Spoke too soon...

so i THOUGHT that a sabbatical was in my near future, but apparently not. the nanny service offered me a temporary assignment starting next Monday and running through the beginning of Sept. and i just can't turn it down. I'd feel too guilty not making any money for that long.

news update

Starting in Aug. I'm going to have about a two month 'sabbatical' and then I'm going back to nanny for Ilena in October.

I'm so excited that things are working out so awesomely. I really love the Norris clan and i was feeling so bummed that I might have to go work for some rich people in Mission Hills and make alot of money. lol. but i'd be miserable. and i'm on a journey of happiness, not $$$! right? right!!

Mark just got a part-time job at his tattoo shop, Rose Tattoo Parlor, in the River Market. This of course on top of his 9-5. He's basically working for tattoos, and to meet alot of VERY interesting people. :D He's very psyched about it. Also, Mark has lost almost 30 pounds so far people!! He's actually RUNNING!!! HOLY CRAP!!! he's up to about 2 miles A DAY!! I can't even believe it! seriously you guys, I've been attached to mark like a barnacle for 10 years, and this is a pretty amazing development! he's totally my hero!

We are taking a trip to Pittsburgh, PA Aug. 9 - 13 to meet my mom, Jana and my half-brother Chris. My half-sister Rosie is traveling from Cape Girardeau and will meet us there. We've met up with Rosie once a couple of years ago in Kansas City but this is going to be for the most part, a first time family reunion for us. Pretty Exciting!

We're still planning on trying to start a family of our own soon, but I think it's going to be a long road for us. There have been pretty much nothing but tests so far so it's been a bit nerve racking. Anyhoo, don't mean to get all sad on you, but send some prayers or whatever our way! :)

Bleech!! A Gnat just flew up my nose! grosssss!!! lol.

Love,
Phoebs (Mark says "hullo!")

Sharing Art

I was thinking about our trip to the Kemper and how I was sad that I didn't have any pictures. I remembered this particular painting because both Mark and I really loved it. So I thought I'd share.

Jules de Balincourt, Blind Faith and Tunnel Vision, 2005,
oil, enamel, spray paint on panel, 78x58 inches

And since I was thinking about Modern, I thought about how, in the new Bloch Building at the Nelson, a guard was sort of jerky to me as we were looking at this pretty fantastic installation:

These are pictures I pulled up from the web, so that's not exactly how it looked at the Nelson but it was super cool nevertheless.

Excerpt from the Nelson-Atkins' website:

Kiki Smith: Constellation

June 9, 2007—October 28, 2007

Kiki Smith’s Constellation is a meditation on the infinity of space and our human desire to know and tame it – to make it our own. In this room-sized installation, the artist brings the vast dome of heaven down to earth, where cast glass animals and stars sparkle and glow at our feet. Arranged upon a plane of night-blue Nepal paper, these miniature symbols of distant constellations awaken wonder and remind us of the mystery that compelled ancient astronomers to chart and name them.

The interrelatedness of nature and its parts is a pervasive theme in Kiki Smith’s work. She explores the human and animal, the celestial and earthly, the macrocosm and microcosm. Like the poet, mystic, or natural philosopher, she approaches our universe with reverence. Like the contemporary scientist, she is driven by a desire to understand.

yeah, those little dark specks? those are cast bronze "animal scat". :D

Just Curious

Does anyone read this blog? Please comment to let us know how we're doing! :)

Sunday Afternoon Art Explosion

Last weekend we took our first ever trip to the Kemper Museum of Modern Art, which was pretty cool, but not very big. I came away with some pretty bitchin magnets too. This weekend, we thought we'd go to the Nelson, since we hadn't been since they redid it. It was pretty awesome. No magnets, but lots of picture. :)

Asian Art Reigns Supreme !

That's Marble!

Stained Glass Ruelz!!

My Favorite Spot in the Nelson

Frannie Hearts His Daddy

Who's In The Cabinet?

It's Rin and his evil glowing eyes!

Why does Chi look so Guilty/Evil?

So Cute!

Landscaping on the Fourth of July

Frannie Awaits Mark's Return

Look @ Pete's freakishly flexible neck!

Estate Sale Fevor

Mark and I had a marathon estate sale binge yesterday and it was super fun. We were going to go to the Omaha Zoo, but instead hit a ritzy garage sale down in the "ridiculously big houses" neighborhood. I scored a stuffed panda, but otherwise it was pretty lame. From there we hit an estate sale in waldo that we totally bagged some awesome stuff at. It was 1/2 price, so we got a 10 dollar turntable, jazz records, some classy table linens, some cool asian tins, a framed chinese watercolor of kittens, a couple of decorative trays, a scarf, and a 70s stuffed owl. from there we happily drove all over chasing sale signs for about 3 hours. suprisingly the nicer neighborhoods had the least interesting stuff. in our opinion anyway.

it was funny how rabid people were at these sales though. I walked into a room and spotted an awesome quilt on a bed and commented on it to mark, some lady practically screeched "I BOUGHT THAT!! IT"S MINE!" lol. then later when we were leaving, i complemented her quilt and jokingly said "i'm so jealous! you totally scored!" so she clutched the quilt tighter and gave me a sour look. wow, okay weirdo.

anyway, we're hooked! we're going to scout out sales for next time in the paper and get up earlier. :)

Ilena aka: Squeely McSnufflesnort

Happiness

I am wrapping up my second week as a full time nanny and it's totally....awesome!!! I love hanging out with my little elfin baby "Smooshymuffinpants". Even when she's shrieking in my ear, it's cute because she snuffles and snorts.

I'm patting myself on the back. I think I found my niche. I'm fascinated every day, and never bored. I've been reading while she sleeps and i'm up to "Month Five" in "What to Expect The First Year". I'm all exited now that I actually have a reason to read baby books. I used to go to the "Parenting and Baby" section of Borders and feel like a weirdo childless lurker. lol.

I'm such a sap. :D

Out by the Speedway...YeeHAW!

Last nite we went out by the Kansas speedway to Cabellas (my own personal hell on earth, the insane collection of stuffed animal carcasses and "Gun Library" about sent me over the edge) so that Cyndie could return some hiking boots.

They've built a whole huge shopping area out there called "legends" so we ate and walked around and got some ice cream and watched the storms come in. It was pretty cool. I'm a big fan of big animal statues, hence the pictures.

Also, Mark has lost about 20 pounds since he wore those pants last, and lost them about 2 feet up the driveway, on the way to the front door as we came home, but decided he would just shuffle the rest of the way in like that. lol.

Sad Animals and Dumb People

The Kansas City Zoo is promoting the heck out of some Koalas that they are borrowing, so we were kind of jazzed to see some hardcore marsupial cuteness.

Alas, we were not only dissapointed, we were totally freaked out...in a bad way. They have this new "discovery barn" which is like a giant cement block echo chamber with a few different types of animals behind glass in very small, depressing cement block rooms. Their idea of setting up the koalas in comfort was throwing a couple of tree branches in and that's it. We couldn't really even see the poor koalas who were hunched behind a few meager leaves at the top of the "tree". And as well as screaming children sliding down a tube slide, this giant echo chamber was home to two giant mcaws who's screeching I thought was going to cause my eardrums to explode.

Anyway, our zoo sucks. i felt incredibly sad for the animals there.

p.s. the meerkats were pawing at their glass enclosure maniacally, as if they wanted us to help them escape. poor poor meerkats. :(

p.p.s. i think we were there on "dumb people day"...who seriously thinks its a good idea to shout at and mock the animals? and way to educate your children by telling them that a warthog is "Pumba" and that those rare endangered monkeys are "weird".

p.p.p.s. okay, i seriously do sound like a crabby old woman, so i have to add now that i did join the croud (if only in my head) in a colletive "ewwww" as a chimp ate it's own poop.

During & After

I don't have a "Before" because when he walked into the kitchen while i was making dinner, the first strip was already gone...

Nanny Phoebe

I moved my last day at The Firm up a week and am super psyched about it! And I got my first Nanny gig! yay! Mark's friend Chuck Norris (who is super awesome and not just cause his name is CHUCK NORRIS) and his wife Sandy have a four month old baby who I'm going to watch while Sandy studies for her Bar Exam for the next two months.

So my goals are to read lots of books about babies, take alot of pictures and detox from the two years i've spent as a Cube Zombie. :)

Upcoming events:

Friday: Olivia and Sophia dance recital
Saturday: Zoo w/ Mark and Robyn, another Olivia and Sophia dance recital, and hanging out wth Robyn some more
Sunday: bicycle riding maybe...

Escape from Cube

So I just put in my resignation at the firm. Something I've been dreaming about since about 6 months after i started working here and the excitement over the newness of an office job wore off. My last day will be the 31st.

I've signed up with a nanny agency and am hoping that they'll find a family for me soon. And I'm hoping that the desperation for money will force me into actually charging people for photography and that I'll look back on this move as a brilliant strategy that changed my life for the better. but even if it doesn't work out as i planned, nothing could be worse than what I would turn into if i stayed here much longer.

Wish me luck!

Phoebe

belated san fran post

While we were in sanfran, we kept a video blog, which I kept meaning to upload exerpts from onto this blog. But alas, I haven't sat down to do this yet. You really get a perfect idea of what it was like from the pictures…but there are a few events I for one reason or another didn't capture with pixels.

*We saw a homeless man pooping in a large trash bin on a very busy street. {SAD}

*A stoned guy coming back from "hippie hill" (wherever the heck that is) asked us for weed and then proceeded to give us the worst directions of all time to the Japanese Tea Garden in the park…which we promptly ignored. {STRANGE}

*We walked our pants off. {AWESOME}

*ate nothing but crab themed dishes one day and nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches on another. {FUN}

*we didn't buy anything but magnets, and a battery powered waving lucky cat because we are idiots, didn't take enough $$ and barely had enough money to eat with and get back to the airport on {idiots}

*phoebe is no longer afraid of flying!!! {TREMENDOUS}

*we discovered some very strange items for sale in Chinatown, including but not limited to: Ninja Band-aids, Jesus Band-aids, Candy Necklace Pasties and String Bikini, small knickknacks that portrayed different "positions" (wink wink) that scarily enough were right at child eye level and amazingly detailed, tons of painted posters featuring tattooed naked ladies, and a plethora of nudie mags right there next to other various "family friendly" souveniers. {GIGGLES}

*Dim Sum is so freaking Brilliant! We didn't even know what we were eating and didn't care! And we were the only english speaking people, not to mention the only caucasians in the place! It was like we went to hong kong! {SWEET}

That's all I can think of at the moment. I should go shuffle some papers now anyway as to simulate the sounds of me actually working. :D

Phoebe