{ART}

I love art.

I love Bouguereau. John William Waterhouse. Degas.
My dad's watercolors especially. The artistic traits go back a few generations in my family, I have a painting my great grandmother did hanging on the wall. We're creative people, my family.

But if I had to pick a favorite, this one *might* be it:

This is Dream of Arcadia by Thomas Cole. It lives on the 6th floor of the Denver Art Museum. And I can't go to the DAM without seeing this one.

I don't know why exactly I love it. {And the picture does NOT do it justice, by the way. You need to visit it yourself, to see the work Cole did on the sunlight.} I like to imagine heaven looks like this... maybe that's why I'm so drawn to it? I'm such a romantic...

A few nights ago, however, my mind's opinion of beautiful art changed.

My world as I know it was rocked.

It all started around 10pm, when we were getting ready to put Eisley to bed after a night out.

I started towards her, with intentions to get her ready for bed,that's when I saw a pen in her hand.


I was about to tell her, "No, no, Eisley. We don't play with pens..." and take it from her - but she caught me off guard by doing something I'd never seen her do with a pen before.

See, instead of putting it in her mouth, she scribbled with it, onto a stray paper daddy had left lying around {hope it wasn't something he needed}. I was delighted.

So I went to the butcher block, and pulled out a box of unused crayons I had on hand. I knew I'd need them someday.

And the creativity commenced:

For almost an hour, and she could have gone all night.
She got down & dirty with her artwork. I couldn't be more proud, as a creatively inclined person myself. I know all kids enjoy coloring, but I really did feel Eisley was just so into it. I've never seen her devote so much time & attention on any task or toy before. It was intense. Jackson Pollock would have been intimidated, I'm telling you.
Although we did have a hard time understanding why the white crayon didn't work...
She would not have mommy or daddy mess with her work... so when daddy drew a stick figure {hey, we can't all be artistic}...
She scribbled it out. I get that. You don't mess with someone's masterpiece.

She was MAD when we finally had to pull her away and put her to bed.

And although I've always cringed at messy, cluttered refrigerators, I just couldn't stop myself.

Eisley's first work, age 17 months. Dream of Arcadia, move over! Momma's got a new favorite masterpiece!

Celebrating 6 Years

Justin took me to the Oxford Hotel {the Historic Oxford Hotel} this weekend - in celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary this month. We've never celebrated our anniversary before, so this year we decided to make up for the 5 years and finally do something really special... to celebrate, well, US.
He booked us an amazing corner room that overlooked LoDo. This proves my husband knows me well, he picked the most appropriate hotel for our little getaway. There were antiques & western art everywhere.


Even the room key was charming. I love it. There's nothing pretty about those new plastic magnetic strip card keys... the Oxford Hotel key's have tassles!
A claw foot tub!!! Are you starting to see how this place fits my personality so perfectly? Well done, Justin. Here's me, to prove I was there.
Downstairs, adjoined to the Oxford Hotel is McCormick's. This is where we ate {at the Seattle location} the night Justin proposed to me. So of course, we had dinner here. The food, as always, was wonderful. The waiter asked if we were celebrating anything, and upon finding out it was our anniversary celebration, he brought out their flour-less chocolate cake & champagne on the house.

And we enjoyed a short walk around Larimer Square after dinner. The lobby of this historic hotel is ornate, charming, and amazing.By the front desk an antique pedestal birdcage housed a beautiful lovebird! Now I want one... {and I think I just heard my family rolling their eyes.}In the morning we had the car brought around {yes, we splurged on valet}.
We headed to my very favorite Denver breakfast spot. Lucile's. This place is a little bit of creole breakfast heaven.
Their Mocha au Lait is delicious. Starbucks now has the appeal of gas station coffee...I made Justin wear his argyle sweater because I think he looks so handsome in it...And here am I:The BEIGNETS people! You must try their BEIGNETS!!!
And I had the Egg's Benedict. And whatever they do to their potatoes, well, I'm so glad they do it.All good things must come to an end. So then we headed home and back to normal everyday life. Like Justin working on the car... But it's ok, I think it's sexy when he works on the car.

Here's to our 6 years! And to our first time really celebrating it. We'll have to keep celebrating our anniversaries now. I posted on Facebook about us going out for an overnighter and a friend replied, "You don't realize how important those are!"

I think she's right. It's good to step away for a day or two and focus on each other. It's priceless to a marriage, I think.

gastroenteritis

{Warning: This post is gross. Not for the faint of heart, or those on their lunch break.}

"Why did he drink so much???"

That was my first thought when I heard, from my sleepy stupor since I had just begun my night's rest, Justin throwing up a couple nights ago. As my mind became more aware of reality, I realized Justin hadn't been drinking at all.

He was sick.

The poor guy spent the night traveling between the toilet and the bed.

The next day we would laugh over how when Eisley woke up screaming and thrashing I jumped out of bed and picked her up, then I turned to Justin and half -screamed, "What do I do!?"
Again, in my sleepy stupor and frazzled from Justin's illness, I didn't realize that this wasn't just the typical night of a sometimes fussy Eisley. On those nights, Justin takes care of her. And it's usually just a matter of him hopping out of bed and handing her her pacifier and she settles right back down. He has a way with Eisley at 2am that I've never known...

Instead, I found out the next morning, that wasn't a typical night, but apparently she'd had another night terror or something.

Is this the type of mother I am? My child starts screaming in the night and I scream to my sick husband, "What do I do?!"

It did make us laugh the next morning.
It's just he has a way with getting her back to sleep...

Anyway, the better part of our weekend was "ruined" by poor Justin's affliction with gastroenteritis.

We've had it before. It's awful. It's the sickness that makes you consider asking for death just so you can feel better. Sunday night, Justin threw up approximately 8 times. As for the other "action" his GI tract had going on, I'll leave that to your imagination.

By Monday night, he was starting to feel better, and we were hoping and praying that he had food poisoning and that Eisley and I would be safe from it.

Tuesday, the second day of this family's weekend, we were all doing pretty well. The worst was over for Justin, and Eisley and I were in good shape.

After putting Eis to bed, Justin and I enjoyed the movie Up, which we highly recommend, and a bowl of popcorn. We were getting ready to head up to bed after the movie when we heard a cough from upstairs.

"Oh no!" I said. I just knew, from the sound of it. That was a vomit cough.

We ran upstairs and looked down on Eisley.

"See? She's fine - " Justin started to say but I interrupted.

"What's that smell?" But I already knew. Everyone knows that smell. "Oh no.... it's going to be a long night..."

And then she vomited again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And by about 4am when she finally settled into a solid sleep in her crib, Eisley had thrown up about 11 or 12 times.

The one blessing was that between her vomiting bouts, Eisley was in an okay mood. Just tired. If she had been miserable from stomach pains it would have been so much harder on all of us. The only thing worse than having the stomach flu for 24 hours and blowing it from both ends every 1/2 hour is watching your child go through that.

After the first several incidents, the poor thing would throw up from Justin's arms, who was holding her face down over the trash can. Once the bout was done she would just go limp and fall asleep from exhaustion, only to repeat the same thing 30 minutes later...

But if there's one thing we know from gastroenteritis, it's that it always passes. Despite how much she threw up, Eisley seems to have handled the illness quite well.

So where does this leave me? That's what we'd like to know.

So far, no trouble. It might just be my paranoia now, but I can't help but feel there's something going on in my tummy. All is well so far, though. I'm actually a little bit hungry... I think I'll go make breakfast for myself and pray I keep it down.

Here's to wishing you all a great 2010 without the stomach flu.

January is dull.

There is nothing to blog about.

For now.

We're just trying to enjoy life with Eisley.

And maintain our sanity.

Despite how painfully fast life goes by.

Also despite the snow.

That is all.

{What a Difference a Year Makes}

This morning I woke up and thought about how today is the last day in 2009. This morning, as I mentioned in my Facebook status, I was feeling good & ready to say goodbye to 2009. It didn't start out a great year... I thought.

But then on the way home, as I waited in the car for Justin while Eisley slept {we stopped to rent the movie "9", Chinese food, and some champagne to ring in the New Year}, I thought about how a lot of great things have actually come to us this year. I just wasn't looking at it the right way.

I'll put it this way...

At the beginning of 2009: Justin and I were in a bad state financially, just barely getting by.
As 2010 starts tomorrow: We are experiencing, by the grace of God, one of the most lucrative months of our married life thus far. {And I've come to the realization that we're probably better prepared to handle this now - after learning many financial lessons the hard way - than we would have been prior.} It's comforting, after feeling the effects of our suffering economy for so many months now.

At the beginning of 2009: We knew we were facing a rough year. Very tough changes were in store for us, and we knew it. There were days I just wanted to find a dark hole and stay there for a while..
As 2010 starts tomorrow: The outlook is bright. Sure, things can always change. But we're much more hopeful. And also relieved.

At the beginning of 2009: Justin was employed by a company that was obviously taking him nowhere. He'd been in sales for 6 months at that job and hadn't earned a dime in commission.
As 2010 starts tomorrow: New job since March, and we couldn't be happier with it. We're so excited Justin finished December selling $15k over his monthly goal. I'm so proud of him!

At the beginning of 2009: We were needing change on certain aspects of our marriage. Without going into detail {the inner workings of our marriage is our business, and our business only}, we were somewhat weary.
As 2010 starts: God answered the prayers on needing change. I feel we've definitely been enlightened this year. And that's all I'll say...

In the beginning of 2009: Eisley was the brightest star in our lives on earth.
As 2010 begins: Eisley is still the brightest star in our lives on earth. We're so lucky she's our daughter.

The start of 2009: Was a time of sheer anxiety and stress over my business, Lark & Lola. I wanted so badly to do the shows this year, but I was so very scared of failing.
As 2010 rings in: I'm starting a new year of shows and I *know* people like my work, and am facing this year with new confidence, better prepared, and bigger, better ideas. It's a joy.

So, you see, 2009 wasn't so bad after all. If I could go back in time and confront Heather of January 2009 I'd tell her not to worry. "There will be a lot of positive growth this year," I'd say. "So don't worry so much."

I hope this post doesn't sound too braggy. I would hate to give the impression that I want you to think our lives are perfect and we're just "oh so great". In actuality, 2009 was mostly about HUMILITY {click} for Justin and I. As for the blessings, those are God's to take credit for. And I hope, if you're having the sort of New Year that we had last year... well, I hope maybe you can find hope in my message? God takes care of His children. The rough spots in life often end up being sources of growth that, in the end, we're quite grateful to have experienced.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

Happy New Year.