Sunday, October 5, 2008

DAY THREE

thanks to lindsey and my cousin becky for checking to see if i still cared to post. i thought it would take weeks for anyone to check my deserted blog to see if there was any life.

so here is the update, both mable and me didn't do any of our tasks saturday. it's nice to have someone to help and support you with your goals but if one says, "hey, how about we do double tomorrow to make up for today" it is so easy to say "OK!" However, Matt did do something really cool. he and his friend jamie raced in the first cyclocross race of the season. i was supposed to do it and i did kind of want to.... but it was raining big drops and it was maybe 50 degrees. mind you it has been 85 degrees for the past week! so i totally chickened out! i still love to compete but when i have an option to get out, i take it. any way i am so proud of matt and jamie, they did so well! they raced hard for 45 minutes in the mud, rain, and cold! there are pictures to follow.

as for today, we did better. all tasked completed, however, we didn't complete them until 10:00pm. it is hard to get back in a pattern or routine. i will be honest, i didn't work on art for a measely 30 minutes. i got a start though. below is a picture of the start of new painting. i whitewashed over a previous painting that i wasn't in love with and that i really felt couldn't be saved. that is what i love about painting. you don't like it, just paint over it and start again. the best part about it, is that you get to see some of the process of the painting and how it came to be.

my stomach hurts and my shoulders ache. i'm ok with the hurt because it reminds me that i did something good for me and my stomach and back and that makes me feel good.




Friday, October 3, 2008

I'm baaaaccckkk....

Nothing so much needs reforming as other people's habits- Mark Twain.

It's been way too long. Time to dust off the blog and post a little about the life and times, but I'm currently doing my art so Mable is posting as me... imposter-hood. Since I have the utmost difficulty with regularity (of the blog posting kind), I have agreed to a public record keeping for the next 30 days, give or take, in order to establish a habit.

Mable thinks 30 should do the trick; I'm not so sure. The deal is this:

Daily-

Me... 3o minutes art, 200 situps, 10 pushups (weak sauce...), meditation (10 minutes), tv less than 1 hour a day (embarrassing but honest)
Mable... 200 situps, 25 pushups (stronger sauce), meditation (10 minutes), breathing exercised (10 minutes, don't ask)
Lucy... find 1 peanut, watch cat for 1 hour, learn left means left and right means right.

Day 1: All tasks complete except Lucy. She appears to misunderstand the nature of the deal but we are working on it.. She did watch the cat for an hour and half. She was proud and thought she deserved an extra treat. Oh yeah, here is the first piece of art >>>








Monday, April 21, 2008

SALT LAKE CITY MARATHON

i ran 26 miles on Saturday the 19Th! it all started in February, Matt and i thought it would be a fun thing to do as a newly married couple. little did i know that he would bail out and leave me left to run it alone. He has run two marathons and doesn't really want to run anymore. However i am glad that he pushed me out the door to start running. Lucy became my running partner, i felt kind of bad that she did all that training and she didn't get to see how fast she could run the race ( i realize i'm one of those crazy dog owners, but knowing is half the battle).

i feel a huge since of accomplishment. when i was swimming i got this feeling all the time. i had a coach telling me everyday that i swam a good race or that i looked good in practice, at the time i just shrugged it off like it didn't really matter. but when i didn't get the constant reinforcement i remember thinking to myself ( i still think this) did i do something good today?

the race went well, the weather was perfect! the high was 70. it was a little windy but most of the time it was at my back. the race started at the legacy bridge up at the U of U. they had a gospel choir singing to get us pumped for the race. the gun went off at 7 am and we ran down foothill turned down 2100 south , a lap around sugar house park then out on 2300 east to 6200 south, down van winkle to liberty park with the finish line at the gateway! as I'm writing this i still can't believe a ran that far. i couldn't have done it with out my very supportive husband. he road his bike along the rout to make sure i had enough water and food. mostly it was nice to have someone to talk to, to keep my mind off the miles. norm and Liz were also very good cheer leaders! is it really any question that they would be good cheerleaders, norm was a veiwmont high cheerleader and liz was in the drill team at woods cross. they dug deep and remembered their spirit. it was so helpful to have them to look forward to.

i finished the race in 3 hours 44 minutes and i don't know how many seconds (dose it matter?)

my goal was to go 3:30. i really just wanted to go under 4 hours. through some negotiations matt and i came to an agreement that if i could run the marathon under 4 hours and come in at the top three in my age group in the McCall triathlon, then my reward is a beautiful bianchi road bike. the triathlon isn't until august, so i'll let you know how it all turns out.

after the race i ate a peanut butter sandwich and took a long shower. i felt like a salty potato chip. then i took a long nap. the next day i was so sore!! i still am. i have to side step the stair going down and squatting down to pick something up isn't really possible. my thighs kill and my stomach muscle that i didn't know i had ache as well.

would i do it again? sure if i had some buddies to do it with, but maybe not for a year or two, i need to recover.

here are some pictures of the day



here i'm with lucy at the start
running up parleys way right by our house

matt and i at the finish


Sunday, March 30, 2008

WAYNE THIEBUAD



saturday march 29th marty, simon, his girlfriend cami and i went to the Wayne Thiebaud exhibit at the springville art museum.

the most exciting part was that Wayne was there to give a lecture on his work. he is 89 years old and fit as a fiddle. his mind was very sharp. he seemed so normal, which isn't really a surprise but more a relief. He was dressed in a navy suit, with a sweater vest and a bow tie, silver hair and glasses. the art director from BYU facilitated the interview, which was mostly questions from the audience. Wayne answered every question, with equal importance to all of the them. although i think he was more interested in hanging out with his family who were all there to support him. he was very humble in talking about his work and very passionate when talking about the painting process. you see Wayne Thiebaud is a super star in the art world. he is up there with Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns, Rausenburg, Andy Warhol (in my opinion) his paintings probably sell for $100,000 plus. yet he still chose to teach at the sacramento city college.


i remember when i was younger looking through marty's art books. wayne's cakes and pastries, ice cream cones, gum ball machines, always stuck out to me. i think i was drawn to his work then as i am now because his paintings are simply paintings. there is no political statement, there is no shocking in your face drama, there is no abstracting the human form to the point of a solid red square. his paintings are about color and common objects. he uses broad brush strokes and thick paint to create vibrant, luscious color. they are just beautiful. but i never thought in a million years i would be able to see him and hear him talk about his work. especially in springville utah! i feel so lucky to have heard from one of the great ones. he was truly inspiring.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

set up a blog then ditch

well since i started my blog it's been 15 days. i just counted, it seems like two months ago, i feel a little better. anyway i've been having mini panic attacks all day. deep yoga breath in........hold.. and out......the yoga breaths aren't working!!

my life really isn't that bad right now but it feels that way, so hopefully by writing it down and getting it out will help.

my mom (aka norm) is the queen of lists and she taught me well in the art of list making, i can see her now looking down at her light tan franklin covey day planer....
grocery store... slash
clean the car....slash
visiting teaching...slash oh, it feels good to cross things off my list then i don't have to worry about them anymore. then she looks up with a sigh of relief and smile.

the problem with my list is that there is no slashing. you know when you have so much to do you don't do anything at all. well i do anyway, i go to a happy place where the food network lives on channel 40. i fall into the little worlds of iron chef, ace of cakes, giada, rachael ray's 30 minute meals, dinners, dives, and drive ins. oh i love it, until i look at my watch two hours later, and feel an enormous amount of guilt and defeat. my list beat me today. i don't get to slash through any items that have been hanging around my calendar for weeks! dammit!! i'm stronger than that! oh but somehow that pesky little list keeps taunting me. nah nah nah, you can't get me!

well well, little list i can! i came from behind and because i am writing this all down so i can slash though one item on my list.

make a blog post!


THE LIST

- go running (i'm trying to train for the slc marathon april 19th)
- clean car (i haven't cleaned it since the fall)
-go grocery shopping (that is a list in it's self)
-resolve 5 paintings and start 4 others (critique day starts april 14th)
-make a 6ft by 4ft collage for rick by march 24th
-make a picture book for my parents of our wedding
-clean out downstairs bedroom (it has turn into a dumping ground)
-clean the house

this is my personal list, i have a long work list that i don't want to bore you with. and really i feel that my work list is the one that is getting the the way of personal list.

maybe this is helping because when i read through it, and take a deep yoga breath in...... i feel better.





Wednesday, February 20, 2008

the night i started my blog

here i am looking dumb founded at my blog. february 20th at 11:50 pm i am finally finished posting my first blog post.

i talked to my very best friend emily today while i was driving to work, and she threaten me that if i didn't get my blog going by march 1st she would block me from viewing her blog. well em, i guess your threat worked. my eyes are now blog shot ( i meant to say blood shot) and blurry from looking at my computer screen to long. as you can see from the post to follow this it has taken me, what 2 hours 3 hours to put this together.

i couldn't be happier!!! it has been on my list for two months along with 20 other things, so now i'm down to 19 things to cross off. i will love to put a big red slash through, create blog!