The Mermaid's Tale

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I'm free, to do what I want...
2008-01-08 00:13:00
So, the kids are back in incarceration..uh...I mean school. Hub's back to the daily grind. So it's just lil' ole me, here by my lonesome. What to do, what to do....Get my life back, that's what I do! 16 days of uninterrupted family time is quite sufficient, thank you very much. More power to those Super Mommies out there who can't stand to be separated from their offspring for more than fifteen minutes at a stretch. Who weep mournfully as their kiddies get on the bus. Who then race down to the school at 11:00 so they can all have lunch together, every single day. I love my kids very much. It's a cliche, of course, but I sometimes feel like I was just biding time until they were born - like I didn't really 'get it' until I had them. I adore the time we spend together and I try to make it fun, meaningful and fulfilling. That being said, I also recognize the fact that we are separate entities. They have lives and interests and things that do not include me. Likewi...
More About: Free

Tree frogs and other terrifying things....
2008-01-06 00:01:00
Today, I had a near perfect day. I got a lot of work done. My kids barely fought at all. Hubby finished a complicated but necessary home renovation project. And, in the afternoon, all four of us went golfing. I know, that sounds a little dull, but it was cool. We all just had a blast. I let my son steer the golf cart for a couple of minutes. It made him feel very grown up. My daughter was hitting really well, so she was very proud of herself. She got to drive the cart by herself. She did a surprisingly good job. Hub is an avid golfer so he had a blast. I was pretty much along for the ride. I just dressed like a goomba and drank a couple of beers. It was fun and very relaxing.So, being in such a benevolent mood, I thought that tonight I'd share a little bit about myself - not work, family or bead related.The first ten items on my "Siren's Song" list:1. I was voted 'Most Popular', 'Nicest' and 'Best Dressed' in Junior High.2. Ironically (see 1.), I had barely a...
More About: Things , Tree , Frogs

Pants on Fire
2008-01-03 14:58:00
I'm a big fat liar!!!!!I said I'd post and update and put up some pics and I didn't do any of that.We ended up going to St. Augustine for a New Year's celebration and then lingering around for most of the next day, hanging out and wasting time. My friend and I took the kids down to the beach to play in the sand while the 'menfolk' busied themselves with football. Watching, of course, not playing. I'm giggling a little just at the thought of my husband in those pants. Not that he's not, like, totally hot and all. Seriously. Hot, he's damn hot, I tell you.So, anyway, we were at the beach, bundled up in sweatshirts and sweatpants and, I think maybe some mittens. Meantime, the vacationers were actually in BATHING SUITS! And they were SWIMMING! In the OCEAN!!!!!!It was shocking and just a little bit frightening. I mean, it was only about 75 degrees. What were they thinking? I mean, we're not savages, for crying out loud. If you must swim in January, at least do it in the Bahama...
More About: Pants , Fire

Resolutions
2007-12-30 20:55:00
This is going to be a quick post, just to let everyone know that I'm not going to fall back into old habits. I will not let my blog die!I am committed to harnessing my own energy and making it work for me, setting a goal and achieving it. But, for this year's resolutions, there are no "I will lose 10 pounds" or 20 or 30. There will be no, "I will join a networking group to further market myself and my business".No, sirree Bob! This year I resolve to:...Follow my own creative instinct and not be influenced by what the market is craving...Enjoy my children while they are still interested in being enjoyed. Time races by and, cliche or not, they will be grown and gone in the blink of an eye. I do not want my most important life's work to fall behind and never be accomplished. I will be a good parent...Make a budget and stick to it. Life is too short to worry about finances every second of every day...Live a dream. Take something off my list and just do it, no matter how far-fe...
More About: Resolutions

Merry Christmas
2007-12-29 01:35:00
My dad has cancer.He's had cancer for a long time now. Almost as long as my little boy has been alive. I remember when we first found out. It was just a couple of days before my home was struck by a devastating C3 hurricane. I remember looking out into the night, the winds still howling, seeing through the dark at the destruction of my home, my property, my neighborhood. I remember just standing and crying and saying, "It's too much. It's just too much." For one of the very few times in my adult life, I cried and I couldn't stop.So now, we wait for his latest scan, to see if he's clear for a while. We hope so. Last year at Christmas , he was in the hospital, an infection in his arm threatening his health, his life even. Now is better. He's feeling good. Things are stable. It's his birthday today and he's made a milestone. He's Stage 4 but he's hanging in, fighting it with that grim, Midwestern determination.Since my dad was diagnosed, I've lost two friends to ...
More About: Merry Christmas , Merry

Well, s@*#!
2007-12-17 23:11:00
I have discovered that my adorable and brilliant son is also a germ carrier extrordinaire. He had the sniffles a few days ago and suddenly I have contracted Typhoid Fever. .... Or a really bad cold.I have an achey nose, fever, runny head....wait, I think I've got that all messed up. Whatever. I feel like shite.I love that word, shite. It's so totally foreign and yet so completely familiar. Brilliant! See, there's another foreign yet familiar word. Not that Great Britain is completely foreign. Execpt for some of their food. I mean... Oxtail Soup? Kidney Pie? Blood Pudding? Holy Shite!All right, let's get off the profanities and move on.Um, I guess that's all I've got for now.Oh yeah, more. I'm done Christmas shopping! I even got my kid's picture done. Wanna see? I'll be the first to admit that this is a spectacularly cheesey pose and Connor looks vaugely like a game show host, but still. Cute?OK, now I'm done. Happy trails.1 comments.Posted by Rebecca:Hi Laurie! Thought I'...

Where am I?
2007-12-16 11:48:00
Have you ever had a moment, not exactly an epiphany but kind of like an awakening? Maybe where you're in your life, doing your ordinary everyday stuff and all of the sudden you're like "Where am I? Who am I and why am I wearing these shoes?"I, of course, am not meaning in a literal sense but in a soul-deep and much more profound way.This happened to me last week. I just sort of woke up and was a little bit suprised by the shoes I was wearing and the places I was going and the things that were coming out of my own mouth. How did I get here and is this where I really want to be? What happened to the person I used to be. I was an individualist, a little bit reckless and a lot bit impulsive. I was never a follower, always a trend-setter. I was not Miss Popularity, but I chose specifically the friends I wanted and made them my own. I was a doer, not a planner.Now I am a planner and a doer. An organizer. I am safe and somewhat reliable, predictable in many ways. I am flip-fl...

Right, Left, Right
2007-12-12 19:44:00
Hi!Well, I did finish up with my classes, but I didn't get two A's. I got a B in one class. I just couldn't do it. I had time to do the final assignment, but it felt like I hadn't seen the kids in days and nothing was getting done around the house. I had a bunch of bead designs running around in my head and I didn't have time to get to them.So, I did something I never do. I blew off the last paper. Even as an adult, it's so ingrained into my Midwestern brain to work hard, do my best and finish what I start that I could barely make myself not do it. But I did. I feel so free!I probably should have learned how to do that years ago. Put the small things aside and focus on the big picture. I wish I had, about a lot of things. Maybe this was like a baby step on my way to bigger things.No new beads, though. Maybe tomorrow.1 comments.Posted by Toni Drew:Good for you a B is good shoot pat yourself on the back for that. ;)December 12, 2007 @ 12:53 PM
More About: Left

New Leaf Turning
2007-12-10 12:24:00
Well, this is me, turning over the proverbial new leaf. Is that a proverb? I doubt but I'm going to leave it in just the same.Well, I take my last Final tonight and then I'm done with the semester. That's another thing I failed to mention as a potential reason for my 'bad blogging'. I've been in school full-time this last semester. Well, part-time and two-thirds. I have two courses but they both have labs so that equals almost a full course load. For somebody who hasn't been in college for eight years, it's plenty!I got an A in one class and I'm headed for an A in the other. I got completely swamped and totally stressed out and my husband kept saying things like "Why do you care?" and "The grades don't matter, you're not doing it for a degree."Is he crazy? Grades don't matter? Puh-lease. I am incapable of doing a half-a** job on anything. Or not intentionally, anyway. Except this blog.I'm also writing a book. I have been working on it for about three years and I'm near...
More About: Leaf

I have fallen back onto the face of the earth!
2007-12-08 18:18:00
O.K., news flash here, so get ready........ I am a horrible blogger.Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but it seems to be true. Not only do I not update on a regular basis, but I also do not respond to people who leave me messages.Let me 'splain.First of all, I am inconsistent because I have an extrordinarily dull life. Busy, but dull. There's just not that much going on. I mean, if anyone really wants to hear about my son's kindergarten Halloween party or my daughter's softball hitting clinic, I will be happy to share, but I just don't see it.Second of all, I have gotten some very nice messages from those of you who have been able to slog through the tedium of this page. I thank you. It makes me feel warm and squishy inside. I would very much like to respond individually, but don't know how. I am dumb. I apologize.All that being said, Connor's party was a fabulous success and Anna is now the greatest softball player in Central Florida!!!!!!!Seriously, though, here's some be...
More About: Earth , Back , Face , Fallen

One Hit Wonders
2007-11-08 12:47:00
It's been a long time since I rock and rolled....If you could actually hear me singing that, it would seem much funnier. Well, I've been absent and blessedly silent for a while. Things have been hectic. I've had a lot of school work to do, the kids have been busy, I've been planning my annual Veteren's Day party, and volunteering quite a bit. It gets to be too much sometimes and I have to take a hiatus.I think my brain sort of shuts down it's creative side during that time and I'm unable to focus when I get to the torch. The will is there and the desire is there, but the well is empty of inspiration. I'm hoping that next week I'll be fully refreshed and ready to put out some ideas.I have to admit that I've been a little frustrated lately, too. I see certain beadmakers who are riding a wave a success that is based so much on formulaic creation that it saddens me. What I mean is, they sort of don't really know much technique but they stumble across an idea that peopl...
More About: Wonders

Coming around and going around
2007-10-23 01:18:00
Wow, I thought I'd try something different this week and list a set of beads that I totally loved. They were the most gorgeous complex dots in these delicious autumn colors. I thought they'd go like wildfire. Guess what....nada bidda. No interest. So sad. I just love them and think they are some of the prettiest beads I've done in a long while. Oh well, live and learn. If anybody's out there, I'd love to hear some feedback. What's wrong with those beads?Speaking of something different...I reached out to this guy I used to know in HS today. We were just friends but, after viewing some pics from my HS reunion, I thought, what the 'H', I'll see what he's up to. I haven't talked to him in like, 10 years. It should be fun. I'll keep you updated on what happens. It'll be like a tela novela!Or not. Pura Vida

Back on Track
2007-10-18 17:15:00
I'm back on the horse again, as it were. No more glum posts. The rainy weather is over and the October breezes have moved in. Perfect weather for opening up the studio and really getting my flame on. I've been working on focals lately and some dot beads. I like dots because they force you to really concentrate on the technical aspects of beadmaking; color reaction, size control, accuracy. If, as a bead lover, you think dot beads are simplistic, think again. They are one of the hardest kinds of bead to make, I can assure you.Here's what I have listed on eBay this week: My parents are here for the winter. Yay!My daughter got moved out of her classroom at school and into a new class. The teacher/student ratio was over the legal limit, so they had to form a new class. Very hard on a nine year old to have to get booted out and start over from scratch after two months making friends and getting to know her new teacher. Booooo!Well, speaking of Boo, I'll be working very hard and decora...
More About: Back , Track

Sweet October
2007-10-05 16:57:00
It's raining today, hence my presence here. Don't get me wrong, I love rainy weather. Love it, Love it, Love it.Let me 'splain. I am a random free-thinker who doesn't particularly enjoy the company of other people. I sometimes don't even enjoy my own company. Rainy days provide me with the perfect excuse. Actually, they make it so I don't need an excuse at all. An excuse to stay inside, watching Lord of the Rings and 90's slacker movies and eating my kids prepackaged lunch box snack cakes. I don't have to feel guilty for missing out on 'Lunch with Girlfriends' or skipping that 4,000th trip to the park. It's perfectly acceptable to stay inside while pot roast bubbles in the crockpot and weeds visibly sprout taller in the flower beads. I love rainy weather!I did, however, in a burst of non-slackerism, clean off my work bench this week and make a couple of sets of beads and some new focals. Nice, stormy day activities.Here's wishing you some lovely, soothing rain.
More About: Sweet , October