Oh, Those Orange Days

I had a couple of really busy weeks... and then this past week, during which I did essentially nothing. Koby and I have been laying low in Colorado City, 'nesting' (mostly reacting to the level of filth in which we found ourselves living) and getting various things a little more ready for the impending arrival of our son. Today I really set to work on getting lessons squared away for next year, but after getting Art I and Art II laid out until Christmas, I decided I was being much too productive and needed to address another thing I had neglected: this blog. (Next on the list? Thank you notes WAYYY over due for two fabulous baby showers, one thrown in Graham and one in Abilene.)

As you know, June 13-17 I taught Grace Academy's 'Daring Drawings and Curious Colors'. It was an exhausting blast. I enjoy having little kids after teaching big kids all year - little kids still 'ooooh' and 'ahhhhh' over artwork. High schoolers have seen it all.

Here's some of the artwork we completed near the end of the DDCC camp.


Campers show off their 'Many Colored Days' books. They were SO insightful about colors and emotions - they caught on to Color Psychology wayyyyyyyy faster than my high school students! We read the Dr. Seuss book 'My Many Colored Days' at the beginning of the week and worked on these books every morning.

Dr. Seuss' My Many Colored Days

Something else I love about little kids? Their parents! They are so thoughtful as well. On Friday two campers brought me little 'thank you gifts'... It's not about thanks at all, but when it happens it feels really good. I'm going to remember that as a parent.




These self portraits are the end result after a two-day look at the artwork of Henri Matisse, namely his painting The Purple Coat. I think the campers were very astute in their observations!

Henri Matisse, The Purple Coat

Ok, now some of my favorite pictures. The students LOVED sharing their Many Colored Days books with the class, and I loved taking pictures of the hilarious things they wrote in their books. My favorites include "On yellow days I feel brave" and "On orange days I feel like an adventure" or "On purple days I feel like running" (not pictured, also, I never have purple days).







I am so mad at myself for not putting this up in honor of Father's Day, like I had planned. This is probably my favorite one. The little girl who did this did it so nonchalantly, like 'of course every one has orange days when they feel like putting ice down their dad's pants'. Duh.




This kid wrote "(Insert color here) days make me feel happy" on every page. I can appreciate that.

Coming soon? Pictures of baby showers, photo sessions, and THE BLOB! I am not at all opposed to his arrival before his scheduled appearance, which is the 21st of next month. In fact, I am even willing to indefinitely postpone my viewing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two if he decides to come before the 15th. That, my friends, is a mother's love.

OUTrageous

I am more than a little irritated with who ever decided to invent this whole 'conflicting Google accounts' thing. I have three e-mail addresses, none of which wanted to sign me onto my blog just now.

And this is me:


Next time I'm pregnant, remind me not to schedule six billion and one things to do as the ninth month of the pregnancy approaches. Mmmkay?

Since school has been out I've collected more than 40 professional development hours, driven out of town at least seven times (more than 50 miles each time), gone to two doctors' appointments, been in a wedding, planned for a week of camp with 21 six and seven year olds, taken and edited hundreds of pictures, neglected obligatory thank-you-note-writing, and in the mix somewhere, hurt my back so badly that I'm hobbling around like an eighty year old instead of an expectant mother. It's a little bit concerning. But I wouldn't trade any of these things for a day in bed because they're all FUN (and some mandatory if I want to keep teaching) but I am looking forward to a breather before the baby comes. Also, the nursery (and house) looks like we're moving in/out because Koby and I have both been gypsies for the past two weeks. And gypsy does not mix with nesting.

Today was the second day of Grace Art Camp (Daring Drawings and Curious Colors) and I have the kids going into 1st and 2nd grade, just like last year. And just like last year, it seems like the bulk of the kids are fresh out of kindergarten. Which I really like. Part of me hopes we never move too far away from Abilene, so I'll never not be able to do summer camps at the Grace. They're so fun!

We've been learning about COLOR (we read Dr. Seuss's 'My Many Colored Days' on the first day of camp) and TEXTURE and tomorrow we'll talk about Henri Matisse. And Oaxacan Folk Art, which I will inevitably misprounounce.

Here are some of our artists and creations from Day 2:

The Best Things in Life were Made in the 80s (or 70s)

Let me just begin this blog by telling you what I thought was a story worthy of Paul Harvey.

Driving home from work a few days ago, I was about to pull onto our street when I noticed a coffee mug lying tilted on the pavement by the curb. I've always heard and read about single shoes left stranded on the side of the road, but in my 24 years of living I have yet to see a specimen of these alleged shoes and wonder why so many people talk about this phenomenon, when I have never seen any evidence to support these 'unique' occurences. I see weirder things, like ceramic mugs. I even thought to myself, "How weird," and then realized that the strange mug on the side of the road was a strange Andrews-household mug on the side of the road. Being the thriving metropolis Sweetwater is, I checked the speeding traffic (there was none) and put my car into reverse, picked up the mug and took it home. How did this mug come to be filled with dirt and resting atop the pavement on a road that is relatively speaking, not that near to our house? I asked Koby about it, and we discovered that he had been using a mug in his truck (coffee addict that he is), but neither of us have any idea how it came to be outside of his truck, much less how the glass sustained a trip from any height (probably thrown from a moving vehicle at speed, if you have any experience in riding with Koby) to the pavement.

Let me tell you a little bit more about our mug. It is part of a Noritake collection that was given to Koby and me by my parents, who registered for and received the set when they themselves were married in January of 1980. I feel certain that this is evidential proof that things were made better back in the day; music, people (yours truly is a product of the particularly good year 1985), and yes, even coffee mugs.

In other news, I have been slacking and have not told you about another Grace Academy experience. I taught a holiday camp at the Grace Museum on January 3rd. It was fun and I feel like our projects were for the most part successful. We made silhouettes on shaving-cream marbelized paper, embossed metal encaustics (yeah, with 1st-5th graders!), cork/wire sculptures, and custom magnets. Here are some of the fruits of our day-long labor. (Sorry for the picture quality - my pregnant brain forgot to bring the camera on this particular day and I was forced to use my iPhone.)











If you have kids anywhere from 1st - 6th grade ages, or know people who do and live in the Abilene area, you should definitely check out the camps that the Grace Museum offers. Not only do they bring in, ahem, phenomenal teachers, they have a great, safe set up and I yet to meet a Grace camper who did not enjoy themselves during their stay.

In Blob news, I have been incorrect in some of my reportings. Eager as I was to end my first trimester, I did not pay attention to my baby books/apps... I am NOW beginning the final week of the &$@#!@# first trimester. Needless to say, I am eagerly anticipating the "renewed energy levels" and cessations of "normal levels of nausea/morning sickness" that the second trimester is fabled to bring. I have started having dreams about actually delivering babies (in plural, yes. I imagine this to be because I do not know the gender yet, and so in my dreams I have boy babies and girl babies) in addition to other, um, interesting dreams, all of which is indicated "normal" in my copious amounts of pre-natal literature. For instance, last night I dreamt about wizard cats that tried to kill me with the dreaded 'avada kedavra' bite. Although this is not a far cry from normal for me, I have (in my pre-pregnancy) dreamt about evil vampire-spider-cats...

Also, we are moving to the BEST house in Colorado City on February 1st. We feel like we have won the lottery of houses. Maybe I am building it up too much, but you will see what I mean when we post pictures in posts to come...

It's been a gem of the day in the world of Christie Andrews. I was happy to visit with my friend Caroline for awhile this afternoon; she is recently home in Abilene for a month, celebrating the end of a demanding and completed job in Washington D.C. I gorged excessively on cheesey and saucy chicken parmigiana, taking advantage of local Italian food lunch specials while in Abilene. Arriving home I found my husband already diligently prepping food for the fajitas he'd been craving for two days and I whipped up two fantastic dips - homemade guacamole and hummus, the latter of which I've never attempted before.




And then the most profoundly astonishing and appreciated thing happened.

Koby said to me, before dinner,

I sort of feel like watching Harry Potter tonight.

Marital bliss.

Wednesday means art camp at the Grace is half over. I'm working with the most focused and diligent group of middle schoolers I've ever known, perhaps the most focused and diligent group of middle schoolers existing in the world. I didn't get many pictures today because my camera died nearly as soon as we began working. Tomorrow I'm having to miss camp to attend the new teacher orientation at my new school, something I hate to do but must, though I feel comfortable leaving the kids in the capable hands of Brian and Nastasha.

One Month

Today marks the one-month anniversary of Koby's and my marriage! (Is that proper grammar?) I also realized I ended my relation of the honeymoon tales rather abruptly - I never filled you in on the trip home or our first few days in OUR house!


Classic crossing the threshold snapshot.


Koby's uncle Kirby and his family were sweet enough to house/animal sit for us while we were in Jamaica. As we were on the long road home, we wondered aloud what we'd eat for dinner that night. We were so happily surprised to find that Leah, Kirby's wife had hooked us up with pancakes, sausage, cranberry chicken, barbeque chicken, potatoes, sirloin steaks and a breakfast burrito! (Yes, everything you see pictured in the depressing frigerator above.) This haul lasted us a good long while and it was tasty. My new extended family also thoughtfully covered every doorknob in our house with vaseline (this also lasted a good long while, as vaseline, it turns out, is very hard to clean) and saran-wrapped the toilet seat. All in all, their good and evil deeds ended up balancing each other out. :-)


About five seconds after wiping all the vaseline off our hands, we broke into the wedding present pile which had consumed the middle of our living room. Here is Koby sporting his 'sweet new doo rag' from uncle Gary B and attacking the present pile vigorously.

I find it hard to believe we've been married for a month and living in this house together for about three weeks! In some ways it seems like that can't be right,surely I've been here forever. (It especially feels like that on those days when I am in the house with no cell phone service, no cable television and if the pirated internet connection we steal from our dear neighbor Monty is faulty and Koby is at work.) Or it feels like a blinking moment - is it really August? Have I really not unpacked this or that box yet? Whether it feels like three days' or three years' time, it has been a fun time.

Today, while being my 'first anniversary', was also the second day of Middle School Mania camp. Our little group continued work on our architectural alphabet letters, which were beginning to take shape, literally*, and started work on our next project, a tempera-batik style painting project.

*please note that this is the correct usage of the word literally. It's become my mission to educate the masses on the proper uses of this word in speech and writing, one soul at a time.

And now please view our work.









In that smattering of pictures you will also see my assistants, Brian and Nastasha, and me, each with our own projects. I think we're having as much fun making our letters as the kids.