Some sorta apple theme

Little Apple Dolls whoa. via Popgadget

Young artists

Marla Olmstead is 4 years old. Her paintings are being compared to Pollack and Kandinsky. Her work is selling for thousands, and she has a list of 60+ people waiting for a painting. More... Marla's site, with many more paintings. Amazing stuff, but I have an equally cute 4 year old artist: The Toomeys Note the Postmodern elements like the Freddy Krueger hands. She also creates wearable art in the form of hats: Statue of Liberty paper plate, glue, contrustion paper Year of the Rooster paper paper, staples

'The Apple Of Discord,' a Greek legend

Once, long ago, Queen Hecuba, wife of King Priam of Troy, awoke from a terrible nightmare. Hecuba was pregnant, and that night, just weeks before the child's birth, she dreamed that Troy was burning. When Hecuba told Priam her dream, he listened closely. He never could have imagined that his wife's dream might change the course of thecountry, but he decided he must seek the wisdom of Aisacros, a seer. It was his duty to keep his country safe. "Tell me," said the king to the seer, "what will happen when my child is born?"

More... (via Witchvox) Ah! What's happening here?

Artabella presents....

A very short film by Arthur Simoes entitled Pushing the Baby After viewing the film, be sure to check out Arthur's photography. We are lucky enough to have him doing a family portrait. Hopefully there won't be any pushing involved.

More entertaining time wasters

Spent too much time on the Generator blog, but these are the ones that pertain most to me: Spanish Idiom Generator Random Wisconsin City name generator Fairy name generator Lots more generators at The Generator Blog

Le 23 en France

Back when I thought 23 belonged only to me, I attended one semester at L'Université de Caen. My ex and I traveled all through France, and found that the 23 phenomnea had followed us to Europe. So we took pictures of them. Here are a couple from France:

At the bookstore A favorite bar Train returning to classes from Paris I have 23's from Amsterdam, Madrid, and London as well.

So far this morning

• Willow has decapitated both Strawberry Shortcake and an apatosaurus.
• Mona peed on the ottoman
• I drove over an orange cone in a crosswalk while taking Lily to school.

I can't decide if this is going to be the funnest day ever, or if I should go back to bed.

I love my job

I'm in a very happy place today, planning for a day of fun with Lily after preschool. I went on a date last night. It involved my fabulous husband, French food, and dear friend Kate watching Lily. Then, when we got home from our date, we got to hang out with Kate for a few hours.

Do you think your job is stressful? I got a reality check last night when hearing this story. Kate is a state-licensed public therapist. Her clients are all convicted sex offenders. She counsels about 120 men weekly, mostly in groups. It's hard for me to imagine her sitting with a group of men in a prison, facilitating therapy among mixed group of offenders. She's almost 6 feet tall, beautiful, kind face, and a gorgeous body. Of course she has a way of conducting herself at work that is not at all provocative. But even that is provocative to some.

I eagerly wait to her stories from her job. It's fascinating. She speaks with affection about many of her clients, and her intuition tells differently about others. The system for dealing with these offenses is, in my opinion, a mess. In one group, there will be men who've committed offenses from statutory rape (he's 18, she's 15), to a pedophile who abused his granddaughter, to a violent rapist, to the guy who's IQ is just a point or two above mental retardation and likes to fondle his cousin's breasts. Each group is a mixed bag.

A letter arrived at her job addressed to Kate. It contained some information on vaginal hygiene. Very detailed. The situation is being investigated, so I'll leave it at that. It's the first time I've seen her creeped out by her job. She describes this as a classic sex offense. A power play. It could be any one of 100+ men. She feels like she has the tools to deal with this, and wants to get to the bottom of it. I am a bit worried.

The last time a client approached her personally, he left her a message on her phone asking her to wear something specific to group. Doesn't sound too threatening, right? She had the parole officer search the offender's car, and they found handcuffs, rope, a pleather dress, and a sign written in marker on cardboard: "Can I see your pussy?" which he would hold up to other cars. He's back in jail.

The point is, if this guy is bold enough to go after his therapist, he's likely quite busy creating other situations.

Selling myself

The new public education campaign was officially launched by WomenHeart today. You can buy a set of three PSAs for your place of work, doctor's office, whatever.....here. Or, if you really only want the one of me and my cute kid, I have some to mail out. Send me an email, and I'll mail one off to you. Even to Japan. Also, visit this science-based site to learn more about cardiac health and diagnostic testing for women: HeartHealthyWomen Have I mentioned it's heart month? Do you know your cholesterol count?

BlueWood

So, my friend Brian, from theBlueSmokeBand, is not only articulate, brainy, witty, and hard-working, he's also developed other talents since college. Look what arrived at my house today: Another view. My current favorite tarot cards fit perfectly in there. But I hate to put anything in, because the inside is beautiful as well. *edited to add that the wood is called purple heart, and it's naturally purple. No stain! My photos don't do it justice, go see his site, and check out the gorgeous frames, too. It's exquisite. Thank you Brian! I adore it.

Can we watch the dancing fish again?

The first thing Lily wanted to do this morning was watch this. Another JohnFen find. Where do you get this stuff?

The apple doesn't fall far...

CHD Awareness Day

Congenital heart defects kill twice as many children each year as all childhood cancers combined. 4,109 Americans died from cardiovascular defects in 2001. At least 35 types of cardiovascular defects are recognized, with many additional anatomic variations. About 1,000,000 Americans with cardiovascular defects are alive today.

American Heart Association's fact sheet on CHD.

My sister has tetralogy of Fallot. She's had four open heart surgeries, the first in 1972.

My daughter has a tunnel from her left ventricle into the aorta, a bicuspid aortic valve, and aortic stenosis. She's had one open heart surgery so far at 18 weeks of age.

I have an acquired heart disease called cardiomyopathy. Then again, could it be congenital?

Families affected by CHDs are holding awareness events in many states today. A partial list of events here.

Jumping on the silicone bracelet bandwagon...get your CHD bracelet here.

My house, the toilet

I have an elderly cat, Mona, who has been in kidney failure for at least 1.5 years. We give her fluids under her skin daily, and have adjusted her diet. She's still a happy little 4-pound kitty with a lot of fluff and a huge affection for me. Lately, she has lost control of her bladder while she sleeps. So, I dug out the diapers and changing pads, and place them under her. And do a lot more laundry than normal. This is fine, as long as Mona is willing to hang out, I'm willing to care for her. Since this has been happening, the dog has decided that the office floor would be an appropriate place for her to do her business. Five days in a row. And once on the rug in front hall. Help!

Speaking of red dresses

Bettie Boop

Who 's Your Inner Sexy Cartoon Chick ?
Found at Jenn's place. Had to post this, because my Inner Sexy Cartoon Chick is wearing a RED DRESS! Perhaps she could be a spokeswoman, too. Have to run this by the board of WomenHeart.....

Waiting anxiously....

for a call from a social worker who will tell us if our medical issues are going to be a problem in the country where we want to adopt. We should know by Wednesday. Yes, five days from now. I'm really more of an immediate gratification type person. Don't they understand that I've been hoping for this for four years now, and I don't have time to wait for them to catch up. How will I get through this whole process? Note to self: no more caffeine. Too wound up.

More on the bomb

I am being taken over by this adoption process. It's very exciting, having this feeling of potential that didn't exist until a few weeks ago. We had hoped to have several children, and the plan obviously changed when I acquired a serious heart disease, and my daughter was diagnosed with a serious heart defect. Since her birth, I've been OK the with 'no more kids' concept. Some women with my disease attempt pregnancy again, and come through it without issue. Others have impaired heart function. Others die. My cardiologist strongly advised us not to go down that road. I had a strange sort of crush on him, as he had helped in my survival, and a tremendous respect for his opinion. So, his opinion, along with my desire to hang around here with my sweet little family, keep me from attempting to carry a pregnancy. I've researched (at length) domestic and international adoption, and had phone interviews with several agencies two years ago. One would not consider us as parents because of our medical conditions. Apparently "cardiomyopathy, 2 kidney transplants," on the potential parents doesn't look great on paper. Another was ready to take us on for an adoption from Haiti, but the orphanage there required us to sign a paper stating that "Jesus is the one and only true...blah, blah....." You get the picture. The woman at the agency actually encouraged me to sign it, saying that no one would know. Somehow, I don't want to enter into a new relationship based on me lying. Finally, it was my husband who suggested pursuing it again. This time it's going to happen. We are still considering an international adoption, but we need to choose an agency and country. I'm fairly confident he'll come to the same conclusion I have(I know which agency/country I'd like), but I need to let him go through the process without pressure. I'm accepting any creative fundraising / financing ideas, and names. I always wanted to name a kid Rowan. But Rowan Toomey is a bit too nautical, don't you think?

Take a look

Thanks to Miko and the Fancy Reverend John Fenderson, you can see: the new PSA for WomenHeart. It's me and the kid. Yes, we both have heart disease. Final placement of the ad is being decided now, I'll be sure and tell you all what publication to flip through while in the grocery line.

Nutshell

Been running around, no time to blog. Running tally of current projects: ~interview with PAX today covering women and heart health. ~Shrinky Dink valentines with Lily for her classmates ~juggling upcoming heart events...women's heart health and congenital heart defects ~painting the bedroom ~choosing an adoption agency or lawyer (!) Will update more later....

Are you wearing RED today?

13 years and holding

Today is the anniversary of my husband's kidney transplant. He has used his second third chance at a normal life well--a family, business, and general day-to-day happiness. His attitude is incredible. The average life for a cadaveric transplanted kidney is 10 years. Another family has a different type of anniversary today. My thoughts go out to them. More about organ donation.

Click me! Click me!

Hey, you can help WomenHeart, the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, by visiting this site and simply CLICKING the heart. Each click represents a donation by Crabtree and Evelyn to WomenHeart. You can click as many times as you like. Go, go, go! And go again tomorrow! A nice little gift idea, also supporting WomenHeart's goals: Buy them here.