Heather Eddy Art

On the desk tonight - further work on my little houses. I'm branching out into new and excited color combos. Red became my favorite color when I got married, but lately my previous love for purple is coming back. Who knows what psychological meaning that has! (Please note the tall glass of ice water - still not really drinking much real Diet Pepsi) Kenneth continues with his great imaginings. The other day my father-in-law unearthed these weird little glasses over at his house. I think they came from doll-making stuff. They fit Kiff pretty well. He asked me to draw a scar on him so he could wear the ensemble to school. Unfortunately, his teacher didn't let him keep it. :(   Here are my every-other-weekend kidlets - Alex and Kenzie - dressed in their finest for their First Ever Church Dance!!! I heard that Alex even gave in and danced a little at the end. ( Please don't make me go again, Dad! After you learn social skills, son, I won't make you go anymore.) ...

There is a danger to one's children when one is an artist. For instance, a couple of weeks ago I was sitting at the piano in the children's Sunday School when I overhear my child (the piano blocks my view of the kids - my ears are attuned for any Kiff-trocities in the making) saying "I'm folding a book." While that may be music to my ears on some occasions, I knew the only book he had a church was his Book of Mormon. I sat up and looked over the piano to a little boy sitting in his class row, beaming at me as he proceeded to fold his little book of scripture. His teacher, a 20-something young man was horrified, but paralyzed with indecision. Immediately I made frantic flapping motions for Kiff to come to me. He came over and eagerly showed me his creation. I made a classic mom-mistake and squashed his enthusiasm with panic over his actions - YOU CAN'T DO THAT AT CHURCH - IN FACT, YOU CAN'T DO THAT ANYWHWERE - PEOPLE WILL THINK I'VE TAUGHT YOU TO ...

A couple weeks ago a co-worker stopped by my desk and opened conversation with this: "Your husband needs to die." I disagreed with her - mostly because we don't have enough insurance on him yet. This friend had been through a pretty bad breakup in the very recent past, so I knew her comment wasn't a literal wish, but a desire to have some misery to keep her company. And also because (in her words) "He keeps saying exactly the right thing at the right time." It never occurred to me that other people noticed the back and forth Brian and I have on my Facebook posts. Another incident at work was just yesterday when a bunch of women were talking about how much they wished they had a guy in their lives. They were musing about what he should look like (tall, dark, tattooed, The Rock) and asked me my opinion. I said, "Oh, I'm fine. I'm happy with my husband." They laughed amongst themselves and said, "Your husband *is* perfect." ...

Before I added the words.  I've been worrying this drawing for a few days now. When I first read the story of Jacob's dream (Genesis 28), I couldn't figure out what to do - ladders, wrestling with angels, etc. The part that talks about a house is after Jacob wakes up and says that the place he is in is God's place. After I added the words. I wish I could redo the words to a lighter color.  So I decided to paint a desert (because that's where I *imagine* Jacob to have been (with stones for his pillows) and use the words of the scripture to draw a house. If you think about it, God is everywhere and we just need to remember that. Today was Kenneth's last day of Kindergarten. I took a picture of him in the same clothes and show the first and last day's pictures side by side. He's grown!!!

I didn't get married until I was 37 years old. It took me a looooooooong time to find a good man. My dating history had consisted of: You've Thrown a Monkey Wrench Into My Life But I Think I'll Marry This Teenager Instead Of You Man, I Want You to Help Me Raise My Daughter But I Don't Want to Marry You Man, and I Love You But Not Enough to Marry You Man.   Brian and I met online . Scary, huh? He sent me a Valentine's card the first week we started writing. We met in person three weeks after we started writing. We got engaged two months after we started writing. We married five months after we started writing. Although I'd had a sense of peace in my heart when I accepted Brian's proposal, there were still many many times when I'd worried I'd jumped in too fast. People loved to tell me stories of other couples who'd met online, married and divorced. The reason Brian and I are still married is really due to Brian. He went through a marriage al...

I don't know if my sense of wonder about this kid will ever wane. Kiff is six today. He woke up to a cupcake for breakfast and a pair of birthday socks.  Then he decorated the cupcake. With salt & vinegar potato chips and Skittles. And he ate it. Every last crumb. Wearing a backwards shirt. Happy Birthday to the kid who makes me laugh with his imaginative observations and silly sense of humor! I love being your mom!

For several weeks now, my mother in law has been ill. The last time she went into the hospital it was decided to stop taking extreme measures and let her live out the rest of her life at home with hospice. I was fortunate enough to be able to stay the night with her a couple of times to help out. This morning she died. I went over to the house (they only live a mile away) to be with the rest of the family until the mortuary could come pick her up. She looked so peaceful there on the couch. I looked at my mom-in-law and felt such gratitude to have known her. She really loved me and I knew it. It feels so good to be loved without any thought of having to earn it or pay for it. Good-bye, Joan. I love you. I bet you are having the time of your... real life? right now...

It's been very gray here in Bako for the past several days. We didn't let that get us down this weekend as we decided to go to the river together as a family and shoot things with beebee guns. Actually, the boys shot things. I looked for rocks. Did I spell beebee right? The river was really low and quiet. It wasn't that rushing torrential flood that we had most of the summer and was a welcome sight. I always get worried about losing my kids to the waters. This time the rocks were so far out of the water that we could nearly walk across in some spots. Still, with it cloudy, you never know if a sudden rain is going to change everything and kill your entire family in the process. Yes, I think thoughts like that. I found the neatest looking rocks. At first I thought it was a white-spotted red sock, but then I noticed that all the rocks had those polka dots on them. The granite is just really weird in this part of the river. I'll take pictures of the polka-dotted rocks...

  This past weekend, Brian's eldest son turned fourteen. I have been around this kid for nearly seven years and it's been an interesting time. We're still getting to know each other and sometimes don't know what to make of the other. He's sooooo into sports and I could be happier scratching out my eyes than listening to endless rehashes of past sporting events. Still, I wanted him to have a happy birthday. A friend of mine from the library traded me a book for her mom (oops - I need to finish that!!!!) in exchange for the cake. I definitely came out the winner...   Here's the birthday boy in all his silliness. He looks a lot like Brian when he was fourteen. Except for the eyes - he has his mother's eyes. (ooh, how Harry Potter!) Here's the rest of the crew. Kenneth was keeping a steady eye on that cake. He wanted to eat one of the decorations very badly.

October went out of my life very quietly. I was not feeling well for a couple of days and slept as much as I could. Alas! No art was finished! Still, the Eddys celebrated Halloween for the first time in their own neighborhood and we enjoyed watching the parade of trick-or-treaters all evening. Last year we weren't home for some reason and Kiff still didn't understand the concept of it all. The other two kids were a little old for trick-or-treating so we didn't encourage it for them - we'd had a church function where we let them gorge on candy. This year Kiff DID understand all the hoopla. For the last week, he's been asking how many more days until Halloween. He's been learning the days of the week and it's been fun to watch him do the weekday song and add in his own bits. Anyway, here are the Eddys celebrating in the ways they do best: Brian is so uncomfortable in front of the camera. He can't help striking a pose! Brian has a fog machine and...

Looking out at the Pacific Ocean - I love California!!!! Brian and I have wanted to take the kids to the beach for a while now. Kenneth quotes Bugs Bunny a lot and keeps saying "Pismo Beach! And all the clams you can eat!" So, to ensure that we heard that quote a LOT, we planned on going to Pismo. I was sure I was going to have hours and hours to do art, so I packed a lovely bag full of paper, watercolors, origami books and a huge book to fold. Of course, we got impatient going to Pismo and ended up stopping at a beach that was on the way and looked just as good - Cayucos. It sounds fancy, no?   I ended up folding most of this on the trip to the coast. It's my Press Forward With Steadfastness pattern. The wind was rather incessant and I had to turn my chair so my back was to the wind. Still, my pages kept flapping around and I quit after a little while. The pages started looking a little worse for the wear and I'm excited to see how this one turns out becaus...

My sister April is a nanny in New Jersey. This past week, her family flew out to San Diego for an extended stay. Brian and I took the opportunity to crash on her hotel room couch and see some of the sights. (The family had given her a private room so she would have time by herself) Our first site was the San Diego temple. It was on my 101 goals to-do list. Check! With the three of us we were able to do sealings for tons of names April had brought with her. She's so proud of herself for finding all of them through Ancestry.com. There were beautiful poppies in bloom. I took many, many pictures. I might hurt you with all the pictures I took. Be prepared. Next we went to the La Jolla beach. It was really crowded so I was a bit self-conscious at first about doing my normal scavenging for neat things in the sand. Then I forgot about everyone and let them all see my booty sticking up in the air and the treasures down the front of my shirt as I bent over. It's my way of givin...

Kern County is also known as the Golden Empire. A lot of the stores and local thingies around here use the words 'Kern' or 'Kern County' or 'Golden' or 'Empire' or any combination of "Kern County Golden Empire." (see note at bottom) in the names of their businesses. It gets old after a while... ANYWAY - our family went on a spontaneous trip this past weekend to the river which is just a few miles up the canyon from our house. With all the snow this past winter, the river was running fast and furious. We found a few places along the river that didn't look like we'd all be swept away in an instant so that we could shoot slingshots and collect rocks for our back patio fireplace. I kept Kiff on a leash the whole time because he's so much of a daredevil he'd go out in the water in no time and I'd be less one son. (And one heart) Look! Gold(en Empire- get it?)! At $1500/oz, maybe I should learn to pan for it... The sand alon...

Never fall asleep with an awake three-year old in the house. He will gather up his toys and pile them on top of you. And his mother will not stop him. She will, instead, get the camera and take pictures. Then she will post them for the world to see. Don't be jealous cos my hubsand's so handsome. He's mine mine mine mine MINE!!! Of course, I have to move the toys to get close to him...