Has it really been that long since my last post? Shouldnt be too terribly surprised, I spend more time at the computer creating art or if I am writing its poetry or prose or something for children.

Whats new? Lots since this last post. All things with T and that terrible teacher have been, for the most part, resolved. She does still work at that school but Ts interactions with her are minimal. Well thats not entirely true. I think she has a need to clear a guilty concious. He comes home mentioning about weekly that she tries to make contact with him of some kind, tries to talk to him sweetly, inquire to his emotions of the day. He is no dummy, he sees through it and is simply bothered that she cant just let him be. He is afraid to just say nothing though, to just up and walk away. He thinks if he angers her, she will respond they way she did when she had him in her class. That she will physically hurt him, yell and embarress him. Poor child. He is learing at much too young an age the fininte politics of handling people. He is well though, and still loves school. His homeroom teacher is excellent. He has been on the honor roll all three quarters and I am sure he will end this year remaining on the 4th. Throughout all this I havent really been working there nearly as much. My 'friendships' arent what they were, if you can really even call them that anymore. Saccarine, falsely sweet if even acknowledged. All ties unbound. Looks as though T wasnt the only one learning....

K's grammy passed away this year, just before Thanksgiving. Its been a weighty loss for us all, I miss her, as do the rest of us. We have lost so much family lately. I must remember that I am older now, though it seems that time has scarcely passed by and but yesterday I was 20 or younger. The days all melt together and Im left here standing, (ok sitting!) wondering where it all went and noticing the age in others while I dont yet see it, let alone feel it, in myself. My heart hasnt moved forward, despite my body following those clock hands. My bones feel it. A desperate pull to prove I should actually be 90! :P Young hearts prevail!

We no longer own the Arvada house. Praise GOD! After far too many months of working with the property manager to get the house rented to no avail, we finally let her go and hired a reccomended, aggressive real estate agent. He works out of Denver but was still able to really push our property. D had most of her business out of Aurora and I think it was just getting to be too much hassle for her. I really dont know. Despite the market not being what we would have liked, the house, under Ts guidance, sold in TWO MONTHS time. Course that house was pretty special, what with the huge garage and handicap features. We did better than break even, we came out a little ahead and the weight of the worry of it all has vanished. Both K and I feel lighter. This, coupled with inheritence from Grammy...well I do absolutely hate trading a loved and precious life for green but as a friend of mine said...she would have died rich, she would have died poor. You cant let yourslef feel guilty for being glad to have the money. And so I try but its still an internal battle. I have to say, her main concern while living was always about the well being of her family. She went out of her way to make sure all were happy and taken care of. This is her final way of doing that for the rest of our lives. T will be able to go to college, we will be able to retire well when that time comes and our debts, what was left of them, are dwindling to nothing. Thank you Grammy.

I finished my online chidrens writing course with flying colors. Ive been reccomended to take the advanced classes. Apparently class size is limited and I wont know if I get in for another month or so. I am still undecided if Ill go forth with it all however, if I do make the cut. I didnt really learn much of anything new with this last one....but on a happy note it did force me to write which is a good thing, seeing as how art has taken over my being. Not that that is a bad thing mind you. Writing however, is my first true love. It sometimes feels as though I am cheating on her with an intoxicating misstress that I cant tear away from. I do keep coming back to the pen but it just isnt as much. Im gaining such intense inner joy from the art. It really brings me peace.

So speaking of art, I am finally taking the same steps as I do with my writing to bring things to frutation so to speak. Ive purchased some domains (one for the art, the other for writing, the two will interlink) and Im working on getting layout ideas for how I want the pages to look and then start to design them. K and dad say they can help, or I have the option to pay my friend C to aide as well. Im not quite to that point, its taking me a while but Ill get there when I get there. Ive got the art part pretty much decided, now for the writing. I need to get a portfoilo put together too and m and d will help me to print it all! what a boon. I had asked d when down visiting over easter about his reccomendations on print labs. To which he replied softly, "We can print them for you" I didnt even want to really ask that, they are so busy but what an offer. If things take off and get busy for me (which Im not really expecting but you do never know) then Ill have to change all that but for now, to at least get started, it will help out so much. I need to make some decsions on what to print or make some new items, I want to look at trying to get a gallery showing at the Nic and there is some remodling being done at the local coffee house, would be neat to get some art up on those walls. It costs money though and we dont quite have all things paid up. A lot going on, gotta take it slow and one step at a time. Of course I am not always known for my patience. I am going to let my innermuse blog go to the wayside once this other is up. In fact, I should remove it now while it is on my mind. Once my main page is functional I wont need the art blog anymore.

What else...we are looking at some home remodeling. We got the bathrooms done, the master is now handicap accessible, I have a shower in which I can use independently, just need the help getting in and out of the shower chair. The guest/Ts bath has a wider door frame so I can get IN there now (which is good since neither he nor K tend to clean it as often as it needs. ack!) It has a new linoleum floor and some repair done to damage on the vanity. We still need to paint both rooms and thats been a job left sitting for ages, but all that guady wallpaper is off. Next job is to take out the carpet in the living/dining/master bedroom. We want to put tile in the living/dining area and have been pricing. There is a loooong wait to get tile work done here in Casper, we are in the midst of a building boon and it could very well be a 6 mo wait. So its on our list of things that need done but I just dont know yet when. We are looking at putting hardwood in the master. Fell in love with Brazilian Cherry but we do have a set budget for all this and that is a pricey (GEORGOUS) wood. The labor for the tilework will be expensive, we are going to even look at putting a heating element under the floor in the living room section, so I dont know if we can afford the tile AND brazilian cherry...but we will see. We have more hardwood places to look at and get bids on to know for sure. Still havent gotten calls back for bids on some of the tile places yet either. Until I have some numbers to crunch I wont know what we can precisely swing.

This summer we want to tear out the narrow concrete walkways in the backyard and repour them with something widder and flush to the ramp base so that I can actually get out into the yard in my manual chair without help. Course the weather should be nice enough this time of year right now to start it before the dry heat of summer, but outside there is about of foot of snow on the ground and back to chilly winterlike temps. Oh the joys of the Rockies! :) I know I complain but in actuality I wouldnt have it any other way. I love living here.

So I guess thats all the updates. This year has been a rollercoaster, good and bad mixed but invariably, with God's help, we come out on top. Some bittersweet but good. We will continue to get by, God willing.