 months give or take. I'd rather give I think...

Seventh Anniversary

"This is my beloved, and this is my friend..." Song of Solomon 5:16




Happy 7th Anniversary Hunny...May we make it seven more just as easily!

Redecorating Part 2

Step 6: Finish taping all the silly little diamonds. Yes, all that blue stuff is tape. Thousands of 10 inch strips of tape that have to be precisely cut with a razor blade to make those nice little points.

Redecorating part 1

I know it's been awhile since I posted. No I haven't died or gone into labor. At least not labor that results in a baby. We have been laboring over Maya's room however. We are in the process of redecorating...which of course I had to make as complicated as possible. I think it's the art major in me.

Step 1: Chad painted everything purple. And then it had to dry.















Step 2: I spent 4 hours measuring and marking off harlequin diamonds on the lower portion of the walls.

Step 3: I spent the next 3 hours taping and cutting away the excess to perfectly mask off the said diamonds. After 7 hours my back could handle no more...I quit.
















Step 4: Chad painted the walls I had taped. Once again, drying time was needed.

Step 5: Remove tape and peel off several large patches of old paint that revealed the plaster beneath. (Needless to say step 14 and 15 will probably be repairing of the wall and touch up paint)















Stay tuned for Steps 6 through 6 million which will involve taping of the remaining walls, repair and touch ups, hand stamping of accent colors and designs and the application of the adorable wallpaper border which will bring it all together. Maya picked it out, it's pink with fairies and potted flowers.

Yes, I know...most people would have been content with the purple. Possibly some would have ventured onto the wall paper border. But what kind of psychopath would spend days putting hundreds of diamonds on the walls of a 3 year old that asked for a purple room?

Yeah...that would be me.

R.L. Burnside Quote

Every month I have my piano students study a new songwriter/composer. Sometimes I pick classical composers, but often I try to choose more modern songwriters from varying styles and eras. We discuss the style of music and the composer's background and then start each class of that month listening to a song by that composer.

This month we are discussing R.L. Burnside, a blues musician who died just last year. His music is unlike most that you've heard, but excellent. I laughed out loud at this quote, which obviously, is not fit for children...but I just had to share with someone.

Burnside claimed to have been convicted for murder and sentenced to six months' incarceration for the crime. Burnside's boss at the time reputedly pulled strings to keep the murder sentence short, due to having need of Burnside's skills as a tractor driver.

"I didn't mean to kill nobody," Burnside later said. "I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord."

Trick Or Treat

I tried to get the slide show to load onto my site, but for some reason photobucket isn't co-operating today, so you'll just have to go through the extra effort to click on the link. It's worth it!

http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g96/shadylane_00/?action=view&current=1162396491.pbw

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This scary guy spent quite a bit of time crawling across the sidewalk in front of our sliding glass door. I think he was trying to wish us a Happy Halloween. After some research I found that it's called a Shamrock Orb Spider. Now having spent an hour looking at spider pictures I feel like my skin is crawling. Just thought I'd share the creepy crawlies with all of you!

Halloween Costume - Mine, not Maya's

Here is my costume this year. I couldn't think of anything to be, so I made a t-shirt for my little "pumpkin". Goofy, yes, but fun to make!

7 months

5 months6 months7 months

At least the clothes are different... I think the baby's hiding behind my kidney, or maybe I'm missing a kidney and don't know it. Anyways, went for the 7 month check-up. All is well. The Dr. let Maya crawl up on a chair and help her find the baby's heart beat. So cute!

First Snowfall

I hate snow. If only it felt as nice as it looks, soft and warm and fluffy.

But what I really hate is the fact that I had to say "I hate snow," in October.

Blah!

Quote for the day

Maya is always saying weird, off the wall things, and I try to remember them but they usually slip away. Last night while I was sewing my Halloween costume she was sitting next to me watching.

In the middle of some nonsensical babble she very casually said, "Everything you do is just moments." And then went on to talk about apples. It was all very zen and deja-vu at the same time and it just kept running over and over in my head.

"Everything you do is just moments..."

How profound a statement to be made by an almost three year old. And I didn't even know she knew the word 'moments'.

Pumpkin Carving

It has become a sort of tradition to go over to our neighbors house and carve pumpkins. I say "sort of" because this is our second year in a row. I think it may take more than two times to become a tradition...correct me if I'm wrong. The kids were slightly more into it this year than last, but the attention was still short lived, and the adults took over as usual.





















Ewww...it' s slimey!















Maya's pumpkin design...for some reason reminds me of Wilson from Cast Away.















The carving master.



















The finished product.

I'll Be Back...

You Are

A Robo Pumpkin Face You would make a good pumpkin cyborg.

What's Your Pumpkin Face?

Cartoons

I love cartoons...I always have. I waited for Saturady mornings with anticipation when I was a kid.

I watched them in secret after school as a teenager, even when it wasn't cool anymore.

I watched them in college when everyone else was watching the news and daytime talk shows.

I watch them as an adult because they are infinately more interesting than 99% of the crap on T.V. today.

And finally I have someone to watch them with me. Although my love of cartoons will probably out last hers, all I have to do is wait out the time between when she grows out of them, and my grandkids grow into them.

The funny thing is that we both love the same cartoons: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Scooby Doo (the old ones, not the stupid new ones), Tom and Jerry, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Dexter's Laboratory.

I'm glad to see that she has so obviously inherited Chad's and my warped sense of humor. She even loves Monty Python, which isn't a cartoon, but would make a great one if anyone ever got around to animating them. Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll never grow up at all, and our cartoon dreams will go on forever.

October Tempest

This is the view out our front window. If April's showers bring May's flowers, what do October's tempests bring?

Done for another year.

Finally done for another year. Applefest was a big success this year. Part of which I attribute to the fantastic weather (which we've never had). It has rained, snowed or froze, or a combination of those for the last three years we've done the show. This is the first year that the weather was warm and sunny. The other attributing factor was our new display shelves which Chad designed and he and my father built. The shelves pop right out and the whole thing folds flat for easy transport and storage. Not only are they WAY easier to set up and break down, I think they look like furniture, which helps people to envision what a piece of pottery might look like in their home.
It was super foggy every morning going into Franklin because it's in a valley. When you crest the top of the hill, you can see this giant fog cloud, like a witches cauldron, boiling in the valley. I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to get a shot going in, but the one on the right I took out the back window of us coming out. You can see the fog bowl between the trees. Plus I thought the leaves were looking especially nice that morning.

We sold 99 pieces of pottery this year, which to me is amazing, because I didn't even think we had that many pieces in stock. Needless to say, our inventory is down to about 6 coffee mugs, a few plates and bowls, and odd miscellaneous pots.
We have always sold out of apple bakers, but usually not until Sunday. This weekend we were out by Saturday afternoon. We had people coming by on Sunday asking for them and we had to tell them to come back next year!

All in all very tiring, but worth it. Hopefully the weather next year will be just as wonderful.

What's your name?

In case you are abducted by aliens or happen to thumb a ride from a low flying spaceship, I thought you might need to know your Star Wars name. You know. Just in case.

Here's the formula*: the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 2 letters of mom’s maiden name, and first 3 letters of the town you grew up in.

I am Adasubosan...queen of the cow people. (Oh no wait...that would be Adasubovine. Hmmm guess that makes me queen of nothing. Phooey)

Chad is Adachseca and Maya is Adamalabu (the best sounding one by far) so I guess that makes us the Ada clan.

Applefest

Time for some shameless self promotion...Chad and I will be selling his pottery at Applefest this weekend in Franklin, PA. It's about 40 minutes north of Butler on route 8. The show runs Friday thru Sunday 10 - 5. We'd love to see you there!

Giant gas kiln (built by Chad and my Dad)
Maya can stand inside it with room to spare.

Blue Vase

Mmmmm...coffee (mugs)

Autumn Leaves

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold,

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

What is a Grandparent?

My sister-in-law forwarded this to me the other day. At first it made me laugh, and then it made me a little sad because I realize that some of the comments are more than true. With life being so busy, and all the things I feel I need to get done in a day, I'm sure that Maya often feels that I don't like to spend time with her, and I probably do say, "Hurry up!" far more than I should. It's good to get these little reminders every once in a while to help me remember that she will only be a kid for such a short time, and I shouldn't wish even one day of it away.

What is a Grandparent? (from papers written by a class of 8-year-olds)

Grandparents are a lady and a man who have no little children of their own.They like other people's.

A grandfather is a man grandmother.

Grandparents don't have to do anything except be there when we come to see them.

They are so old they shouldn't play hard or run.

It is good if they drive us to the store and have lots of quarters for us.

When they take us for walks, they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars.

They show us and talk to us about the color of the flowers and also why we shouldn't step on "cracks."

They don't say, "Hurry up."

Usually grandmothers are fat, but not too fat to tie your shoes.

They wear glasses and funny underwear.

They can take their teeth and gums out.

Grandparents don't have to be smart.

They have to answer questions like "Why isn't God married?" and "How come dogs chase cats?"

When they read to us, they don't skip. They don't mind if we ask for the same story over again.

Everybody should try to have a grandmother, especially if you don't have television, because they are the only grownups who like to spend time with us.

They know we should have snack-time before bedtime and they say prayers with us every time, and they kiss us even when we've acted bad.