2Homes*2Lives

Bob bought Jake a tool kit and he's busy at work this morning!!

We have our grandson Jake with us this week until we leave for our home below. He's been a challenge to keep up with most days. Most of the time he runs with Grandpa Bob...he just calls him Bob for some reason. Today he was screaming "GaGa" (me) at the top of his lungs and when I saw what he had, pulled out my camera. Need to take a lot more before we leave next week and post....

With only 4 weeks at the cottage this year we are all about being productive...at least that is my husband's frame of mind. I'm avoiding the computer at night to be able to get up mornings, as Bob is an early riser and can't stand anyone else sleeping if he is awake...typical hyper diaper. If he thinks he can't get me to leave bed he's great at serving me breakfast in bed, so it's worth it to wait him out!!! This morning it was coffee, fruit and toast. Some mornings it's actually bacon and eggs. I adore the luxury...though the kitchen is usually left a mess. In fact, he just brought me a premixed strawberry daiquiri at the computer in a cute pink plastic martini glass....funky and cute. Guess he's hoping it will make me tired of being online. I take one day a week off from Bob and give him the other six to roam while here. It drives him nuts to be grounded for just one day with our daughter Beth. Beth turns 28 yr. this month, but is mentally less than 5....

My sister Martha (on right), her dog Nikko, and daughter Errin visited one weekend. The photo was taken on the boat to Mackinac Island...

"Garden Susie" sits at the end of our drive... We arrived at the cottage June 20th. Will only be here until the end of July :( ---- The phone was not working and a call to the company initiated a service call. Seems they moved the wires underground and had no record of our having had a phone since 2002 so did not give us a line! They will be putting one in and gave us a temp. A week later none of the phones on the point worked, but no reason given as to why. Then the computer didn't work because the local provider had equipment problems. My sister Martha and her daughter Errin came for the weekend and we had a great time. They went to Mackinac Island one day and we hit a casino at night...Errin was a virgin gambler and won over $100...she left happy:). A cap on a tooth came loose from eating an olive burger at one of our favorite local joints, Clyde's, by the Mackinac Bridge. -- Went in to a local dentist and he charged $233.00 upfront to xray the tooth root and glue ...

http://www.anahataart.com/page/page/3416007.htm Copy and paste the above into your browser if the link does not work...seeing Anahata's site is like an artist candy store...It's absolutely one of the most inspiring sites out there! Color and images that pour out of her into collages that are simply gorgeous...She's Star Quality!

My father Wellesley Alexander was the best father a girl could ever have. He was raised by John and Elizabeth, two parents with stately confidence. John was an artist who started a cemetery monument business with his art ability and Elizabeth did well in the stock market, taking the boys back to their roots in Scotland... trips Dad never forgot. Dad had one brother Ian. I never heard either brother say anything unkind about the other. Dad worked in the family business most of his life. His health declined in his early 70's...heart problems, depression, and many other problems that my mother tried to cope with, using up her health. He spent his last years in three different resthomes. It will always haunt me how sad his last years were on this earth. In his bitterness, he lashed out at my brothers and sister, but never at me...I guess I wasn't there as often, living out of state. He was human and made mistakes. He opened an Edsel dealership which was to be the downfall of his fi...

Today I felt alive again. Pitching and actually working on paper piles...have been stacking things too long. Found a list of people on our jury for the malpractice suit 16 yrs. ago for our daughter...intended to thank them right after the the case settled our direction, but I guess I could still try... May be hard telling them thanks for their time after so many years. Also found a business card an old boyfriend gave to my sister to give to me. She said he was now a lawyer but had a bad muscular disease and I wonder now if he is still living...he wrote his home number on the back, but I'd never call his house as he married and had kids. And a note from the daughter of a friend who died a couple of years ago...Martha was a librarian/artist who grew up in New Orleans and had the best sense of humor. Should contact her daughter Perry. Martha is buried in a vault in a mausoleum across the street from Erma Bombeck's grave. We went there once to visit Martha's husband's vault...

Lacking motivation and sleeping too much.It's time to get in the race and kick butt...time to get out of my comfy blue robe. I have one comic relief...Good old Cartman from South Park....Makes me LOL every time!!

This handmade female bunny outfit was one of husband Bob's finds at a garage sale..only $5. It's adorable, but one of only 10 things brought home yesterday. Usually he buys antiques that can be resold for more money at auctions or Ebay, but storing them all has become a problem. The bunny will probably stay as it will amuse our daughter and grandchildren, like the Santa suit in the closet that Bob wears every year. The bunny suit will no doubt end up being my claim to fame. Bob is forever into fun. I enjoy that about him but it also makes it hard as I struggle to simplify life.

To move to the summer cottage is like making a meal and having to clean up the kitchen (house) eat the meal (pack) and then have dessert (arrive at the cottage). I have done this for 13 yrs. and you would think that it would get easier. But we have accumulated more here and at the cottage and it is hard to remember what is in the other place, depending on where you are! I want to get to the dessert but it takes time. I guess in a way it's my just dessert for living a life so recklessly. Organized Chaos.

My students are having a fit that I am forcing art history down their young throats, but one day they will thank me for teaching them that art is the outgrowth of the lives people live, from earliest cavemen forward.I hope that they will also carry with them my attitude toward art, which can be summed up in the following by the famous art instructor and painter, Robert Henri, from the book The Art Spirit ... When the artist is alive in any person... he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for better understanding. Where those before him have closed the book, he opens the book and discovers more pages possible. With just three days to go with students and two more years to retirement, I am finding that the impression I make on these young minds is more important to me. Art, like life, is an attitude. If you just do what you must, life can be oh so boring. But put bef...

I took this photo of Beth on the beach...it's calm moments like this that make summers so great. Memorial Weekend is upon us. Am cleaning and sorting while watching our grandsons. Still a couple of weeks left of school before we can head north to the cottage. Have a great weekend. Marilyn

It's not about the best voice as there are tons of those out there...it's what you do with a song and how you make those of us listening feel about the performance. When Kat came on I thought she was a gorgeous girl with a beautiful voice. Taylor on the other hand made me want to clap, sing and dance along with him. Obvious choice for me! Congratulations Taylor. You won it fair and square. My vote for most improved? Voice and appearance goes to Clay Acon. What a transformation! Did not recognize him at first. Prince was SO GOOD...but he was out of place in what has become a Miss America variety show of music about promoting singers. I was sorry that Mandessa didn't do a duet with Ruben Stoddard. Two great voices and a well matched couple (she has the hots for him already, according to tv hype). Simon is riding this show and others to an early retirement with lotsa money for bling. Am afraid by glorifying the odd ball acts with trophies it will encourage more to come out of ...

Husband Bob calls this one, "as good as it gets", though to hear him tell it is what really makes it funny. Years ago one of the city schools in the predominantly poorest part of town wanted Bob to be their golf coach. His team consisted of one guy who always showed up in a suit, one girl, a guy with a glass eye, and a gay guy who liked to tee off with a putter (he later killed a guy friend and is in jail for life). None of them had clubs of their own so he had to beg and borrow used ones...he asked me for my bag of clubs and I turned him down after I heard a kid wrapped a club around a desk practicing his swing in his classroom. One day he and another coach were sitting in the pro shop waiting on the kids when someone told him his kids were beating up other kids on the course with their clubs. He said he reluctantly went out to stop them feeling totally embarrassed. Bob said he got tired of being the lowest in the ratings every year at the city meets, as he had to bring the ...

Grandson Jake and husband Bob leave for an MG car meet this morning...building memories.

I left school so angry yesterday I wanted to throw things and cry, all at the same time. I have been in the trenches for 28 years now and thought I had seen it all but the apathy is more than I can handle for now. We were watching an excellent film on artist Alexander "Sandie" Calder (1898-1976) and the kids were either sleeping or being reminded that the tv was in fact behind them, if they would just turn around to look at it. I told them that their last project of the year was a mobile that was to be abstract, using only shapes and balance. Calder treated art as playtime and I thought they would be into that as it's been a struggle to get them to work on anything. These are 8th graders I am talking about. The counselor told me the computer was to blame for the three classes of lowest performing students in the school, but even I know that if you schedule students willing to learn into foreign languages, study hall, or band/choir there is nothing left but the apathetic s...

I asked Bob when he plans to leave for the cottage for the summer. He said it's the beginning of the week following our last week of school in June! It's always too soon for me as I do things to close down this house. He, on the other hand, just packs a few clothes, puts his four wheelers on a trailer and he's ready to go. I have school things to end...a breakfast, lunch and after school retirement to shop and set up for, a power point presentation of students throughout the year for the last day assembly, photo the rest of the student work and post online. Yearbook awards to get ready. Clean the room and grade the last of the projects. Bills to sort and get into some sort of system...I am so lame with them. Tons still to toss or organize in the house. Beth's reports to lawyers and doctor appts., etc. to be done, as I am her guardian as well as her Mom. And clean as much as possible, since the dust and dirt settle in while we are gone. Time to get the lists going in my ...

I sometimes call my mother Birdie as she eats so little, or Audie, or just plain Mom. My mother Audra is a survivor and then some. She and Dad raised all four of us as if we were only children...always there for anything important in our lives. Beth and I are driving up to see her today. Mom is 86 and lives in a care residence. I will never equal my mother, can only aspire to be the best Mom I can be to my kids. Mom was home with us when we were young and all her life kept an immaculate house, especially her domain, the kitchen. We had a hot meal on the table each night, clean IRONED clothes in our closets and fresh underclothing, clean sheets on our beds each week, no dust bunnies under our beds, etc. She would wake us every Saturday morning with the sound of the vacuum cleaner. The most I ever remember doing was to wash windows, dust or help with dishes. Dad had a business reversal which one day I will explain, so Mom went back to work as office supervisor at our local hospital. She ...