Planning

Lee & Brad are in town, and I am enjoying spending the weekend with them. They are at a friend's wedding, and I wish they weren't, b/c I'm dog-sitting for them instead. But, Ellie's a sweet girl, and I don't mind. Oneday, maybe they'll babysit! :o) And this gives me an opportunity to watch some much-missed cable television (i.e. Law & Order).
Today Knox, Lee, Mom, and I went for a little walk around town in which Knox promptly spotted a "little horse," a "ly-won," and white flowers (the little horse being an anti-bellum horse & carriage pitch that is so common here in small southern towns, the ly-won being how Knox says 'lion,' though he mistook a yorkie for it, and white flowers being, well, white flowers). Wesley has been working on music all weekend, though mostly not his own, so far. He recorded a co-worker's music most of the day today, thus sending Knox & I to Dad's for a good part of the day. Then, after a quick dinner, he headed off to band practice. I am excited that he is getting back into playing with a band. I really enjoy his acoustic work, but there is an aspect to playing with a band that I think Wesley misses when he doesn't play with a group for a while. I don't know if its just that its something he really enjoys, or that its b/c he has basically always played music in bands since he was quite young (or both), but either way, it's good for him to get back into it.
This week, I have planned a menu and already bought the groceries, so I am excited to get started on the meals! :o) Here it goes!
Sunday a.m.: my best attempt to re-create the breakfast-biscuit-egg-muffin things that I had at a little coffee shop in Kingston Springs, which are incredible.
Sunday p.m.: Mammy's Cupboard's recipe of Vegetable Beef Soup w/my Granny's Jalepeno Cornbread Muffins
Monday: Slow-cooked Chicken with bacon & greenbeans, and "potato salad" (though if you know me at ALL, you know this must not have the "m"word in it. It doesn't. I'm going to do my best attempt to duplicate the potato salad from the restaurant Zoe's Kitchen).
Tuesday: Mammy's recipe (again) for Chicken Salad Sandwiches (but, again, without the M-word, and instead, fat free plain yogurt) with a side of vegetable soup and mixed fresh fruit
Wednesday: church night
Thursday: chili dogs with Kosher dogs & wheat buns & fat free turkey chili, and steamed broccoli
Friday: miniature whole-wheat pizzas
Saturday: breakfast with Dad, and a wedding to attend that night, so I'm sure we'll eat there

Some photos I should have uploaded a while back

My sister Lee & her Dog, Ellie

Ellie Bean
Knox playing with his Dump Truck. Probably his favorite toy.
Ellie Bean

Baby Ellie

Knox playing at the Lake in his little pool.

Knox & his "cool dude" glasses

Mommy & Knox

I did a photo shoot for my sister's dog Ellie Bean not too long ago. Here's one of my favorites from the session.

These are photos my mother-in-law took of the little man playing on the phone. He likes to say "what?? oh, really?"

And last, but certainly not least, our little man (the first) eating "moat-meal."

CDs & Canvases

Wesley is on his last day of recording today. It is such a good cd. I know that I may be bias, but I was drawn to his music before I was attracted to him, so I think I can say objectively that it is good stuff. And it is good stuff. It has been almost exactly a year in the making, so it's nice to see it come together. I have heard just about all of it (save for the stuff they are currently working on, though Merisha and I will be going up there later on this afternoon to work on it some more, and we shall hear it then) and it is Excellent work! So, because today is the last day of recording, the cd should be out (Lord willing!) by the end of this month! Hooray! And, we've been getting some pre-orders in (...ah, hem, at $10.00 each, including delivery which will be $12, so order your copy today!!!...) so that's reassuring that the cd will sell. I have full confidence in that its completely worth of listening to and worth of buying. I just hope that we can get the word out there. It will be available on iTunes eventually, too. Ok, enough about that.I have to order canvases this weekend. I was just commissioned recently to paint a portrait of a dog. I have only done this sort of portrait once, so it shall be a new venture. The one time I did a portrait of a pet was of our "stray" cat Clarence that adopted us, and it was for Wesley, so it will be interesting painting the portrait for someone outside of our home. I love doing people and animals. The pressure is in that it has to be exact. Its just not the same otherwise. Have you ever seen something someone's painted or drawn and thought, "well, I can tell that it looks like so & so, but somethings just not quite right." Exactly. It has to be exact. Generally animals are less stressful than humans, but you would be suprised (or maybe you wouldn't!) at how detail oriented you have to be when its someone's pet. People see their pets almost as children, and in this case, sometimes the pets are their children.