My flight for tomorrow has been cancelled due to 'impending weather' there was a little snow but its turned to rain now so I don't know what their problem is. The next scheduled flight they can get me on is Sunday morning. Such a nuisance. Oh well, I'll have a little more time to get myself together - and hope it doesn't snow again between now and then.

Hi Jeanette,
I hope you have a good trip. I bet you can't wait to see the baby. We're heading out this week too. We're going south to Tennessee to ski if you can believe that. I hate packing with a passion, probably because I leave it to the last possible second.
Enjoy your visit.
Paulette

thats too bad Jeanette I know how much you were counting on seeing the baby again ....by the way .. is there a reason we cant or i know i cant get into your gallery ? I have tried and tried but nothing

well better safe than sorry. i hope you have a good flight and have fun with you grandbaby. my father in law and his wife had there last night. boy--6lb and 19 oz. 20 inches long. she might get to come home today!! i cant believe how fast they get to come home anymore.
Lori

All being well, I'll get out west tomorrow, even though its a horribly early flight - 6am yuck.

Kim, I'm revising my gallery, so I took it down, that's why you can't access it.

Yes, they aren't in hospital long now Lori, are they? Then again, pregnancy isn't an illness so there's no need to be in there unless there are problems. And they have community health nurses, etc who visit the new mothers at home for a week or so to ensure all is well.

oh thats nice to have nurses come in. course i had all kinds of help when i brung my first one home. i have 3 sisters and my mother was there. and then they made you watch movies and give the baby a bath while they watched you which was a little nerve racking. it is so bitterly cold here today. i think the high is 8 and the wind is horrible so i dont know if my father in law wife will be coming home today or not.
Lori

Have a safe journey Jeanette and enjoy yourself... bet you can't wait to hold the little bundle of joy.

What a bummer, Jeanette! I hate to have plans all made then someone else come along to change them. Hope you get out tomorrow ok and get to snuggle that new grandbaby as soon as possible!

Paulette, welcome to our part of the country - Tennessee is the next state over & it's a beautiful one. What area will you be visiting? It's supposed to be COLD this coming week but guess that will certainly enhance the skiing! If you had picked another time, it might have been too warm to even make snow.

Twincedar & I had lunch together this past Wednesday & it was a very enjoyable visit. She was on her lunch hour and you know how it is when you get to talking art stuff - no amount of time is really enough.

J

what is going on with the threads with all the yuk and now someone says there is a virus going around.
Lori

Lori...I don't think persay there is a virus going around on the thread unless you click one of those nasty links. Then you might be in some trouble. So just remember noooo clicking!!!

Anyway, on another note how many people are at home today with their children out of school? I know I am. Its -4 degrees here in Michigan so school was cancelled due to cold. Our furnace has been running non-stop, we have our fireplace going and the house is still freezing!!!I can't remember it being this cold in a long time. I am gonna go crazy today because its so cold the kids can't even go outside and play. Yesterday a neighbor had her son all bundled because he wanted to play with a friend and she let him walk to his friends house but told him if he couldn't play to come straight home, well her son was walking back home and another neighbor called the police on because she felt concerned that a 6 year old was out side in the cold. I think its sad. We live in Michigan for gods sake. Its winter and suppost to be cold. I just thought it was wrong. I could be wrong but who knows. I hope everyone else is happy and warm!!

It's cold here too & it's supposed to get colder overnight! Even here in NC, we get cold weather & even snow & ice, but this year it's been mainly in the 60's & 70's up until last week! When you go from almost balmy to frigid, it's a real shock to your system.

I guess it depends on how far the little one had to walk & how long he was outside as to whether to be concerned or not. I know that unprotected skin can get frostbite in a very short time. I don't know that I would have called the police, but it might have been nice of the neighbor to have asked the little boy if he were warm enough or if he had to walk far. In other words, make a better assessment of the situation before calling the police!

I have got to go get my eyes checked & new glasses soon and I've put it off because I really hate getting out in the cold! I know, I know, that's no excuse! But I'm going to finish this post then call the optometrist. I can't work on the computer for more than a few minutes nor draw or any kind of art for long either. Gotta be able to do some art!

Guess Jeanette is with her daughter & new granddaughter by now.

Hey, Jeanette, if you can access DS, this is for you -

J

my kids school at home anyway but the schools here in ohio are all closed too. it was 2 degrees this morning with wind chill it was like 27 below. and i dont think its suppost to get much better tomarrow either. our house is chilly too. we use to have a fireplace at our old house and i loved it and i miss it. they say you can get frost bit in 15-20 minutes here with exposed skin. but no i wouldnt have called the police. infact i have seen a couple of kids walking down my street. i am sure that the mom wouldnt let him go to far. its very hard to try to keep your kids inside, i had been fighting with mine some of the morning because i wont let him walk across town to go see someone. if he doesnt have a ride then no so he found a ride of course. then i will pick him up. i hate to see my gas bill for this month. boy we really got such mild weather and now freezing weather. i would rather it snow than temps like this.
Lori

The thermometer said -15F this morning when I picked my son up to take him to school. But then, school is only about 1 mile away and my car was already warm.

It is freezing here too! I am in Ontario and today was -39 with the windchill. Winter is awful and I despise it! I can't wait for Spring!

im with you juniper-- i cant wait til spring. the kids can get out and run, smell the fresh air. have cook outs again. according to the ground hog we are suppost to have an early spring.
Lori

Lori well I think the groundhog is full of it..I am on day 2 of my kids being kept out of school because of the cold weather!!! They are driving me insane, too. If they don't have school tomorrow I think I will being borrowing that shot gun someone drew for Laura for Secret Santa...hahahaha. The baby alone at terrible 2's age is enough to handle but not all 4 together. I can't wait for spring either. Then its ok to just send them out (as long as you know wher they are) and make them play outside..LOL. Ok I think I am done with my venting now.

It has been cold here as well .. yesterday not enough kids showed up for school so they called it a snow day ... today they had school .. ..my kids do the snow day dance almost every night ...LOL
what did the ground hog do venus ?

LOL Kim...I don't know what the ground hog did I just know Lori said we were suppost to have an early spring cause of the ground hog. I said I think he's full of it cause winter isn't going anywhere at the moment. Its freezing!!! I have my furnace and fireplace going, 2 sweat shirts on, 2 pairs of socks and my tennie shoes, and 2 pairs of pants..LOL and I am frozen. Apparently if it is below 0 out my kids have no school. I hope the temp goes up soon!!!

these guys didnt have school for 2 days either. it was like 20 below this morning with windchill. it is like 10 below now with windchill. they are sure if there will be school tomarrow either even though its suppost to be a little better than today. but like i said my kids do school on there computers. its a public school just done on the computer. so it really doesnt matter to me beside the fact that it is hard to get them to get their work done because there friends are off of school and they want to hang out. so its a little agravating. my furnace is been running alot too and the house stays chilly. and its usually warm because my hubby works outside and he wants it to be warm when he gets home. i am so surprised that he doesnt have frost bite for riding on the back of the trucks. his hand is really hurting him tonight though.
i cant remember if its the groundhog sees or dont see its shadow if its and earlier spring but i caught on the news that its supost to be an early spring with whatever the grounghog saw. i with you though venus--i think its fewy.
Lori

Lori .. your childeren do work on the computer for public schools .. is it a kind of home schooling ? I wanted to do that .

Okay, this was kind of started in the challenge thread but I felt that I din't want to continue it there due to the fact that itw as completely off topic. I guess this is mostly to answer Brian David but for anyone else who is interested and would like to share anything similar please feel free to join in the conversation.

For starters I live about 1and a half hours East of Toronto...Peterborough to be percise.

As for my tattoo...it started out as two dragonflies in fligt on my arm and progressed to blue swirls swooping around them. My skin didn't like the blue apparently and it faded terribly so I am now in the process of doing a half sleeve (for those of you unfamiliar with the lingo that is tatto covering all of my upper arm, shoulder to elbow). I have had a big blue peony flower capping my shoulder and some smaller cherry blossoms put in. I sat for 4 hours on Sunday night and although it will be extremely uncomfortable due the fact that it has not yet healed I am sitting to have it finished tomorrow due to the fact that my tattooist is moving to Calgary in a few days. I have attached some photos of the progress to date and I will add the finished product when it is complete. (My pictures are in the reverse order but i guess that's a little obvious.)

If anyone else has any ink that they would like to share I would love to see it!

Juniper...awesome tattoo but can't offer to share one from myself. I don't have any. I am deathly affraid of needles and am plain to scared to get one. The only extreme I have went to is 4 peircings in my left ear and 3 in the right. I have an earring I wear in my cartilege in the left ear and usually only use my first holes in both ears anymore. I did go once after High School to get a tattoo with my girlfriend, kinda a graduation thing to be cool, we were 18 type thing but decided I couldn't go through with it. To tell you the truth now that I am older I am glad I never went through with it. No offense. I can't wait to see yours finished though, it looks like a work of art on skin.

Hi Juniperdime,


Peterborough,yes not really too far from me.....Nice tattoo, I can see why your arm must be sore. I may get a small one.... one day but have none now. That is quite a process.....thanks for showing us.. As Venus said it really is a work of art....Brian

love the tattoo, i have one on my ankle but its homemade when i was a teen--me and my girlfriend got the same one done. now everyone who see's it trys to guess what it is. its a mushroom with a butterfly on it. people have said it was a spaceship and other stuff and once i went to the emergency room when i tore ligaments in my knee and the dr yelled at me and said the mushrooms were bad and that i shouldnt do drugs. man was i mad, i said you know just because i have a tatto of a mushroom doent mean i do drugs at all and especially mushrooms. i can laugh today but at the time i was sooo mad that he assumed that. but really awesome tattoo. i dont think i could take that much. i also have a little cross on my finger but it looks like a plus sign because it hurt so much i just couldnt take anymore of the pain. also homemade. young and stupid i guess
Lori

I've got 2 tattoos, one on my right shoulder, and one on my right underarm (the place between the elbow and the wrist).

[attachmentid=2551][attachmentid=2552]

Sorry for the bad image of the dolphin, but it was taken with a web-cam. The dragons are the most recent one, 2 weeks old, and I can't wait for it to heal. But that won't stop me from getting a third one

I have done and have a few myself .. I love dragonflies .. I have two on my upper arm .. they are mating .. I have one i got at a Hells Angels club house of a draon fly on my upper calf ..and I have a cover up on my ankle of a flower with grass going around the ankle with my kids names in it .. and a dragon fly there flying around as well I will see if I can find the disk of all my tats i have done over the years .

No tattoos here. I'm like Venus & don't think I could deal with the pain! Besides, any design would have to be fitted around the wrinkles! lol

Kim, I may not want a tattoo, but I like looking at the various designs (well, not so much the skulls & snakes & stuff - they're scary!) so hope you can find your disk.

Yesterday was gorgeous compared to the day before but it's supposed to turn cold again. I think I've been on a flower painting kick because I'm so ready for spring! I know our winter has been exceptionally mild up until now but that's the way I like it!

The groundhog myth is that if the groundhog comes out of his burrow & sees his shadow then we'll have 6 more weeks of winter. If he doesn't see his shadow, then we'll have an early spring. The town of Puxatawny (?) Pennsylvania has made a ritual of keeping a groundhog & bringing him out every February 2nd. I think the news said that he's only been right about the weather about 32% of the time! I don't think we'd better count on him for an early spring this year!

J

Tattoos I think don't hurt as much as people assume they would. The healing process is more painful in my opinion anyway because the skin gets all tight and makes it hard to move, especially when you cover a large area.

Kim - I would love to see all your pics...please find your disc.

As for Mr. Groundhog - I think he's full of s*#t. We just seem to be getting more and more snow. I do realize that it is February and I do live in Canada but I hate winter. ALso I am worried that because we didn't even really get winter unitl mid-January that it will last longer than it should. My luck we are gonna have snow until June.

LOL Juniper thats what I am saying about Michigan!!! Freezing weather until June. We don't have much snow nor have we really gotten alot but the temps are definately colder for this time of year since last year. It does suck that he one thing most people rely on is the cause of the whole global warming thing and major disrupt of the seasons...Vehicles!!! Or any other type of Motor Transportation. Thats the blame for most of the disruptive weather. Its really messing with our earth. Ohh well, not going to worry about stuff like that it scares me too much. See this is why I don't like watching the Discovery Channel...Dang hubby all to Hades!!!

I had an eye exam today because I've been having some nasty problems with tired eyes & headaches lately and talked to the optometrist about lasik surgery. wow! it's really expensive so I decided to go back to wearing contact lenses. I started wearing contacts at age 14 (they had pretty much just come out with them) & quit wearing them when age made them very uncomfortable. My optometrist assured me that the new contacts were a lot better now so I decided to give them another go. Anyway, I've got some monovision contacts (one eye for distance & one for close work) & it sure is weird! The last contacts I had before these (maybe 15 years ago) were monovision but I don't remember them being as hard to adjust to wearing as these. Fortunately, I have a month to evaluate these & if they don't work for me, I can go back to glasses. I guess the part I really hate about contacts is now I really need an eye lift! lol

Anyway, hope to adjust to these quickly and get back to drawing!

J

"I have a month to evaluate these & if they don't work for me, I can go back to glasses. I guess the part I really hate about contacts is now I really need an eye lift! "
****************************************************************************************
J-Lynn,don't give up on contacts so easy.I were talk into trying those 'monovision contacts ' for a month.I was pulled over for 'driving under the influence' three times! I went back to A**vue Advance and I love them.I can't tell anything is on my eyes.I remember those uncomfortable lenses also! I have to wear reading glasses sometime but that is not like going back to wearing glasses all the time.

I can't say anything about contact or glasses because I wear neither, although sometimes I think I should get my eyes checked...lol. But about my tattoo...It didn't get finished but my tattooist, who is actually my brother-in-law has said that he will be back in a few weeks to pick up some more of their stuff and will finish it then. I guess I am kind of grateful because it really was and still is too tender to have done more work on it. I will keep you all posted as to when it gets done and be sure to post the final picture of the completed piece.

It is still winter and I still hate it and to top it all off, my van just died so I am on the hunt for a new vehicle. Not fun at all. I swear that if it weren't for bad luck I wouldn't have any at all!

juniper- i know how you feel--my car died too, looking for a new one, well used new one. i had it for 9 years soo and only paid 700 for it so i know i got my money out of it. i am just trying to decide if i want to buy a 1500.00 or 2000.00 dollar car or make payments on a newer one. i hate to make car payments but i would like to have a newer car too. thinking of a tahoe or something like that because my son races sprint cars and right now we drive two vehicles when my other boys go, because my husband has a truck but then we would just drive one vehicle. but they are gas hogs too. tempted to get another cavalier wagon like my last one. it had over 200,000 miles on it. that thing ran good (til it quit-haha) i am like my dad when it comes to cars--i drive em til the doors fall off!! hahaha.
Lori

I am exactly like you! I got my first car (a cavalier) given to me by my husbands grandmother and I drove it til it died and then I got a Plymouth Voyageur that my husband traded for a carpentry job and it now just died so I've never really had to spend a lot of money on vehicles but they have also been money pits when it comes to repairs. I went out last night and got a Ford Focus SE (wagon). It's a 2001 which is the newest car I have ever owned and I am soooo excited. I pick it up on Monday. It has 112, 000km's on it but looks and runs like it's brand new. I have to make payments but I got a good deal and I can have it paid off in 9 months. He is even gonna give me $500 for a trade in on my crappy old van which is absolutely wonderful because it ain't worth jack! Good luck at finding something for yourself! Cavaliers are good cars though...they seem to run forever.




Johnny - I hear you there! Ink is so addictive. I know that I am already thinking of what to get next. I like the dragons! You can tell that they're new cuz you can still see where they shaved your arm..lol!

wow juniper-- you did get a fantastic deal. i wouldnt mind finding a deal like that and have it paid in nine months. i love ford focus too. they are so cute. i like the burnt orange ones. what color is yours. now i want to go out to buy one. soon i will. thanks for the luck--maybe i can get some kind of good deal that you got. awesome and have fun
Lori

I searched and found some of my older work from when I first got my machine ...before these photos .. I was doing tats on grapefruit ..and chicken skin lol ...my disk for my newer work is most likely with my nephew ..I hunt it down .

First photo is me and corey .. doing his Jeaster
Second photo is the jeaster on corey
Third is a tiger on my sister
Fourth is a cross on my nephew Miah
Fifth is a vine on my cousin
Six a back piece on my nephew Josh .. in the making and the finished is on the other disk.

Blue tiger is done in gell pens for my kids friends.. they would line up at the porch and with permission slips from parents saying it was ok future tattoo addicts lol

Skull w/flowers another gell tat
Fancy work ...for rolling skating .. kids would have this done and show it off at the rink
Money man gell tat

Nice stuff Kim...do you still do ink? I would love to do it but I think I have a lot to learn regarding drawing before I would have the nerve to attempt anything permanent. I love tattoo's though and I hate the stigma that people associate with tattooed people, it's the same with long hair and other things like that. Stereotypes suck and it sucks even more that people still follow them. I am me and whoever doesn't like the way I look, act or what I choose to do, doesn't deserve the opportunity to know the real me anyway.

Sorry got off on a bit of a rant there...lol.

I agree 100% with you Juni....my husband has hair to past the middle of his back ... has wore it long his whole life .. he has tattoos and is very laid back person ....people do stereotype him .. but never to his face lol .
I sold my machine a while back ...now wishing i hadnt .. seems everyone is wanting tattoos .. I have done so many and I love doing them .. but you are right it takes practice and alot of it .. cause if you go ...ooops ... you will get a really bad look lol . just practice firsat on a grapefruit .. its most like people skin ...I use a skin pen to ink it first then go over that with the machine .

wow kim awesome. i thought that was cute with the gel pens. you do really good work. wish you were around here i would have you do one for me. i would love to get my homemade one covered up but i just dont know if it could be done. my husband use to have long hair and i miss it so much. he says it gets in his way to much now working on the race car and on the back of the garbage truck going down the road. i think it was just an excuse. my sisters husband has long hair down to his butt. i love long hair-dark eyes and dark skin. and thats my husband now minus the long hair. sometimes he lets it get down to his shoulders. but he also has a rough face--sometimes he doesnt shave, and we were just talking about how many people judge us because we dont dress fancy, or drive fancy cars or anything. my parents are from west virginia so i have some of an accent and alot of people here assume we are stupid poor and druggy's. we are just blue collar hard working people. we like to have fun, for sure but we are just good people.
Lori
kim i was just looking back on this thread and missed you question on the school thing-- it is like home schooling but it is public school which means the school is licienced by the state of ohio. its called ecot but they are just here in ohio. michigan might have something like that too because there is a few here in ohio. they do all the work that traditional schools do, and they have to pass the ogt tests that ohio requires they pass before they can graduate. the school provides there computers free, with all in one printers, and they reimburse me for my internet-- . so it doesnt cost me anything at all for my kids do it. i do have to get the ink for the printers which i get on ebay super cheap and the paper for the printers. if they have to mail anything they provide prepaid envelopes. have classrooms that has there work on there and if they have problems or questions they email back and forth-- they also have what they call elluminate where they chat live with microphone and a drawboard where the teacher can actually teach them live and they call on the phone and go through step by step if need be. all the teachers have masters or doctorines. it was the best thing i ever did for my kids. they were not doing well in our home school--some there own fault and some of the teachers and school. one of my sons have a learning disablility and they knew it but they said they wouldnt test him to get him on iep, until he failed a grade twice. i did not want that to happen. my husband and i was always at the school because he wouldnt or couldnt do the work in his math and he would get into trouble. there was so much going on. so i found ecot on the computer and gave it a try. he gets b's and c' and they tested him right away and they came to us to test him and he is on an iep and getting a b in math. he can do the work same as an 11th grader but he just needed more time to do it in and our home school said they couldnt give him more time. and he is like a different kid now too. even thinking about college where he wasnt before. sorry this is so long
Lori

Lori well first of all hun .. we are the same as you I judge no one but do they sure judge me and my husband ...we live on so little it would scare you lol .. but we manage to have a place to live .. nice things ..we have a good car 2006 and trust me we get judged .. people get bothered by us because we make such small amount and manage to go away with the kids on vacation http://www.gullwingfl.com/ thats where we are taking them this year .....check it out its a awsome place.
we try well my husband dont let anyone bother him ..and me I tend to feel bad .. because trust me .. people have said to us in a rude tone .. HOW CAN YOU DO THAT ? I say ... save ? lol its the thing I do for my kids each year .
The school thing .. oh I wish we had it here ....my girls did not have to fail a grade to get a iep .. but my youngest she is 6 ft 2 and only 13 so she gets picked on alot .. she has a few good friends but if i could have done what your doing I would have .. I think teachers are a joke ..most of them .. they just dont seem to care about kids like they use to .. sorry to all the teachers who may read this .. I am sure there are some good ones left out there but not at our school .

i agree kim-- and there are some good teachers and i have had only good experiences with ecot. i have yet to find a teacher that doesnt go out of there way for my kids. my youngest just had trigonomitry(shows you how much i know i cant even spell it) so i couldnt help me and he was having trouble with it and she called him everyday and helped him through his lessons. check the internet you might find something. virtual academy or something. i know what you mean about people getting mad, i dont even tell people when i get something because they say how you do that must be nice. well yes it is, and we do not have anyone here to help us at all. we do it all ourselves. everything we have ever got or done we had to do it all ourselves. well gotta go to the dentist. talk to you soon
Lori

Well I think thats awsome you can do it on your own .. like us we just save and do what we want when we can ....your schooling does sound awsome .. I wish we had it here and we dont i checked LOL .

well we are snowed in for awhile-- how about anyone else? im in Lorain county ohio. we had about 2-3 feet snow last night and still coming down and 5 foot plus snow drifts and wind gust up to 40-50 miles per hour which windchills are below 0. good thing i got groceries last night. most places are closed all schools closed all over the state. hubby had to shovel a place for the dog because its way past him. he tries to hop but its so hard for him because its so high. spring time hurry and get here!!!! good snow fort weather though.
Lori

Lori I bet the kidlets are going to LOVE it!!! We got snow here and our schools are closed as well but not nearly as much as you. Heck not even half as much as you. We got a messley 6 inches. Ohhh well kids are just glad they didn't have school. The major part of the storm was suppost to hit ohio, Southeastern Michigan got the small part of it and I think up north got a major snowfall. I am glad you went grocery shopping too, thats alot of snow!!! Good Luck!

Our school were not closed .. but I kept them out anyways .. thats crazy and today was count day at the school .. they would have been better off closing it and doing count day tomorrow .

there was one school that was open til 7:30 this morning they finally called off. the news media was having a hay day with it. i wouldnt have sent my kids either if they were in school. they are thinking about going out but it is really cold out there. i think it finally stopped snowing at least tapered off alot. people are out trying dig out. hubby shoveled last night and then shovels for about two hours this morning. they even shut down bfi last night for today too. now that the snow has tapered they probably can get the roads clear by tomarrow. that wind though is making for alot of drifts. just going to stay in and stay warm and safe. boy this season came in like a lamb but is going out like a lion. laura is here in ohio somewhere too, hope she is okay too with all her family there.
Lori

I'm jealous. You guys get all the fun weather.

We've had practically ZIP in the way of snow this year in Minnesota. It was a bit chilly last week, with HIGH temps below zero.

Indeed.

Here, we got some snow in the mountains yesterday, and rain in my area of the valley.

Here in southern Illinois we got rain in the morning which turned into ice and then snow on top of it. The snow varied from 1 inch to 10 inches depending on where you lived in the area. The streets and highways were really bad and most schools were closed. Most businesses closed early. Bad wind chill factors. Single digits to zero. I just stayed in all day. I saw all the snow up north of here on TV..........I feel for you guys having to have to dig out. Its pretty and sunny here today......but bitterly cold.

I am surprised no snow for Minn. they normaly get alot of snow .. I loved living outwest cause we could go to the mountains if we wanted snow ..otherwise it was fairly nice all year around .