Williams - Painting Class

This is what I have been up to the last few weeks. My friend Melissa wanted me to post some of my work. I just finished a painting class for school. 4 more classes to go and I graduate on December 18th. I don't claim to be an expert painter or artist but I had fun nonetheless. It was hard work though.

Floral Study - completed at Kelli's house while visiting.

Interior drawing - completed at Kelli's while visiting.

Egg

Still Life

Monochromatic Still Life

Another Still Life - I got tired of doing these. I ran out of things to paint because I have no knick knacks.

Duplicating another artists landscape.

Yet another Still Life. This was my favorite one that I painted. We had to paint with only two complementary colors and mix them to create other colors. It was fun.

Attempting a portrait of Sage. This was a fun one too. I couldn't get the eye's right though. Sage told me it looked just like her except she said the eyes were all wrong.

Duplicating Claude Monet's "Sunrise" painting. I love Impressionism. It is much harder to duplicate than I ever imagined.

Too much FAT, too little MONEY

Today I had my first depressing day in 10 months. It's not post-partum or anything to do with Annie- for some reason when I'm prego and after, I get the giggles all the time and feel like I'm on happy gas.

Nope. Today I was depressed over two things: Fat and money. I have too much of one and too little of the other. Can you guess which is which?

I really had to calm myself down several times. "It's fine Nicole. You're fine Nicole."

But then I kept going back to how upside down we are in our mortgage and the 70,000$ we would have had to buy a new home if...

...if
...if
...if.

So I got depressed.

I have a small car. I have to pull the seat all the way forward to fit Annie.
There is no AC in the back.
Plus- I have to park it in a HOT parking lot which makes it way hard to go out with Annie.
It sucks.

so then I got depressed again.

And I wondered: what would it be like to park my car in a garage.
I could almost survive my small Honda if I could park it in a garage.

So then I got depressed again.

I kept telling myself not to swear inside my head but then I kept thinking about how tired I am of telling myself not to swear in my head. I hate it.

Then I made things way worse: I tried on pre-prego pants with zippers.

It was bad.

Real Bad.

...and Q. Oh Q.

...........................................................So today I was depressed.




But Annie is a dream. Loads of smiles. Took her to Swiss Days and drowned my sorrows in a mulita from Irmitas and two cookies. It didn't help much.

Wish I could drown all my sorrows in a big fat SOLD sign.

Someone make me feel better. I may cry.

This is funny.

Williams - Nora Photo Shoot

We spent the last 10 days at Kelli's house in Denver. Callie is two weeks old and they are moving so we went to help them pack and keep her kids busy. We had a fabulous time. While we were there, Kelli took some photos of Nora and the kids. Click on the link below to see some of the photos. Nora is now 8 months old. Where did the time go?

http://eudisfamnews.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-big-sister.html

Just when I was getting used to the pajama-like track suits.

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

...I bring you... Plig Alana.

Didn't you always think it was polyg?
Well, not according to Grandma Jenny's book and I consider her The Expert. So plig it is.

This two-year-old photo crossed my path today and cheered me up.

Andrea's friend was going on a pioneer trek and I had instructions to find some plig wear from our D.I. Pickins were slim and this teal number was all I came up with. I shipped it off to California but not without first posing complete with infant and hair.

In a world of alternative lifestyles, polygamy is starting to look less and less weird to me. Really. It's not the world's worst idea.

Don't you wish your third wife was hot like me?
Don't you wish your third wife was a freak like me?

Williams - The Entertainers

We finally had company this last week. Erin and Kyle came to visit us and we had so much fun with them. I was sad to see them leave. We went boating, shooting, played games, visited Tillamook Cheese Factory and Oceanside Beach at the coast, and went to the zoo. I am exhausted. Here are some pics of our fun:

Don't Erin and Kyle look good with three kiddos! What does the future hold????

Sage - Trying out the double ski's

Herb and Sage. Her ski's fell off right after this and she ends up placing her feet on Herb's ski's and riding his from that point on.

Kyle - the flagger

Sweet Nora, driving the boat!

Erin and Sage

Kyle and Herbie

Nora's napping corner

Nora, what big hands you have!

Erin and Kyle, Thanks for all your help with mom and the kids. We love you!

Prima Ballerina Haggis Joe

^releve

^saute

^pirouette

^passe

^shake your biscuits

Anika starts ballet class next Wednesday with Miss Sheila. She is so excited and has been practicing all her moves.

Yes, Haggis Joe is one of her nick names in my family. Long story.

I'm really surprised with the new Anika these days. She toured her preschool and met her teacher and is very eager to start. She's equally eager about ballet class and I can't figure out where my shy little girl has gone.

I took her to see Cats and Dogs in 3D today. Man! I hate, loathe 3D! But Anika was entertainment enough. She gets the kiddie pack of popcorn and proceeds to lick each piece and discard it to the drink space in the cardboard, occasionally sipping her root beer or leaning over to give me kisses.

Her 3D glasses kept sliding down but hearing "Oh gweat, my gwasses are swipping!" made me smile.

Tostadas Get Toasted

On Tuesday I almost burnt the house down. I had put oil on the stove to heat up and then sat down at the computer. Anika was playing hide and seek so Brandon went downstairs to get her. When he came back up he yelled, "Alana!"

I would give anything to have a still shot of what he saw... my poor posture dumbly bent over the computer while the kitchen is on fire just out of my sight. Duh.

He said, "What do we do?" and my mind went blank. I knew water was a no-go. I knew I could smother it with flour but in such a panic failed to remember where the flour was (right by the stove!). Duh. Luckily we own a fire extinguisher, two of them, one on each level of the house. So Brandino pulled the pin and blasted it. Initially, the force of the extinguisher just blew the hot oil everywhere which continued to burn but one more blow and it was out.

I keep thinking about it, wondering if I should have tried smothering it with a lid first bur Brandon and I agree, neither of us would have dared reach in the fire to put a lid on it so I suppose we did the right thing but what a mess! The entire house was coated with oil and black smoke and worst of all the dry chemical from the extinguisher. It found every nook and cranny. I dared Brandon to use the toaster for the first time... Who will eat the first mono ammonium phosphate toast?

After about five hours and six magic erasers the worst was cleaned up. We have to order some new stove parts that melted but it could have been much worse.

I'm going to blame this one on pregnant brain.

San Clemente

Thanks to my rich sugar daddy, Cara, we got to stay a week at the beach again this year. She rented the same beach house and it felt like home when we got there. I uploaded all these photos in random order.

My Mom would kill me if she knew I posted a photo of her in her swim suit but I couldn't resist showing her off. Can you even believe this woman is 70 years old?!?! I, myself, do not believe it. Especially when she gets a tan... wow, she is one hot senior citizen! Still no gray hair... just the few on her crown she makes me pluck, ewww.

Here is our awesome house. I could not get used to the fact we could go outside any time of day. A constant 70 degrees is welcome after a July holed up in my desert cave.

Ocean view, glass deck, all white. The house is all white from top to bottom. How do these people dare rent their house all summer?

I grew up watching the Amtrak cruise past the beach all day, waving to the passengers. But it never occurred to me we could ride it. I took Anika for a 20 minute train ride down to Oceanside and she absolutely loved it. She still has her ticket stub and looks at it all the time.

The entire week was paradise. It's just not the beach unless it's the family plot. I felt Gaga (my Grandma) smiling down on us.

I came upon Cara and Anika in my room listening to Cara's ipod. It looked so much like a Pink Victoria's Secret photo shoot that I couldn't resist a photo. Cara and Anika had matching anklets and relaxed while talking about Cara's boyfriend. They are both such teenagers.

And last but not least, the mini van! Where has this thing been all my life? We were able to fit three adults in the third row when we had to go somewhere together. I can't tell you how easy traveling was in that thing and can safely say I will be a mini van driver for life. It's like a plane and I kept thinking someone was about to serve gingerale.

It's mildly good to be home. Difficult, though, to be back to the frying heat and nothing to do. I need to seriously consider somewhere with four seasons. In Lake Arrowhead we had a great winter with snow, long falls and springs, summer with a high of 85 and the lake. We were also
1 1/2 hours from the beach. Janna and Mike are planning on moving to the beach next summer. Cara's in Newport, Jake at UCI, Andrea and Ian in Lake Arrowhead. Help! Will my Mom leave me too? What would I do? I really don't want to move to California. I like it here and the summer would be bearable if I had a yard with grass and trees, shade. I still want to move to the boonies. Escalante?

Brandon, Anika and I are going back to California in a month or so to Cara's house. She's 5 minutes from the beach in Newport but we're still going to drive the 40 minutes to San Clemente each day because like I said, it's jut not the beach unless it's our beach.

Annie and Nicole here

We are alive and beginning to surface. No matter how much I love staying holed up in the annex with Annie, I have to go back to work on Monday (less than 2 weeks after my C-section) so I need to get a jump on things.
Speaking of "things"- things are great! super great! Annie is a dream, nursing is a breeze (no seriously-I'm so lucky), and I didn't have to deal with an opesiotamy (spelling?) !! The hospital was like a spa only better because they keep you hopped up on drugs. Now that we are home, I am having a blast trying to believe little HQ is really a girl! We are head over heels in love with her. She never cries, has tons of black hair, and is so alert.
Pictures to come. Thank you cards to come (someday)... but for now, I am going to finish reading Behind the Iron Curtain, an illustrated Stallin history children's book to Annie.

To Nicole:

Not like you are going to have time to check a blog... it makes me laugh that I'm even posting this for you. I hope you are doing well postpartum. I caught Anika's cold and didn't want to give it to you this week. Plus, I know how I didn't want too many visitors so soon. I'm going to California for a week tomorrow but when I get back, could I come see you and cute Annie? No pressure, take your time. If you don't want visitors for a while longer, I'm cool. She is so adorable. Have a good week, y'all.

Williams - More Reunion Pics

Don't judge my form. I obviously need to work on that a bit. Herb is constantly telling me to lean forward. As long as I look hot while shooting, it doesn't matter right? At least, Ashley thinks so.

Herbie is a character. A personality all his own. We sure love this guy!

Ciara - Tricks - Kneeboarding

Ciara - Tricks - Wakeboarding

Chillin' on the beach!

Random Funny

I haven't been able to stop laughing about this but maybe that's just because I had the pleasure of actually seeing the look on the poor man's face.

Brandon and I were at Tuacahn last night with his family and you know how those women's restroom lines can be during intermission, right? So we went in to the high school for restrooms and the women's still had a long line. But wait, what's this I see? No line at the men's. So I go in and smile casually, politely at the man washing his hands as I help myself to the one and only stall. I hear him go out and another man come in who is now waiting for my stall. I came out and gave the poor old man a heart attack. He gasped, "OH! I'm in the women's!" I laughed and patted him on the shoulder and said, "NO! I'm in the men's!"

I remember being at a gas station with my Grandma (Nonna) on a road trip. The women's restroom was occupied so she helped herself to the men's. I was only twelve or so and totally horrified and embarrassed. Nonna! How could you?! But now I do it all the time. You really do grow up to be your Mother and your Mother's Mother.

Sad Story

Okay, do we all see the piece of material that is the front of my bathing suit bottoms? This afternoon that piece got cut off the suit with my sewing scissors. Yes, I found that old suit in my bottom drawer, which I affectionately refer to as the Drawer of Dreams. There you will find more than one too-small suit, lingerie, etc.

But why did I chop it? Even last year at the beach, I kept coming out of my newly-purchased tankini. I ran up to my nephew after we took a tumble in a huge wave and he was wincing and pointing at my top... I had come out... completely. Poor kid. So I knew the tankini would not work this year, especially considering my boobs (and butt) have doubled in size since, thanks to pregnancy and a constant intake of gatorade.

So I took the old string bikini bottoms and proceeded trying to alter my tankini. I put it on inside-out and started pinning the material while wearing it. Ouch, I may have damaged a milk duct. But all in vain. It just wouldn't work, looked even more terrible. It was pretty funny, though. I was certainly getting a kick out of using material that once covered my entire butt to now try and contain my fatty breasts, adding it like patchwork.

What to do now?
We leave for the beach house on Saturday.

I really, honestly want the burqini.
Even then, might have to splurge for the modest-fit PLUS.

I know you think I'm kidding but I'm not.

You know what else would feel great?
Being on a fourteen-day honeymoon on St. Thomas with no kids.
Also. Making out twenty pounds ago.
It's so much better when I'm lighter on (off) my feet.

Baby Girl!

I got a text today of a photo of a beautiful baby girl... haven't talked to Nicole, obviously, so don't know the details... 6lb. 13 oz. I am so excited for you Nicole. Just wanted to pass on the info to you, Ci and Jen, in case you had not heard. Aaaack!!! I can't believe it's a girl. That makes me so happy!!! Little girls make my heart melt. I can't wait to see her in person. I'm assuming they went with Annie??? I think that was the plan if it was a girl but have no clue what they settled on???

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALANA WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

If you aren't reading this blog yet, you should start.

It always gives me a good laugh.

Get your dramatic irony here.

View From Here

Here is a picture of the flag my Dad had flying at his last place in Telluride. Now it flies at my house and I can't help but laugh at the change of scenery. What will it be... 10,000 feet up in the mountains, breathing cool, crisp air? Or in the ghetto of the high desert off Interstate 15 somewhere? I think of my Dad every day I put it out. It is over 110 degrees today and I sure could use some Telluride. And that view!

Some things

So a couple of things:

First- I'm huge.

Second- Q thinks that men should have a say when it comes to interior decorating.

Third- Where can I get good chicken fried chicken in St. George?

Having a kid in the next few days. We are freaking out. Panic Panic Panic! What were we thinking? Scary anxiety and cold sweats. Over and over again we keep saying thank heavens we waited this long. YIKES!

Williams Reunion

Prineville Reservoir. We spent the week boating, camping, and shooting with Herb's family. Herb and I were in charge of the first Williams Family Reunion. Our reunion theme was "I'm on a Boat" which is from this song this is the edited version. We don't have to plan another one for 16 more years, this is when having lots of siblings comes in handy.

I finally got to wakeboard. I couldn't last summer since I was pregnant. So more pictures will be coming of me doing some sweet jumps:) More like letting go of the rope and plugging my nose because I am scared to crash!