I'm so overdue with so many emails, think I'll just blurt it all out here on the blog and recommend the link for the next week or so.
Caleb and I spent all last week down in the San Joaquin Valley visiting my side of the family. It was around 100 degrees every day. ugh. It's not that I've gotten unused to that heat...I never could tolerate it very well. So draining! Caleb didn't even seem to notice...hung outside all day every day playing with my mom's two small dogs. My stepmom MaryAnn had a milestone birthday, so on Saturday we had most of the family gather at a nice park for a celebration bbq. Stacey and Nick from TX were the only ones who couldn't make it. Was nice to get together but again; too HOT! I had John fly down on Thursday...wanted him there for the party but he couldn't/wouldn't have wanted to take the whole week off. I've been wanting to get an SUV for quite a while. I hate always having to bend down to strap Caleb in the carseat, load groceries, etc. I looked in the paper while we were down south and found a good deal on a 2002 Ford Explorer. It's pretty sweet. Fully loaded, and got it for a great price. 
John drove the Mazda home and Caleb and I rode (so much more comfortably) in the Ford. It's a 500 mile trip. Thank God for mini dvd players. It's a "5 movie drive" for Caleb. :-) We had the Mazda detailed yesterday and will be selling it and the Suburban hopefully soon. Four vehicles for two people is a bit much.
Melissa recently went to work as a card dealer at the new Indian casino about 10 miles south of here. She's very happy and doing incredibly well. Here's a link to the newspaper article she was featured in: http://pacificbay.com/jenspics/melsarticle.jpg She'll be scheduled four 10hr days per week. Our plan is that Caleb will live with us the four days she works and with her the three she's off. She's also starting Jr College next week. One math class on M-W-F mornings, so I'll have him then, too. He's a very high maintenance kind of kid. Not sure anyone could do him 24/7. Not well, anyway. I've been doing it for two months now and am pretty much worn to a nubbin. So the key will be for our two homes to synch up on diet, routine, discipline. It's pretty apparent that he has some degree of ADHD. He's fine when it's one on one, but the more stimulation he's exposed to the higher he spins out. My brother Toby had five of his little kids there last week, and all combined they behaved better than Caleb. He obviously can't help it...I mean; who wants to be yelled at and in trouble all the time? I was searching online for some kind of help the other night and found an herbal remedy that was highly spoken of in the testimonials. Here's a link if you know of someone else who's kid has these issues but is wary of the narcotic/side effects route: http://www.nativeremedies.com/focus_for_adhd.shtml It's being priority mailed here as I type. I am very hopeful that it will give him some relief. If not I guess we'll go the doctor route.
Was able to do a little creating recently. We moved Caleb into Melissa's old room, which for the last eight years was where I sewed and John dressed. I moved the sewing stuff out into the stairway landing (where he used to sleep) and John still dresses in there. Here's a couple pics (click them to enlarge): 
I made my own alphabet stencils for the wall-writing. Bought a stencil burner at Michael's for $16 and some blank stencil plastic. Printed out the letters in a 325pt font. Lay glass over the paper, the plastic sheet over the glass, and trace the letters with the burner. Then I held the letters up to the wall and used a paint pen to color in. Also shadowed the letters with a gold paint pen for depth. Worked pretty slick! My mom made the adorable quilt for Caleb's fourth birthday. It's all paper pieced. He loves it! Got a little 'scrapping' done by doing his name across the head of the bed in dollar-store frames. Even without all the decorating, it's so nice to have him in a carpeted room with a door that closes now! A lot less tiptoeing around when he's asleep.
My brother Toby seems to be back on track with building me a website to sell my stuff. My mom is also planning on selling her quilts on the site. It's www.jkduncanoriginals.com . Hope to see it up and running soon.
I've signed up for three days of art classes in February, which will seem like next week the way time flies. There's going to be an Art & Soul retreat down in Monterey. I'm taking a Shoe Shrines class from Michael DeMeng (see his samples here) and two days of painting from Ann Baldwin. Definitely something to look forward to!
Well, I think that's about all I know...I've got three more hours off til I go pick the boy up for the next four days so I should go make good use of it. :-)
Looks like we'll be having a granddaughter around here any day! She's due in about 10 days, but hoping for her Dad's BD which is in two days. (Is actually hoping for NOW! :-D) 
I have been an absolute empty bucket in the creative arena for what feels like several months now. I think it was a curse to have had all that stuff published earlier this year. I keep hearing some evil little voice saying "Okay, bigshot; what now?" Am trying to be patient with myself. I just got Claudine's new book and on the first page she talks about having gone through a year-long dry spell, so if she can do it I guess I can, too. ;-) Love her and her stuff. I find doing a scrapbook page often offers a creative prod, and at the very least I got a page done for his book.
