An artist among us

Owenland Park Gallery is proud to present their most recent addition "Flowers in the Morning" by their newly appointed resident artist, Wyatt Owen. Note the triangular clouds and how they challenge our preconceived notion of the shape(s) of things. Note the small yellow sun in the upper right, how it floats beneath the red clouds. Note the bold signature of the artist, how it almost overwhelms the flowers in the morning.

What viewers might find most interesting about this project is the 'double sided' aspect the artist has included. On the reverse side of "Flowers in the Morning" you will find "Flowers at Night". The viewer cannot help but notice the flowers' stunning growth. I believe the Mr. Owen is trying to say that flowers grow and bloom when the sun isn't looking.

Owenland Park Gallery is looking forward to presenting more works by this young, energized artist in the years to come.  Gallery representatives would not commit to speaking about specific details but hinted at commissioning a series of family and self portraits by Mr. Owen.

Mommy McMe

Pouting & recovering

My poor nephew was not happy when Mommy left this morning. He wouldn't talk to me so I took his pouty picture.

My niece Shelby was released from Children's Mercy Sunday night. She, Melanie & Noah have been hanging out with us this week while Mark has been in KU. Mark gets released today so everyone is excited to go home.

Shelby has hairline fractures all through her head as well as a concussion. She is slow going but doing well. Mark had to have 3 surgeries that I know of: 1 to relocate his hip, 1 to reconstruct the hip socket and 1 to repair all the bones in his face. He cannot put any pressure on his hip for 8-12 weeks I think so he will be in an assisted living home for his recouperation and part of his physical rehab. Fortunately the home is minutes away from their house.

Things are not great, but they could be much worse. Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts. Please let me know if you are wanting more updates on Mel's brood.

Back To School Night

Last night was Back To School Night. John and I had the opportunity to meet Jack's teacher and say hello to Wyatt's teacher (she taught Jack as a Kinder so we already know her.) Then we had cookies! I say a night that ends in cookies is a great night.

All the kinders have their 'headshots' hanging up outside the kinder room. Mrs. G asks them a few questions about themselves and writes in their answers for them. Wyatt is very into the word "awkward" right now. He is trying to figure out how and when to use the word. My favorite times are when he uses the word awkward in his falsetto. "Um, Mommy, that was AWKWARD!"

 Sharing time.

 Praying time.

This is Wyatt's little friend, Garth. My friend Julie brought Garth to us last summer when Wy was home recovering from being hit by a car. Garth has become a dear friend and he was the lucky one selected to go to school with Wyatt. I took a peek in Wy's desk last night and this is what I found.

 Here we are outside the 2nd grade room. I know, I know - I only got one shot of Jack's stuff, but there wasn't anything else up to snap a photo of and I didn't think to take a picture of his desk. The leaves on his flower are hard to read but he says "I have sissrs" "I have a glue sick" "I have it" "I will do it" "I can do it" I like pizze"

 After BTS night John and I swung by the Subway with another set of parents for a quick bite to eat and some parental chit-chat. We got in at 10:00 and the boys were still up. When Jack saw me he started to cry. He told me they were worried because they didn't knwo where we were and they were worried we had been hurt. We had a cuddle up and I promised to make sure we let them know where we were going and if we would be home by bedtime or not. I told them to hop in my bed while I bushed my teeth and when I came back they were cuddled up in a little bro-fest. I love these boys.

First week of homework

I have tried to turn this picture and I cannot get it to budge so you will just have to tilt your head to the side. Jack's 2nd grade teacher was obsessed witht he Olympics this summer and has decided to make it a theme for the school year. The kids learned about the Olympics starting in Greece and a lot of cool facts about the Olympics. Jack's teacher is using positive reinforcement ideas for classroom behavior. She awards little fuzzies (pom-poms) when she or another teacher catches a student practicing good behavior, getting your daily homework signed by mom & dad, study skills - you get the idea. Large fuzzies are handed out for a week's worth of homework, so many book reports and so on.

 Here is Wyatt's Friday Folder. It was jam packed full of work he had done last week. John and I had a hard time picking out one example for you, but we sort of really love the crazy monkey. Wyatt is very proud of what he has learned already. He can spell "go". He learned about the words "Live", "Love" and "Laugh". And he got a Smarty Pants ticket. Don't worry - being a Smarty Pants in Mrs. G's class is actually a good thing.

First day of school 2012

Jack is in 2nd grade and Wy is a Kinder.

I have taken Jack's picture here on the first day of school each year, so here it is again!

And this time Wy gets to start join the tradition!

Here we are at our desk, ready for Mom to LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY

And here is Wyatt at his desk, ready to get started!

I am not too sure how their day went. We dropped them off at school and the John took me to the dentist. I ahd a deep cleaning and a tooth pulled. When the boys got home from school I was hopped up on hydrocodone.

A birthday displaced.

I believe you all know my brither-in-law and my niece were in a terrible car accident and have been in the hospital since late Friday night. My little nephew was to have his 5th birthday party on Saturday but that didn't happen because his family was - in the hospital. John, the boys and I took this little trooper out to Red Robin for dinner.

The boys all seem to think that you give yourself rabbit ears in photos. I didn't burst their bubbles.

You may have noticed in the Red Robin photo that the boys had ice cream at the restaraunt. Gammy & Poppie picked up cupcakes and ice cream to have at home so the boys were good and sugared up when we put them to bed that night. My sister makes really great cakes for the kids' birthday parties so Gammy & Poppie were inspired to get something fun versus your plain old cake fromt he grocery. It wasn't a Melanie cake, but it has personality!

"Cool!"

Noah has been hanging out at our house while his Mama has been jetting back and forth between two hospitals taking care of husband and teenager. Noah has really been a trooper the past few days.