I ran across this today on one of my favorite blogs, Grow Wings, by Laini Taylor. She is an awesome creative artist, author, and I just had to share it. Well said Keith Olbermann, well said!

GO VOTE NOW!!!!

This is for all those wonderful people out there, who are "in the middle". You know who you are....this one is for you!

If you have a chance, before it ends, try to get to The Gallery on Bainbridge. My mom is part of a show called "Word", and it really is a cool word. Poetry meets Arts type of thing...very cool. This is mom with our flowers, (doesn't she look beautiful?)

Joe Biden came to Tacoma yesterday...and I was one of about 12,000 people to see him! I was so excited, it was really great! I missed Obama in Seattle, as well as Hillary here (much to the disappointment of youngest), so I really didn't want to miss this. The gates opened at 12pm, the heavy hitters from Washington was there, including Norm Dicks, Maria Cantwell, Patty Murry, and Christine Gregoire. Everyone was happy, and hopeful and it was a pretty cool thing to be involved with.

Joe Biden is a very exciting speaker, people were clapping and whooping and having a great time. Hard to not feel hopeful at what could be a major turnaround for our country.

My mother is an amazing woman. She is one of the kindest, most genuine, honest people I know. She is silly and wonderful and beautiful.

Now, add to that an amazing accomplished artist, and you have Jeannie Grisham. Her recent painting at the Women Painters of Washington won first prize! If you have a chance to see it, it is showing at the Mercer Island Community Center Gallery. Way to go mom!!

This video is just so funny, and so bad....yeah, not work appropriate! I love it!


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.">

Last night K and I had a wonderful dinner at Woody's on the Water. Yummy food (lamb was amazing!) and the server had a nice sense of humor (after a little political joke here and there from hubby).

There was some live jazz playing which was a great added bonus, the hostess asked if we wanted to sit in the room with the band (we arrived a few minutes before they came to set up) and anticipating a loud band, we chose a room away from the band. We didn't need to, the band was a nice, mellow jazzy duo just setting the mood perfectly.

Afterward we went to The Grand Cinema just up from my studio...and saw the show Choke. Yeah, and I almost did. not so much into this movie...there were some funny parts to it, like when the "hero" has gone on a date with a woman who wants him to pretend to be raping her...and it is funny...but past that I found it hard to identify or really even care about this guy, and his wasted messed up life. Whatever. I wish I liked it more, K thought it was very funny, and that, I wish I could have shared with him.

Amay Krouse Rosenthal is a person who likes to make things.... namely books.  But she has a wonderful couple of posts on YouTube....first watch here, then see this.  Ahhh, so wonderful.  Makes you want to be a part of it right?  Then check this out!

I recently came home from a trip to Nairobi, Kenya. I went to explore some options at the International School of Kenya in the heart of Kenya. Amazingly beautiful school. I had a wonderful time. An old colleague of mine from last year is currently teaching there. Strong, beautiful, independent, pretty much everything I feel like I am lacking, this woman possesses. She hosted me in her house and we had a wonderful time. Another teacher from the school came along on a whim…and it seems as if it was fortuitous for her because she got the job she interviewed for while there!

Anyway, while in Kenya, we went away for a beautiful weekend to a couple of “soda lakes” just west of Nairobi. I had seen Lake Nakuru before when we had traveled through from Egypt for a “quick safari” during Christmas time of 2005/06. It was great to see how the population of the different wildlife changes from time to time.

So, the picture above is from this trip. I am planning on uploading some of my sketches soon, but until then, here is one of my pics. The picture above is a beautiful giraffe at the giraffe center….amazing!

LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULEZ!

This past Saturday, while all y'all state-side were getting ready to celebrate a nice 3 day weekend, we in Lagos were celebrating Mardi Gras...attached is a photo of our beautiful selves....

Lagos is famous for it's beer. There are so many to choose from, it is hard to pick just which one to drink. Oh sure, people in the Pacific Northwest seem to think they have the market cornered on this delicious temptation, but actually, Lagos has many many many more.

As a salute to the hops of Nigeria, we chose to honor our favorite beer here, Star Beer. It has a nice formaldehyde aftertaste, if you can get past the fuel taste of it. Put it in the freezer, make a beer-slushie and it is even better (mmmmm...the thistle is calling me....)

Being educators (can I really call myself that?!?), you must know that we hold ourselves up to the greatest public scrutiny. (HA!) Anyway, not that you guys really need to know that we in Lagos like to celebrate our drinking habit, but, incase you were wondering, it is how we get through our week. So, in recognition of that, we were the crew of Stars, there were All Stars, Rock Stars, Fallen Stars, Porn Stars, Seeing Stars, Stars and Strips, the North Star, Movie Stars... even the kids were Nebulas. And, do I really have to say...we were all drinkin’ cold cold Star beer. (and, throwing water balloons...we learn well from the kids....it is really funny to watch people rush for something they think are beads and candy, when, in fact, it is a water balloon! Hehehehe....)

So, since most of you are…well, okay, both of you (hi mom, hi sis) know what has happened to my family in the last month, I won’t go into details. Suffice it to say D-man and I got to go on an unexpected trip to Paris. The above sketches show some of what we experienced. While the first half was scary, unsure, anxiety ridden, hospital overload…the second half of the week was the Pi not allowed to fly, and us stuck in Paris. What a place to be stuck. We made the best of it. We are planning on visiting Paris on our way home so Dunc and I just didn’t want to do all the things we would be doing with Daddy and J-Bear. Instead, we figured out the metro (easy!), ate lots of good food, fed lots of birds, and enjoyed the café scene.

Actually, the end of school has come upon us, and as we say farewell to all those wonderful friends we have made here, we get ready to embark on yet another adventure. A little time in Paris again, then another surgery for Pi’s arm. We will then be traveling onto the NW, while K gets ready to head off to Hawaii again. J and D are coming with me to Hawaii to meet Dad’s boat as he lands. Then, before we come back to Lagos for one last final year, we will stop off in Firenza for a week to recharge our batteries for that long hard Nigerian winter.

I am not sure how much I can post this summer, depends on family and their willingness to let me use their computer. If not…then a fond farewell till fall.

More Les Baux sketches. The top is the little pizza place we stopped and had some of the best pizza outside of Italy. The second was the view I did as I was waiting to find Ken, meanwhile, he was waiting to find me just down the hill and around a corner. We were both frustrated, but at least I had my pen and paper to keep myself busy!!

I had heard that the little hill town of Les Beaux in Provence was a "tourist nightmare". Crowded with ooglers, no real residents of the town, high priced trinkets littering the streets. "Best to avoid it" we were told. I am glad we ignored their advice. The fact that we went in April, before the real tourist season begins probably helped tremendously. There is a ruin of an old castle above the town which allowed the kids to run around, searching for hidden treasure, while Ken and I had the opportunity to take time to read the sign posts telling of the history and significance of the castle, or . . . do a little sketching. I chose the latter. The result is above. This is the view from the ruins, looking down on the little town. Red roofs huddled together against the cold drizzle as the smell of lavender and roasting meats drifted up to my perch. I was in heaven.

Here is another one from Arles. I don't really love it, but it shows the lighting...somewhat.

This is the way up to our hotel. Winding cobblestone streets. As I was drawing this, I thought to myself “how cool this little alley is, I can just imagine horses trotting up.” No sooner had I said this, I kid you not, a horse sauntered past with a young boy on the back, dresses in 17th century clothing. Had I imagined the whole thing?

Saturday is Market Day in Arles. We stumbled upon this market after our long journey to France. Got of the plane in Marseilles around 9am, drove for almost 3 hours, and bam, it was Market Day. Let’s park and see what is there! So off we go, down the aisle of the fresh food stands. What an experience. If you think going to a supermarket in American when you are hungry is bad, imagine, if you please, going to the food capital of the world from a third world country in West Africa! First stall, bam! The most amazing strawberries just screamed at us to pick them up. So, we got a basket of raspberries for Jesse and a basket of strawberries for Duncan, then off to the cheese cart and the sausage cart for Mommy and Daddy. We were in heaven!! Tired and happy, this was our welcome into the good life of France!

So, where to start is the thing. I let this thing go (or for that matter anything else in my life, be it organizing that damn closet to notes to friends), and they go and go and go until time has completely gotten embarrassing. “Oh, gee, I was going to do that, but then by the time I finally got around to doing it, I thought everybody would just laugh at me since it had taken me soooo long to finally do it”. And so it goes for blog entries and updates from our travel times. Truth be told, I also think I was suffering from a mild bit of depression. I didn’t get the job, I wasn’t finding luck in the driver front, my husband was gone, okay, the excuses can go on and on.

But here I am. I am present, not letting this time thing slip away, and yes, I have scanned more images from my sketchbook. Let me tell you first a little of what has transpired. Short story is, Nigeria had a census, stranded us on the compound. Ken went to Greece. Tunde came back. And we got out of Africa.

We are back of course, and all is relatively well. I just have to start with a little from our trip, and I believe I will dribble it in here. Keep you coming back. And also keep the download time from our pathetic server shorter as well.

The pic is a drawing of the plane. Traveling with children is a bit like traveling handicapped. Sure, you get to get on the plane first, nice advantage, especially when the luggage compartment seems to be filled by the time anyone gets on anymore. There are in fact many advantages, showing your children the world, being able to afford to show your children the world, having your children know more than just their own backyard, all of these things are great. But there is the wait time. We leave the compound here at 4pm. Our flight takes off at ……11:00pm! We are in the airport at 5, checked through by 5:30, then…well then you realize how silly you are. You have spent all this time bathing your kids, making sure they are dressed in clean clothes and are ready to go. But, imagine if you will five and a half hours just waiting, waiting, waiting. Kids know other kids at the airport of course because everyone else is flying out of Lagos tonight as well. So, then the frenzy happens. Any available paper becomes an airplane. Any available round object becomes a ball. And all those slanty chairs become routs for the hotwheel cars we have packed. And those clean clothes? They become dust rags and mops dragged along the floors of the airport and the little bodies which occupy them moves along in search of a better route for his miniature Ferrari.

Finally on the plane, the entertainment turns to the mini television sets in each of the chairs. And, this being 11pm, of course they find several wonderful kids cartoons and movies the “just have to see”. Sure, go ahead, anything to just get you to stay still I think to myself. My 5 year old is sleeping before takeoff. My 8 year old has more stamina than his dad and his mom combined. Finally at 1:30am, I reach over and tell him to turn off the T.V. Time for sleep. The plane lands at 5:30am in Paris, and we are off on another adventure!

How can one little inanimate object be so special to a boy? Ella is a little grey elephant who has traveled the world now. She has traveled by train, plane, taxi, boat, ferry, across three continents. She is one of the most beloved of objects in Jesse’s life.

One time he left her in his older brother’s school. We couldn’t find her anywhere, and a very sad little boy went to bed without her. I promised I would find her for him. I called all the places I could remember we had gone that day, but nobody had seen a little soft grey elephant. Finally I remember I was at the school with Jesse for a PTA meeting and perhaps, she had gotten left there. Rushing to the school, late, in the dark, I peered through the windows and caught sight of Ella. There she sat, sad and alone.

I dutifully went home, set my alarm clock for 5:00am the next day. I knew the cafeteria workers would be there to open up the school for the day at that time. The next morning I sped to the school, 5am. Silently I crept into the darkened “Parent Room”, grabbed that little elephant and raced home. Putting her into Jesse’s arms while he slept was one of the most satisfying feelings I have ever felt. I knew she would be there for him when he woke, snuggling softly into his face…shnuffling we call it.

I am grateful for the love my kids place on their “lovies”. I had three… “chi-chi”, “blank-o” and “snakie”. Both my boys have soft toys they absolutely have to take with them…even though every trip we take I try to convince them to only take one. Secretly though, I think it adds something to a childhood to have a soft toy. . . which eventually turn real, just like the velveteen rabbit.