WRITING IN SAND

The Closing Bell Just Sounded

2011-12-12T18:53:00.001-08:00

When I try my hardest to think of the first out of state show this year my mind comes up completely blank. Was it Arizona? Texas? Feels like it was Hermosa Beach/San Francisco, truly I can't remember. But what a freakin year. It's hard to do this. I know I hear a lot of ooh's and aaah's from people but there is a lot that goes unseen/unheard. A ton of emotional pulls from leaving home and questioning if this is good or bad for the kids. And ya know...still, I don't have a clue. What I do know is this foursome has had an incredible adventure. Now it's time for me to release my passions and pains onto canvas and writings other than this. The winter is when I really get down to work and I have high hopes for this one. It's sort of like a life-reset-button neither loved or especially disliked. It just is.

The sales in Tucson were pretty fair to us. May not have collected all the nuts we need to get us through winter, but we should be fine due to people who wait all year to get a custom painting done and Josh has a plethora of fine skills up his sleeve to help get us through. The double booth we erected this weekend past was nice. Especially at such a crowed show as 4th Avenue Street Fair.

Soul came down with something Saturday morning and was very sick fighting a fever, cough and body/headache all weekend. He seemed to be getting better toward the end of the day Sunday while we were at the show but then the fever kicked in again in the night and his uncomfortable state has continued on through this drive back to Utah. If keeps up I'll take him into the doctor on Tuesday when we are home. I've just never been witness to a fever coming on for so many days. Normally the 'sick bugs' hit hard and drift off leaving you gradually getting better, but this one has been a total tug of war for him.

This drive has been pretty gnarly with wretched snowy weather and it seems Fate has a rather wry sense of humor. Since we made it through some rather sketchy situations in East L.A., Memphis, The Lower 9th Ward in Louisiana and of course good 'ol Gary, Indiana it feels like Fate needs us to remember that Arizona and Southern Utah have dangers that equal the intensity of America's seedier areas (even when the snakes are down). But I'll thank her for the reminder and put faith in Himself that we will hopefully make it through this nerve wracking situation unscathed as well (prayers said & fingers crossed).

Well, this may be it until next spring. I can't imagine anything coming up that I will feel the pull to have to blog about. Home life usually eats up every spec of energy I have...so...

Peace to All with wishes of love and happiness over the Holidays.

Till the urge nags me again,

Adrienne Taeoalii of the Weird Chief Clan
Monday, Dec. 12, 2011

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Location:Unnamed Rd,Glendale,United States

Been a while...

2011-12-05T08:53:00.001-08:00

In Soul's words "it's been a little minute" since I blogged last.

Well I was very excited to leave Florida. Once we hit Mississippi however, those Delta Blues were tugging at my soul. I tucked my head as out of sight as was possible and I just let it all out. I bawled like a little baby as I tried to take in every ounce of scenery. Mississippi was the most unexpected amazing adventure of my life. What a simple place. But packed to the brim with history. I have a necklace with the state of Louisiana on it---and I think I'd better commission the girl who made it to make me one of Mississippi too. I don't know what it is about the south. If its one thing or everything but man, it hurt like hell to leave.

We didn't get into Tempe but we just kept that to ourselves and decided to surprise our families and come home for the weekend. And we are so happy we did. We got a ton of stuff accomplished and though we head out to Tucson, being home a week will be helpful in easing us back into home life.

Our pets were all great! The house was clean! The yard was cared for and I feel like I owe my brother in law a whole lot more for keeping everything up so well. I am VERY grateful for him!!

I am looking forward to Tucson. Sometimes I hate that place and other times I love it. Each time it seems to be a new experience. This time will be no different having a double booth. As long as the weather is good, we should have a good show.

Once back in Utah we will probably be here till April. Wow, that seems like such a loooooong time! The kids start 'real school' Dec 14 and I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I'm sure it will be wonderful! The only thing that is for sure is that after being home for months I will surely be on another emotional roller-coaster when it's time to hit the road hard next year. But we'll happily take the simplicities and hardships of home until then.

Love and happy holidays to all!

Ade
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Mag-pie keeping me warm in FREEZING Utah!

Oh-boy, oh-boy, oh-boy!!

Whoo-hooo! The long awaited Darkroom The Movie came in the mail, compete w/ 2 commentaries!! Order yours on Amazon.com

Good night and good bye Louisiana.

Location:Murray, UT

So close!

2011-11-25T17:31:00.001-08:00

I'm ready. I'm ready. I AM ready. I really DO want to come home, like right now!! Its the day after Thanksgiving and I sat on my phone all morning confused looking up sales, and ordered nothing. The kids made their wish lists, and I have not been myself since we left the beach on Wednesday. I know after this show we still have two shows in Arizona but I am so anxious all of a sudden. I just sketched out a rearrangement of my furniture and am desperately wishing I was doing just that. Along with decorating for Christmas with my helper's. I wouldn't even care if all the ornaments were clumped together on the same branch. I am now SO eager, I'm not sure what I'm going to distract myself. I may have to go get a much 'stronger' book. I just hope this feeling holds. I am and was sad to have missed Thanksgiving (which ended up being fun, but still...), and I will end up missing some very important family Christmas parties and my mom's birthday...and that really bums me out. I was pretty out of sorts and down on the inside on Thanksgiving and I didn't wanna go there in print...but now I see the sun rising (even if the winter is miserable, mostly ugly and unbreathable in Smog Lake City).

We leave Florida Sunday evening after takedown to head west, it's gonna be a LONG drive but at least we'll be driving closer to HOME! If this feeling persists, we are in good shape! If I could drive 40 hours in 24 Sunday, I would just so I could be closer to home!

We set up WAY early tomorrow morning and I think we are less than 2 miles from the beach, so after set up I think the kids and I will be taking a walk to it that should keep my mind at bay :)

Ade
November 25,2011: 58 days since I last saw my Mag-Pie and Sea-biscuit :(
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After the movies we did a little putt-putt on Thanksgiving.

Nalei won 600 tickets. I think she just may have the Jesse/Bill Petersen luck....next stop Vegas!!

Soul's 1st shiner. No, it's not swollen shut-he's just pullin a popeye.

Location:NW Executive Center Cir,Boca Raton,United States

Dread vs Exitement

2011-11-21T08:37:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer: You may or may not want to bear with me as I blog here for my personal mental breakdown of things to come. When I think things through it tends to be very wishy-washy and am not sure what I write makes sense to anyone but me. But, I have to put this out there so I can TRY to put these feelings to rest.....

O.K. Here we go again. Here I was feeling so homesick the past several weeks, and yesterday I counted the days until we get home (a measly 15-ish) and it made me sick, as in being sent to the principals office sick, because it feels SO near!
Again, like while in Chicago, it makes no sense. Now suddenly, I'm not ready to go home!!! Except I think I've gotten to the bottom of this anxiety.

Thinking ahead to when we are home it feels like my little family is no longer together. I get possessed with house work; and can seldom see past it. Josh plays catch-up or creates us an income so he's usually up in his hidy-hole most of the time. Soul will be attending Nalei's old pre-school and here's the kicker....Nalei will be in kindergarten which has become a real mental battle within me. I love teaching her, but being who she is I KNOW will love school so SO much, my biggest fear is, she will resent us for having to go on the road again next year. Possibly before this school year finishes (Spring). I'm not giving her much credit though, because the thought of us splitting up and her dad going off to do shows without us, truly upsets her. She loves this road life as much as Josh and I do, though she likely won't admit it. We have put the travel bug in her and sadly she and Soul go stir-crazy like Josh and I after being home for a month. It's a very untraditional life we lead, and we don't know anyone with the same lifestyle (that does this as a family anyway) so I question everything over and over, having no one to turn to settle my unease and I just have to trust in the end my children will still turn out to be fine human beings. I just hope they can look back on their childhood and have the fondest memories, but who knows, they may end up hating this....leading a 'normal' life however, seems ludicrous in these crazy times. We'd likely be crazy and more upside down than ever ending up in a very unhappy situation.

Somewhere in me, I look forward and value all of the things that involve home life, but here and now going home feels like a major loss. Which of course I know is completely untrue. I know this is just one of those moments where I prepare to meet this fate and when I get there I will be overcome with happiness and at ease in my daily work, taking comfort in my children's new worlds...and I have to put these feeling to paper just so I can get threw them. Actually I am starting to feel a bit better right now. I know this flighty feeling in my belly will last the next 14 days until we are actually driving home. But hopefully my brain will stop the battle over dread vs excitement. I am eager for the holidays and more so to be reunited with my pets, family and friends. I suppose if I were to put these feelings on a scale the desire of home would slightly outweigh the dread...but just slightly ;)

-----
Oh this weekends show wasn't too good, except that we can see the ocean from our room and walk to the beach in just 5 minutes. The kids and I hung back from the show Sunday since we were at our wits end on Saturday (simply nothing for us to do beside climb trees and splash in a fountain- if I wasn't so worried about Soul cracking his head open again that would've been sufficient) so we went to the beach the water was rough and some sort of jellies were on the beach, I didn't see tentacles but they made me nervous enough to encourage sand castle building above the highest water line. We had a good time and followed that up by going to the pool.

Our next show is real close just in the next town (Midvale to Murray distance), but we have an errand in Miami so I don't know what we will do, maybe stay there for Thanksgiving or come back??? I do know we sorta plan on spending thanksgiving in a movie theatre seeing the new family movies that come out that day, getting stuffed on popcorn and then maybe finding a pumpkin pie afterward.

Thanks, if you happened to stick it out this far!

Ade
November 21, 2011: 55 Days out
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My Mermaid and Merman!

Boca Raton beach

The view from our balcony, a ocean river farther out you can see the beach we walked to.

Another glimpse of the ocean from our balcony, and part of the hotel pool.

Location:Florida A1A,Boca Raton,United States

Now that was fun!

2011-11-17T14:17:00.001-08:00

We had so much fun! The first day Jeneka picked us up from our hotel and went into Animal Kingdom with us for a few hours. I didn't really 'know' the park so it was hard to figure out were would be best to go. We saw 2 performances The Lion King and Finding Nemo, met some characters, and did some rides (including Dinosar which was WAY to intense for the kids, I felt real bad-but they got threw it with no tears. I thought disney's version of scary was Dumbo's drunken nightmare....but I'll give them credit for being able to put some fear in you.).
Afterward we took a shuttle over to The Polynesian Resort to wait for Jeneka and DJ's show/dinner. The resort was incredible, they made a beach on the lake with super soft sand, in side was almost like a mall with all its shops and restaurants, and the pool was very warm to touch and had a huge volcano water slide. DJ and Jeneka were amazing as ever! This year we had reservations (last year we stood and watched in the back). It made all the difference to get to sit and eat, especially after a long day.

The next day we met Jeneka and DJ at Magic Kingdom. We said our good-byes because we have to leave Orlando today and get back down to Boca Raton.
This time I had our map figured out. I knew what we didn't get to do last year and figured out how to use our fast passes (yeah, I know that makes me sound like a dummy-but I didn't know) so we could do everything that we wanted. Lucky for us Soul grew and there were only 1 or 2 we couldn't go on. Our favorite that we ended up doing over and over was Splash Mountain. I think we were all drawn in especially because of our favorite Song of the South characters, the only thing it was missin was Uncle Remiss. I was a very fun water roller coaster type ride, that I don't remember as a kid. After Dinosaur I thought for sure the 50 foot drop off was scare the crap out of the kids, but they loved it! We all found our laughing place!

~Ade
November 17, 2011: 51 Days Out

Jeneka and the kids on the Safari at Animal Kingdom

Elephants playing in the water

Hippos

Jeneka on stage

DJ in yellow, and Jen in middle (main character)

Princess hugs(huge step for Soul this year!)

Tony's from Lady and the Tramp lunch (spaghetti of course!)

That ol' brer rabbit

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Location:Vista Lake Ln,Orlando,United States

Now, a little Magic...

2011-11-14T20:34:00.001-08:00

We had our first ever Double booth this past weekend in Plantation, Florida. The show was another we had little faith in, but we did it last year and knew it wasn't horrid...But, it ended up being much better than last year we hope it was due to our bigger booth since we plan on doing many more doubles. The area of Plantation is nice and clean, the people were all nice.
We scored a priceline studio apartment room with a full kitchen (including stovetop, full fridge, dishwasher, pans, plates etc). It felt wonderful to cook on a stove! And it was just a 10 minute walk from the booth, since they allowed us to set up on Friday, I let the kids sleep in on Saturday and Sunday so we did school work at the hotel, ate lunch and even lounged a bit before making the short walk to the booth. The booth was at a park, but the playground was always SO packed it felt unsafe for smaller kids because of all the Tweens pushing and showing off. So I was very glad to be able to use up some hours at the hotel. There was a cat hanging around our hotel, that our whole family wanted to scoop up and take with us. She was very like a cat who we used to have Kaya, and I felt like that is probably what happened to her. Such had an awesome personality, I can only hope a loving person scooped her up and gave her loving and a warm home...anyway this nice cat hanging around made me just want to be home and see to my own pets.

We drove about 3 hours north to Orlando today so we could our Disney on. Thank goodness Josh's cousins have both incredible talents and are incredibly generous, employed by the Mouse himself and are willing and able to take the time to get us in on their earned Disney passes. Jeneka, Josh's cousin and her husband DJ are dancers at the Disney Polynesian Resort for the Spirit of Aloha luau show. I really mean it when I say they are incredible dancers, anyone who attended my wedding would no doubt remember the dances Jeneka performed. She is one of the most beautiful and graceful people I've ever met. DJ is also amazing talent and a very nice person to be around. We are very grateful to the for getting us into the parks. They are all just so stinking expensive to do a day at a time. If we were buying a weeks worth however, it's turns out to be more more affordable.

Tomorrow we will go to The Animal Kingdom and then their Spirit of Aloha dinner show. And Wednesday we will do The Magic Kingdom. We had a nice dinner with Jeneka and DJ tonight and I am looking forward to their company again tomorrow!....and of course the company of all my favorite cartoon characters. The kids are SO excited I'm not sure they will sleep at all tonight!!

Pictures to cone....
~Ade
November 14, 2011: 47 days out

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Location:Park Maitland Ct,Maitland,United States

Joshua Tai Taeoalii (aka Iosua aka The Weird Chief)

2011-11-12T08:39:00.001-08:00

It's sometimes catches me off guard when people are stunned that my husband and I spent almost every hour of the year in each others presence.
The responses very from repulsiveness to admiration that a couple could maintain a healthy relationship having so little time to themselves.
I jokingly but truthfully say that "we just ignore each other." it's not really completely true but when your every experience is shared sometimes there is little to talk about. Our silence is content, we understand each other and support one another speaking not with words but by our actions. When we do "really" talk it is usually on a subject of great importance to the other and an attempt to bridge a gap where our minds might not exactly meet, making our relationship come off to others as a rude one. But it isn't at all. It is something of complete understanding. The silence it allows each other time to our own minds. He doesn't need to constantly fill mine nor I his. What a relief it is that we don't need to talk through the quiet space, or have to be cutesy to one another. There is nothing better than being able to be yourself, flaws and all, and being completely accepted.

I have complete faith and trust in Josh and have questioned, but never doubted his ability to provide, which I have tried to encourage him to do in his own way. The way he provides is not at all easy or conventional in the least, sometimes the stress is overwhelming, but he figures it out and the stress lessens and we are stronger for it.

Here in south Florida, I may be surrounded by sunshine and palm's but my inner-clock tells it's the time to reflect where my gratitude lies and what I am thankful for. And I am truly thankful for the loud and quiet times, the highs and lows. The ability Josh has to accept me and how he encourages me to tread muddy waters then offers his hand when I get stuck.

Josh, I love you and have never for a moment doubted you (regardless if I've arched a brow in question). I have never been more thankful to have you as my guide on this journey of life. And am proud to let the world know it.
<3 Ade

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Location:S University Dr,Plantation,United States

So. Miami On the move...

2011-11-08T10:16:00.001-08:00

Hmmm...how to begin...South Miami, the show was fine. Pretty boring for the kids and I, so on Sunday I found us a park a mile away and we walked there and spent the day, the park was simple too, but MUCH better than the hot sidewalk!

In the lump of lava-lavas are the kids, cozy, warm and asleep during the early morning set up.

Nalei leads he own musical about creepy wolves.

We were in and out of Miami came up to Ft Lauderdale so Josh can HOPEFULLY finish editing these videos. It is closer to our next destination and not far from the ocean. The files for Josh's video's have been taking forever to download! So he hasn't been able to finish.... we really haven't had the opportunity to be open for fun stuff. These videos need to be finished before we can really think about anything else.
We were going to do the Miami Beach thing this week, but he thought it would be too tempting to be out on the beach instead of working. So I just pricelined a cheap room for a few days so he could get it done. Then hopefully we can do some beach camping for a few days.

Soul's birthday was nice. We loaded out of our room and were loading up the van. The kids made a discovery of a bunch of caterpillars devouring the hibiscus plants. Nalei kept asking if she could hold them...I said 'no, let them eat.'....'leave them be.'...'I wouldn't if I was you'...well I was getting nowhere and finally 'whatever, but I think you should just leave them.' so she scoops one up. Crawling around her palm, it seems cool so Soul thinks ok, it's ok, I'm gonna find one. Well these are creepy looking, things sticking out all over. He finds a huge one and goes to pull it off and starts crying....well apparently the pointy things are stingers and it stung him good. I googled it on the way to the beach, it was nothing very dangerous. But I found out it was an Io moth caterpillar. We iced it and put some insect bite stuff on it and he was fine. This is what it looked like:

http://www.google.com/search?q=io+moth+caterpillar&hl=en&client=safari&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=UUe5TsHAKYn02wWp_7m_Bw&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=320&bih=416#i=64

So the closer we got to the beach, the nastier the weather was looking. Soul was VERY happy regardless that he was cold. We stayed a just a few hours. Grabbed lunch not far from the beach Then headed over to Miami.

Nalei found a great hiding place for her stuffed animal!

Soul with some new presents

The drive to Miami was amazing. We went straight through the Everglades for about 2 hours. It was incredible. So beautiful! We didn't stop so I never could get any pictures of worth, but it was incredibly pleasing to the eye. The birds were spectacular, and seeing the warnings signs for Big Cat crossings were fun. I was on the lookout but saw none. Many of the trees had lost their leaves, so I was checking high and low. I would LOVE to spend some real time in there and get to know it's secrets....maybe when the kids are older.

Here are a few pictures, that do no justice at all!

It's been pretty quiet and boring...Florida has SO much to offer, but mostly it's overpriced. We would've gone to many of the theme parks already had they not been $80 a person per day...that just too much for us on a given vacant day. Hopefully the weather will clear and Josh will finish editing and then we can drive to the beach, camp and have some free fun!

~Ade
November 8, 2011 : 41 days out

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Location:N State Road 7,Fort Lauderdale,United States

Tampa to Naples

2011-11-01T11:59:00.001-07:00

Tampa was better to us than we ever imagined. Our expectations of this show were VERY low! So when we did just under average sales we were surprised and relived. The area was very nice and clean with lovely homes and a lot of children. It was a very fit area which made it easy to find healthier eating options.

There was an awesome play ground right by the booth, that the kids and I took over after school work was done. They had HOURS of playground fun making new friends every hour on Saturday and Sunday, which was a much need release for us all.

Soul is going through some changes. Finally he is becoming more focused on his wants and needs. I am happy that he has found this part of himself, but boy is it hard to now have 2 extremely strong headed kids!
For his birthday he wants to spend some time at the beach, which sounds great to me! On his birthday gift wish-list is a barbie dog (like Naleis, who won't share hers), and stuffed animal dog (again like Nalei's, who won't share hers). So that should be real easy on us.

Halloween started off with me getting my phone figured out at the apple store, then we hung out in the hotel room watching PBS cartoons and waiting for 6:30 to come around.

We were headed to the area where our booth was for trick-or-treating, on the way though we were passing this neighborhood with spectacular homes and settled for those. At first it was fun. Not too many kids, some smaller groups. All the treat givers were set up on their huge front porches having wine and cocktails with their neighbors. It was such a nice feeling. Their would be 2 or 3 neighbors set up at one home while they just hung around talking and laughing. My eyes were quite green then, seeing this. It's was warm out (just like in the movies) you only needed a long sleeve to keep the Mosquitos off. Those few things made it SO different from home! But as the sun dropped further down, hordes and maybe busloads of people started to flock the neighborhood. Very unmannerly people too. Our kids were waiting in lines and lines from each porch. It was getting insane. Josh and I felt like we were among masses of freeloaders. Which I guess we were. Though we'd gladly hit up our own hood, had we been home. He and I were getting irritated and so were the homeowners. Apparently we chose The Neighborhood. I started wishing very badly we would've just made it to the moderate neighborhood we set out for. So we called it good and set off for the hotel. But the kids had a great time and got quite the loot. They were spent from toting the weight of the buckets. Now I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to be rid of it with out it being eaten. Soul got absolutely high off it Halloween night, to the point I thought somebody must have drugged him. What was that movie? "Rub the furry walls" seriously it was like that. Once I started checking his pupils and worry about drugs I heard Josh murmuring about my craziness under his breath, so I tried not to worry and focused on trying to get him to eat something of value.

Now we are on our way to Naples. Our show is in Miami but hotel rates in Naples were half the price as Miami. So this will give Josh a place to finish editing these fight videos with Internet and hopefully a pool. We check out Friday (Souls Bday) to head to Miami so we can spend the afternoon at the beach in Naples on the gulf coast before we head down.

I moved all my pictures to the computer so here are the few
I have.

TTFN~Ade

Nov 1, 2011:34 days out

My makeshift vampire fangs and my little 'no-body'

Nalei wanted fangs too, earlier she was a zombie. A lot of people thought she was dressed as Lady GaGa. But no, she was a Southern Bell Vampire.

The loot. Part of Nalei's school work was to count each peice she came in with 136. And Soul with 106 (the hotel gave her a huge handfull when we came in and Soul was zonked out, For that I'm grateful. He doesn't need any more!)

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Location:Shadow Ln,Fort Myers,United States

Memphis to Tampa

2011-10-27T16:53:00.001-07:00

On the way out of Memphis we stopped to get Nalei a guitar. After Razor Blade questioned why she wasn't yet on an instrument I couldn't deny that I had no good reason other than there hadn't been time. Well no time like the present, especially given the long driving hours. Soul had his choice between a ukelele and bongo type drums. He also wanted a guitar, but given his reputation for destruction and frustration we told him he couldn't get one till he was 5. At first he wanted the ukelele and it was a perfect size for him until we found a Tom drum which he had an instant love for. So Josh has been working with Nalei on the guitar she is doing quite well and Soul has been taking good care of his drum while surprising us I doing so.

After Memphis we headed to Tupelo, Mississippi. We stayed at a cute campground, did laundry and got an oil change then swung by Elvis' birth home which was cool to see not just because of whom was born there, but because it was such a small 2 room depression era house. It was unbelievably small but incredibly warm feeling. Josh took some fun pictures of Nalei playing her guitar on his porch which was fun.

We drove all through Alabama all that day which was a seemingly never ending forest. We saw a wild red wolf eating by the side of the road. It was so beautiful as we drove passed he looked up at us with his huge beautiful eyes. The red wolf is a rare species and I was so happy to see a wild one. We hit Albany, Georgia late that evening, stayed in another little rv park and went to a wonderful and intimate wildlife park the next morning. Chehaw was tucked away in the Georgia forest/swamp. The animals all had very wonderful spaces filled with live trees and the earth from the Georgia ground. Their was very little concrete and the animals were all very active, more active than I have ever seen any captive animals. It seemed an appropriate home, and didn't at all feel like they were trying to 'awe' you with an extensive 'collection' of animals. And it had a very fun park for the kids.
It was a beautiful beginning to the day.
Georgia had that certain something that Louisiana has... I can't quite put a finger on it, but I'd LOVE to spend more time there!

From there we drove to St Petersburg, Florida. It felt like we made the drive in no time at all so we went to Target to finds the kids costumes, Nalei who wanted to be a pirate is a sucker for pretty dresses ended up with a Southern Bell costume (I thought that was funny considering) and Soul who wanted to be Chucky, a bearded lady, dark helmet from Space Balls or E.T. Ended up with a 'No-Body' (skeleton) costume. Then we went to see a movie because it was hot in the van and still early and saw The Big Year, which was pretty good. We stayed in another RV park then went to the brand spanking new Dali museum. It is far better than the old one! We all enjoyed ourselves!

We are now at our hotel in Downtown Tampa, the kids and I are at the pool and Josh is in the room doing some editing (or supposed to be). I am looking for something fun to do on Halloween. Mickey's not so spooky party at Disney World sounds fun, but I'd rather do Disney later on in mid November when they have it decorated for Christmas. We may end up just trick or treating and staying here again.

Xoxox
Ade
Thurs. Oct 27, 2011: 28 days out

Now in Tampa, FL

Balcony MLK, Jr was shot on...very, very moving.

Foggy Memphis morning.

Little roof top in Tupelo, MS

Elvis' house
Front of the house (family bed)

Back of the house/kitchen

Nal playing in front of his church

'knock-knock, I'm ready Lord, let me in....

RV park in Georgia

-

The playground

The ocean. Between Tampa and St Petersburg.

Our Dali Mustaches

The Dali

The wishing tree @ the Dali

The labyrinth

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Location:E Columbus Dr,Tampa,United States

Mississippi to Memphis

2011-10-23T14:51:00.001-07:00

Below: A Mississippi cotton field.

What a history revelation I've had since last week! History books were boring so were my teachers. Glad to have an interest in it now where its more than a paragraph or chapter in a book.

From the sugar plantations through fields and fields of cotton where slaves were bought and broken, to a large Civil Rights Battlefield where many lives were lost then further North where BB King and the blues helped join the races. Then to Memphis where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. I never realized how it all was such a short time ago. Around 8 generations... maybe 6.
--------

The day after Vicksburg, we stopped at The BB King Museum in....well some small cotton town in Mississippi. It was one of the best museums we've been to, extremely informative and nice.

Then we went to Clarksdale, Mississippi for the sole reason to eat at Morgan Freemans restaurant. Well, the gps couldn't find it, or we had the wrong address. So we drove to his bar. It looked pretty shoddy from the outside and the area made us a bit nervous. But I went inside to see if kids were cool inside the bar and get a feel, we were hungry and we'd come this far already. Right when I walked in I was greeted by a very friendly server and could tell right away the shoddy look was intentional. It was around 5:30 and we ate then I was ready to go, but they asked us if we wanted to play trivia and it was a bar, so rowdy kids were not a big deal. We played trivia and somehow ended up winning and got a $20 gift certificate we used toward our bill.
Big Boy (singer/harmonica), from the band came over and talked to us for a bit so we decided to stay for 1 or maybe 2 songs tops. The other partial owner Bill (not Morgan Freeman) also came and talked to us found out a bit about us and what we do, and encouraged us to stick around. Now around 8:30 pm. The blues band (All Night Long) was phenomenal! All heart and soul. I found it really hard to break away and go. Josh had to take a call outside so the kids and I hung around and watched the band. Nalei took over the dance floor and danced alongside college students and grey hairs alike (all night). The partner Bill came around made sure the kids and I were good and introduced me to a museum director, blues musicians (and there were many in the house) and a local film maker who he wanted Josh to meet when Josh came back in. And after hearing that we would be headed to an RV park said we could just plug in in his lot (though we didn't). The place was full and full of life and everyone was feelin it. Even Soul who doesn't dance in public started bustin moves. The moments felt Meant to Be and harmonious. Felt like something between the scene taking place at the blues bar in the movie Adventures in Babysitting mixed with some local town barn gathering out in the sticks. Toward the end of the night Nalei was invited to dance on the stage, while another young girl was invited to faux play her guitar and a young man from Chicago sang for a bit. After that it seemed like every male face had a turn singing or playing an instrument up on stage for a never-ending jam. Everybody in that place was a musician. One from Columbia, others from other parts I can't recall. The old man by the name of Josh "Razor Blade" Stuart was extremely impressed with Nal's rhythm kept approaching me with sentiments and said at some point to me "That Blonde's gonna have fun. You...gonna have trouble." Followed by a hearty laugh.
The night was one to remember very intimate and very full.

The next day we moved on to Memphis.

Memphis feels a little like... neighborhoods of Chicago a bit like Minnesota, or Michigan with a pinch of San Francisco but all with more Soul food. Feels familiar but different.

The show is ok, we got a poor spot at the tail end of it and today (Sunday) has been cold and rainy affecting sales.

We went to the Children's Museum of Memphis so the kids could indulge before we set up on Friday and intended to hit the Civil Right Museum. But we didn't quite make it so that and Graceland will have to wait until we leave here tomorrow.

I think we will take it slower down to Tampa, FL. Like we did on the way here. Crashing at RV parks and rest areas. I really like staying in the van. It's simple even if a little uncomfortable and cold. The kids keep toasty warm between Josh and I and their shorter bodies allow them more comfort. Plus I REALLY dislike the hunt for a decent and decently priced hotel. I may be uncomfortable in the van but I don't worry about the cleanliness of it. I'd rather just do hotel stays during the shows.

Halloween is next Monday, we will be in Florida so I will have to find somewhere fun for us to be that evening. I am looking forward to warmth again. This week has been really cold.

Again, all is well.

~Ade

10/23/2011: 25 Days out

Kermit, in the place Jim Henson was from.

Outside of ground zero. Lined with old couches and if course a hound dog.

Nalei and Razor Blade

The future of graffiti.

Old cemetery in a not so great part of town.

Beale Street

Children Museum

"if I push hard enough...."

The fireman invited them to see the truck when we walked pass the station.

In front of the civil rights museum. Originally the motel where MLK, Jr was shot. Just beyond our booth in Memphis.

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Location:S Main St,Memphis,United States

Good Bye Louisy...Hello Mississippi

2011-10-18T10:33:00.001-07:00

Another blog where I will be leaving out too much. But if I don't do this now I won't at all. Trouble is, I don't want to take my eyes off of these forests with grapevine taking over everything in it's path. Every tree and old structure is a waterfall each bit of floor a river of green.

Oak Alley
Beautiful as ever. Staying on the grounds was fun! Our booth neighbors were parked just down from us in a huge rv. They were awesome, I was a little intimated by our neighbors mother, who in the end was extremely friendly but had the looming presence that reminded me of an certain Aunt who my brothers and I would run from at every opportunity for fear of being put to work doing some horrible mundane job that only benefited her whilst camping. Although that is probably still an opinion of a child who only wanted to play.
The family who's names I never caught (mind you the mother and father who were helping their daughter were in their 70's and the daughter was in her 40's) was way nice. One night after seeing Nalei grimace at a wrap I was offering, this daughter came over with a plate of rice and gravy for the kids and another for Josh but his was rice and a dish of what we first thought was alligator feet, ended up being crab, that they had caught. Then followed that up with some delicious cake. The father was the best of all. They were from New Iberia, LA where we actually stayed the night before Avery Island, anyway his accent was crazy at first I thought he must have had a stroke or was partial deaf, then the more I worked the booth the more I heard this Cajun accent. He was very nice and enjoyed a good few cocktails at night, after the show. They had some great stories of how they ride their boat through the swamps into the gulf on untouched beaches and go 'treasure hunting'.
Then the way old people parked with their camper right next to us were hilarious! They had to be in their 80's and their hearing going. We'd just hear them calling to each other 'Mama...Mama!....MAMA!' and she'd call 'Daddy....Daddy!...PawPaw!!'. she was a gift, with her blunt and welcoming soul reminded me of my beloved Grandma Petersen. She told us a story of her favorite granddaughter expecting her first child today who was about my size when she was married a few years back now in finally stages of pregnancy is just 'huge!' and kept saying how sad it is that she was so beautiful until 'this happened'. I couldn't help being reminded of my own grandmother letting me know of when I gained weight, but meaning no harm.

Oak Alley sales were low, but was as expected and since there was nothing else that weekend it was better than nothing. I will mention that the gnats were insane! Along with the misquotes. The Great Lakes got nothing on the south in that area!

We went to The Laura Plantation, which had a great story and the family was Creole and made it known. Very interesting and informative! And it was where the stories if the Br'er Rabbit were first recorded and we were able to go into the slave quarters where the stories were told. Of course we watched Song of the South the night before to help the kids visualize and grasp history and time.

I have been trying to teach Nalei and Soul about slavery since the traces of it are all around.

We are now in Mississippi for a history tour, driving town to towns and staying in the van at rv parks, we got off the main road we stayed in Natchez last night and are driving to Vicksburg today for some civil war history. So we will visit the battlefield where the Siege of Vicksburg took place lead by Ulysses S Grant.

Mississippi is pretty. A lot of forests so far.
Still, I haven't gotten to an Apple store so it's been a pain to take pix, but here are a few.

~Ade
Oct 18, 2011 : 20 days out

Oak Alley

Our camping spot

Today at the battlefield.

Old ship, sunken for 102 years in the river

Location:N Palestine Rd,Natchez,United States

New Orleans

2011-10-13T22:56:00.001-07:00

Our trip to the French Quarter of New Orleans has been so pleasant and different from the last. Not that the last was unpleasant. Of course we had a few extra nights and the balcony overlooking the street for our entertainment, we (Well Josh) also had a good amount of work from the website that had to be completed. We were able to park at the hotel this time, and the hefty parking fee was defiantly worth the piece of mind and accessibility.

The quarter has so much charm if you can see past Bourbon and do some leisurely wandering. Each day we had no plan, no must see destination. After the morning work was done we just wandered around, I still would have liked to gone to the St. Louis Cemetery but not with a tour and the shady area still is a bit risky with two little kids...so we passed- I can wait a bit longer, cause I have that feeling that I will be back. Also I would've gladly re-visited the garden district and caught the street car, but again that aimless light hearted adventure felt right this trip.

The steam boat Jazz dinner cruise was pretty cool, it wasn't planned we were walking along the Mississippi and heard some great jazz and let our ears lead they way. We paid the fee and boarded. Josh pointed just above the Mississippi to the horizon and questioned what the huge pink thing was....a harvest moon maybe? It feels about that time of year. Giant and beautiful, it rose above the massive river marking it with a luminescent pink reflection. The music was fantastic - we hadn't heard much music (esp. Jazz) in the quarter minus the blaring cover bands from the bars that clutter and cling to Bourbon. We did keep running into this one cute young violinist who reminded me of Jeda's husband Chris, if we could've boxed him up and taken him with us I would've and he could just play music to trade for rooms and board. The food on the cruise was good enough and the experience was fun but when we went on the lower level where we were close to the water and it was quiet, we watched the men work on the bow, and the kids flooded Josh and I with questions those minutes alone made it absolutely worth it. The little tid bits of freshly gained knowing and seeing interest peek in my children's eyes makes most of my questioning about what we may be doing to them in the long run ebb a bit.

One night we went to dinner with some friends. One who came in to Louisiana from London, England, two from Shreveport and 7 from the New Orleans area. We enjoyed every minute spent with them!

I think my favorite thing was looking over the rooftops and seeing the old architecture balconies adorned with wrought iron and working shutters (some opened some closed off to the world) all from the view of my balcony and hearing the carriages go by with the clatter of hooves, and the not so pleasant sour smells of the streets wafting up... I then could see so clearly another time and I would just sit and let my mind imagine.

I know I am leaving so much out, I didn't even get to Avery Island, but we certainly had our fill of the quarter, and are loving the rest of Louisiana.

We are now on to Donaldsonville, LA. Just for one night then Friday we set up our show and 'camp' in our van in Vacherie at the amazing Oak Alley Plantation. We will be staying in our van safely at the plantation both nights of the show also and then begin our jaunt up to Nashville. Where I hope to find an Apple store so I can get my phone fixed (I am sorry if it has went ahead and called you- it's doing a weird Voice Control thing).

I am still surprised to find out that I'm not as excited as normal. I hope I'm not overly disappointed when we finally come home.

Love to all!

~Ade
10/13/2011~ 14 days out

Soul ate himself into a corner on the balcony

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Josh and the kids in a 'haunted' maze

Soul's spider web leads me to think his previous life was one weighing heavy on anarchy.

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Location:Toulouse St,New Orleans,United States

Leaving Shreveport

2011-10-09T16:12:00.001-07:00

I suppose I should say something today...
What to say?....well a boring update, then...

The Revel was better than last year. The days are long and hard but the show went real, real well. We took down last night. Again, it's all so different with the sprinter. We had our system down with the trailer and it used to be we were out quick. It took a long time last night to get down....but we did it.
Josh was approached by Colt Ford yesterday to possibly do some art work for an album which is cool. He took a suggestion from a festival worker to stop by our booth...and he loved Josh's work. I don't know who he is really other than what I heard him sing/rap'n last night. He was good though, brought those cowfolk out in droves. Just about every white person had their best cowboy boots or hat on. He and Josh seemed to get along good.

What else...after the months bills got paid this morning, we were left with a small bit of money to order a few more panel walls with to complete our double booth setup. We will have our first ever double this November in Florida. Doubles may be the new way we always try to set up. The fee's are more but with suggestions from friends who frequently do them, the profit is significantly more too. But, we are just going slow and test the waters a bit first.

Let's see...what else?...oh I've been catching my self saying funny southern things to kids like "watchaself" and "come-on neh" to hurry them along, and a few others I can't remember.
Oh yes! and yesterday the kids were coloring a patch of fabric that some old ladies sew into quilts for sick kids, Nalei said to Soul who was almost already done drawing his that his drawing was supposed to be funny. He already had drawn the Easter bunny a flower and Easter eggs. A moment or two after her comment he adds to the bunny a nice large penis and a stream of pee coming from it and then he says "look, now that's funny!". We'll we can only hope the recipient has the same sense of humor. Why did I let it slide? Well he was being thoughtful and wanted a sick kid to laugh and I didn't want to rain on his good will. But I will have a talk about what may be inappropriate.

....we left Shreveport late today, so that we could sit down do bills, go to the grocery store for some fruits and veggies and just take it easy. I wanted to go down to Lafayette to see this Arcadian Village, but it's closed on Sunday and Monday so we are currently driving to Avery Island where Tabasco is made, because honestly there were too many cool looking places to go to, but not much info on any of them. So I picked it because the area is supposed to be beautiful and it's in Cajun country and well, it's a destination. We aren't very good 'road trippers' we need true destinations with reason's to be there. But we set the gps to take us off the highways now and then so we can see what we will, and we'll pray we don't hit another Gary, Indiana.
I'll figure out a place to stay tonight either by priceline or RV park, I don't really care or want to figure it out right now anyway. I'd rather just sleep in the van. Less chance of hitchhiking bugs. Anyway, we will do the Avery Island thing tomorrow morning then head to New Orleans afterward. We REALLY wanted to stay at the quaint boutique Hotel St Marie again, but it was sold out, I found a room that is a bit more blah, but it has a balcony on Toulouse and the hotel directly corners Toulouse and Bourbon so Josh and I will hopefully be able to sit out there and see the foot traffic at night. Since we won't be able to partake in the action. I had to pay a bit more for that, but I don't want to go to New Orleans to sit in a hotel room. I love to be OUT and walking and seeing and feeling and tastin! But NoLa at night isn't very kids friendly. I am hopeful for the balcony, put the kids to bed, grab a bottle and set up shop on the balcony. We may not be on Bourbon, but I wonder if we should stop and get some beads to throw down just for hell of it, it is right on the corner of Bourbon after all...

Some of our Red River Revel friends are meeting us in New Orleans on Tuesday evening at the French Market. So that should prove interesting. They know how we roll with Thing 1 and Thing 2 and are well aquatinted with them so it should be cool. It will be us, Noma, Glynis, Josh Lee and some others I think....

The kids are good. Catching up on rest in the car after all those long hot days.

Well, um, here are some picks of whatever I can scrounge up.

Happier than a one tooth man in a corn eat'n contest!

Train o'er the Red River

:) Ade
10/9/2011 ~ 12 days out

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Location:E Bert Kouns Industrial Loop,Shreveport,United States

Meet the Revel

2011-10-07T08:46:00.001-07:00

Wow. It shouldn't seem so busy being in the same place. But I have been totally drained! I stepped Nalei's schooling up a notch. Now that she can sound out most simple words, we started in on sight words with spelling tests. She is up to number 80 as far as counting/writing goes. In a few weeks when she's makes it to 100, we'll put more focus on doing simple math while I continue to have her write out her numbers daily, because her number recognition is still very weak. Soul has started writing his numbers and his name and I'm going to start him on simple words since he is showing interest and is good with his alphabet (and bored of them too).
We spend the morning at the festival working on school, after lunch around 2 we head to the water fountains to cool off and release, when the kid area opens at 4 we tear that up till about 8, then go back to the booth and try and have the kids settle a bit. The sun is down by that time and they gain a 5th or 6th wind....and all I want to do by then is sleep!!!

The RV park was great! Even though we still weren't very cozy. We checked out this morning after doing laundry and Josh built a box frame for a large piece he sold. We go back to a hotel tonight and check out Sunday. Sunday I'd like to head to Lafayette maybe, to sight see and maybe some bayou's or cypress filled lakes. Then Monday head to New Orleans till about Wednesday. Then move up to middle Louisiana to plantation country for our show at Oak Alley.
That whole plan just about got nixed. Already we are worried about prints, we figured we could cruise home print and not do New Orleans or Oak Alley and head strait to Memphis. But I guess our good friend Darrel Driver is going to do some printing for us. Plus we are going to pick up a smaller 11x14 printer for paper prints. I surprisingly was torn, I actually liked the idea of going home though I'd hate to miss out on the rest of Louisiana....I miss Maggie and Cee-lo already! And just toward the end I was liking some of the simplicity of just being home. It seems our fate is sealed and I am ok with either direction. I do wish I could assure myself the dogs are fine (or find a way to bring them with out the feeling of Maximum Overload!) and already I miss the pond and turtles but... This is the game we chose to play and so we'll play the cards we are dealt as best we can.

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Here are the people of The Revel. Some we only see here and some we see abroad.

This is Glynis Ford and Bethany Hardison.
Glynis comes to this show all the way from England to volunteer. She is a fantastic person with a great and giving personality and all of us just adore her!!
Bethany is a local who looks like an angel and perhaps just may be one. Which would explain the bible always laid out before her. She makes and sells some awesome granola!!! Aidansplace.com

Here is Glynis helping Bethany at her booth.

This crazy guy is Joshua Lee. If you happen to be within our very close circle of friends you likely got one Photography prints. His love for the state of Louisiana shows beautifully in his work as does his sense of humor.

Here he is in one of his very animated stories!

This is the sweet Toni! She is volunteer who never let's us go thirsty and is always around to help.

This is Ted Armulowicz and his daughter Ariana. My kids fell in lover with them both! They were our neighbors the first week. And we miss their company terribly! He and his wife work with wood and make some amazing stuff, one day I'd love to buy one of his vases or table top bowls. Tedskitex.com

Here Ted is strummin a guitar he made and singing to the kids, while Ariana draws with them.

This crazy dude and his wife are locals who got into the beef jerky making business. And they apparently do it well, since he sells out every day and spends his nights making more. Syjerky.com
A few of you got this for Christmas last year too.

Well this isn't all, but a good look at SOME of the people here.

Oh yeah we won an award of Merritt today, that included a nice little check. So that was cool! Hopefully that will get is an invite back next year, but who knows.

It is now a half hour till closing and I am SO looking forward to sleep!!!
~Ade
October 6, 2011~9 days out.

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Location:Traffic St,Bossier City,United States

RRR Kid Area Intro.

2011-10-04T19:37:00.001-07:00

Tuesday Oct 4, 2011

So the first 2 days of being here we stayed at a good hotel that was discounted for the festival, that still ended up being over $100 a night and it didn't include breakfast. It was however steps from the festival. The last year we were here we stayed in the ultimate dump. This is also a casino town, so there are casino hotels but I sometimes am weary of the less expensive casinos. The thing is, 11 nights at over $100 adds up quick. So getting to the point, I'd rather pay that rate in New Orleans for a day or two next week. So we have been staying at a nice, clean rv park. We haven't gotten the sleeping situation set up right yet in the Sprinter. That was the great thing about our other van, that bed was super comfy. So not only are the days at the festival long the nights have been a little uncomfortable and restless. Though I'm not complaining, I really like the $30 nights vs the $105. If the festival days were shorter we couldn't stay at an RV, Josh would be totally restless and want to lounge. But since we get back late we just sleep, shower and go. For next weekend I did priceline us a room that was a little more affordable. So that if Josh has to stretch canvas at night he will have the space and comfort to do it in.

So The Revel and reasons why it is so awesome.
One of the biggest is the home made lunch they serve all the artists (and our kids). They made an exception with Nalei and Soul after remembering their daily attendance here last year and gave us 2 extra lunch cards. I feel more comfortable getting them food with the cards, even though they basically eat my meat entree and I their salad.
Also they bring around snacks and water and have donuts and muffins in the morning.
Everyone who works here is a volunteer too. In the kid area they have Jr High and High School kids working in all the booths, all the students need community service hours to move on to the next grade and graduate. Which I think is awesome! The little old lady who punches tickets for lunch said she'd love it if Nalei was to help her next year and Nalei's eyes lit up with anticipation. Most of the kid booths are educational and art related. Most are free or 50 cents. They also have carny rides which the kids have never even noticed or they've learned not too since I never take them on those rides anyway.
Most of the staff knows us by name and is eager to help us with whatever. They are all way kind and outgoing.
One more thing I think is super cool is almost all if the food booths are run by schools and churches, so the money goes right back to bettering the community and helping out those non profits.

So here are some pix of the kids area and across the street from it by the Red River is a huge grassy area and fountains to play in.

This is the whole kid area, it's about the same size as the art side of the festival

This is the fake grocery store for kids to shop off of a grocery list.

Notice Nalei's fruits and veggies vs Soul's Twinkies and cookies. He has been picking up more fruits and veggies every day though.

These are students doing the 50 cent face painting.

This is one of the art and craft booths, they change the activity every day.

The library booth, where we listen to stories and have won 4 scholastic books so far.

This is the geology booth where you can dig for crystals, stones and shark teeth, and then keep them. Very fun!

Paper bag hats

A fun nutrition booth- that gives candy??

At our booth where we do our school work.

More arts and crafts.

Kids cooling down on another hot day.

Wet kids off To the river

At the river

Looking for gators in the river.

The train passes just feet behind where the kids and I set up shop. The noises are fun to hear, though extremely loud and fun to watch through the cracks in the wooden fence (not shown).

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So that is how we (the kids and I) can handle a 10 day festival :) it really is a lot of fun! Way better than veg'n out on the TV at a hotel!

Ade
10/4/2011- 7 days out.

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Location:Milam St,Shreveport,United States

Shreveport, LA

2011-10-02T12:49:00.001-07:00

"Ye got yer-self a perdy smi-ile." say a passerby to me in his slow drawn out southern drawl. It didn't matter that he himself had few teeth peering out of his own mouth as he said this and his years greatly surpassed my own, still, I felt the blood rise in my cheeks and the corners of my mouth reach higher on their own accord while I thanked him for complement.

Until that moment, just 5 minutes ago I was wondering how to start the task of beginning Shreveport's particular entry. Shreveport, Louisiana is claimed by the people of southern Louisiana as considered to be more a part of Texas than Louisiana. It lies so close to the border and in fact it does lack in Louisiana's staple imagery. For example, you won't find trees draped in moss. And I've yet to see a 'southern longhouse' as I call them. Or any above ground grave sites. It IS different here. The so call conservative town, seems anything but in the way that I think of conservative people. Very few people scoff at our work and everyone takes a minute to peer inside, even though they don't find it personally appealing (and I'm talking the old grannies to the younger strait shootin' cowboy.). It's hot here but the air feels fresh in my lungs with the likes of these folk. I seldom see a frown. Black people with white people. Poor people with the well to do. It has a character all it's own, and it is truly a great place to spend 11 days and personally, I don't care overmuch who's state Shreveport lies in.

In my entry's over the next few days I'd love to introduce you to this festival. One day to focus on our booth friends and another on the kid area. But I need more pix and to find caffeine in a higher content than is served in my sweet tea.

Thanks for reading and sorry 'bout the lack of detail. But all's well and we are enjoying ourselves.
~Ade
11/2/2011- 5 days out

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Location:Shreveport,United States

And a new adventure begins

2011-09-29T09:41:00.001-07:00

Making Our Way South

As usual, the packing was horrid! It is such a chore. Not like packing for Hawaii where the big issue is how many different bikini's to pack. I won't spend much time on this topic except to say it was a truly grueling 48+ hours of rushing, painting, goodbyes, and that awful cleaning.

A new experience for me this time 'round was no anxiousness nor anticipation. I always get sad leaving home and am usually so excited too, but this time it was about as exciting as going to grab a coffee. Almost no feeling came with leaving except when I was exiting my neighborhood, I got choked up and hid my tears as I thought of my sweet puppies having to stay home. They knew, Maggie my sweet was sad and I think Ceelo was hopeful we really weren't going to leave them. But when I went outside yesterday morning they were barking at me as if I was a cat, trying hard to say 'Don't Go! Take Us with You!'.
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On the happier side of things is this Sprinter. This has been the easiest 21 hour drive to date!!! We even went through the armpit state of Wyoming, and not a complaint to be had. All that dead grass and dust even looked prettier going the speed limit, instead of struggling with 25-35 mile per hour over every hill.
Not towing is fantastic too. But the very best part of this Sprinter is the gas. Yes, its about 45 cents more per gallon but I think we have only filled up 3 times. In our hippy van it was about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours and the Tundra was about the same. Its amazing to watch the gas needle hardly move between glances. Also we are saving on tolls for not towing.
Josh drove the first 12 hours then when he could no longer, I woke up from my cozy camping mat I layed out on the floor and drove this van for the first time ever. I was a little timid at first. The gas petal placement was a little different, but once I set the cruise control it was all easy going. When I started to go cross eyed around 4:30 am Josh took over until 7am, then it was me again until about noon. From our breakfast stop at Starbucks in Oklahoma City, Dallas lay only 3 hours ahead. We will stay the night at our cousins (The Howards) in Dallas and then Friday morning we will head 3 1/2 hours east to Shreveport, Louisiana to set up our booth where we will be working The Red River Revel the next 10 days.

All is well. The kids were happy to get gone. They sorta miss their reclining captains chairs from the scooby van, but I did something I've never done while they slept. I took the boosters out and laid them sideways on the bench and then buckled them up nice and secure. I had a nagging feeling that sitting in the same upright position all day then sleeping in that same position, creates some sort of pooling of the blood. I couldn't sleep until I made them cozy, then I zonked right out.

So that's about it for the beginning of this trip. We are eager to see our cousins, but I have the feeling I'll be wishing for that wonderful fall weather in Salt Lake really soon!

~Ade

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Location:E Memorial Rd,Oklahoma City,United States

Soul's 4th pre birthday party

2011-09-25T08:49:00.001-07:00

Saturday, Sep. 24 2011 we had a party for Soul because we will be far from here and I really didn't want to have him a party in Dec or Jan way after so.....
He decided on a comic theme because his love for all the super hero's, villains and comics books themselves.
I thought it would be nice and fun if Josh was a villain and we could make the living room semi spooky and turn it into the villains lair. Soul really liked the idea and wanted Josh to be Joker. Unfortunately Josh picked the wrong Joker (The Dark Knight) to paint himself after and Soul thought it was too scary and was VERY mad at him and shut his happy self out for the first hour (or two?) of the party.
Gradually he came around and had a really fun time. He was painted up as Two Face though I failed to get a good picture of him or his sister Poison Ivy.
We had a good time and I greatly appreciated Josh uh I mean The Joker...

A very unhappy Two Face.

Joker playing a card game for the youngsters.

We turned Josh into a human piñata. He was quite happy about it!

Souls pink comic book cake

Finally happy!

I really thought Atticus was gonna run when I asked to take his pic. He surprised me with this sweet smile!

2 of the Super Huggards.

There's cousins Bell and Ely, they seems to always be looking for drinks when I was taking pix!

Our new art by Troy Henderson that Josh put up immediately

It was a successful fun party! I'm glad we stopped working for one day so Soul could have this!!!

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Location:S 760 W,Murray,United States

Ranting & Raving

2011-09-21T15:01:00.001-07:00

You wait and wait for a perfect blossom. When it blooms, it blooms quick, you blink and its faded, wilting, petals fast falling. Each moment is the bloom, fading fast under every nights moon.

I can't tell if I'm angry or sad or irritated because we are leaving or because we haven't yet gone. Or maybe I've been upset because I always knew it would be like this. It always is, so it was no surprise. It's disappointing that I still can't keep up the home life, that I spent more time picking up than I did visiting the people I love. The fault is my own- but is it my fault messes drive me crazy? I don't know, maybe. I feel so alone in my head at home, though I'm far from it, just don't really feel like myself here. Too many little stresses to allow me to be free of life's burdens. I have much I want to accomplish here and when I'm set on these things I need space and to be left alone. We have had some fun, the kids have cherished each moment with their grandparents, but I can't help being disappointed a bit, for whatever reason, if I'm being honest here.

Still, there is one week left. In my mind that means it's crunch time. This trip is all new (not the route or all of the shows but is still new). A new van, double booth at some shows, and a new printer (that does NOT travel), it's gonna be like our first time in ways which equals trying to anticipate 10 weeks worth of sales and stock for that 10 weeks, foresee problems and situations that have not ever happened...that makes me wanting to crawl under my bed and try and hide from it all! I wish home was a nice retreat. But no, it's working on the road that is the retreat, and home is the work I want away from. That's not such a bad thing. Or is it?

What's really got me stressed is thinking a head to the winter. Long and cold in a recession. I need to set my sights on Louisiana and Florida and live in the moments or I'll be doomed to grey early in life...but that dark gloomy Utah winter will continue to taunt me.

I guess this means I'm ready to hit the road again.

Okay, I needed that. Just a quick release so I can pick myself up and continue on with the week.
~Ade

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Location:La Salle Dr,Murray,United States

Outta-town Schedule and "The Plan"

2011-09-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

My mother-in-law Shirley requested our upcoming schedule so I figured I'd post it. Sorry its quite vague, but it will have to do.

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Sept 26 or 27 leave Utah headed for Shreveport, Louisiana

October 18 leave Louisiana headed for Memphis, TN

October 24 Leave Memphis to go to Miami, FL

November= Florida, Florida and more Florida (sorry no flights home this year)

December. Tempe & Tucson, AZ

HOME DEC 14!!!! :)

December 15 register the kids in their schools and put up the Christmas tree

*We know that it's a lot but again, this year was doing more searching for great shows and paying down bills. Not getting into Utah Arts Festival kind of spoiled our paying down bills part of the plan. Next year our plan is to start the year the same with a few weeks in texas and a month in San Fran to make up for a long winter that likely will have been a financial struggle and not very profitable. After getting caught up we hope to "sprint" to the good shows, be it: Denver-Home....2-3 weeks off. Florida-Home....2-3 Weeks off. Philly-Home...2-3 weeks off. Michigan-Home...2-3 weeks off. etc. We are hoping to come up with extra money for our new website to be built and launched by Black Friday (fingers crossed), which will make it easier for people to navigate and make purchases. The new web site is VERY important for us to be able to keep afloat whilst home......That's the plan, but you know how life LOVES to keep throwing you curve balls....

Home

2011-09-10T19:03:00.001-07:00

O.K. So I can appreciate the work involved with running a home....but good lord! It's WORK that NEVER ends!!!!
Since coming home I have been cleaning up a spot on the basement carpet where a dog peed. I can't handle pee smells of any creature. And I'll go crazy on that spot until I can run my nose in the carpet and not smell a thing. It's disgusting! I have been enjoying spending my time with the dogs, I can't really blame them for leaving me such a gift after being gone so long.
I went through and bleached the house, vacuumed and washed sheets tight when we got home. I've since attempted to clean 3 or 4 more times but the kids are always a step or two ahead of me and I'm accepting their triumph, this is just not something I'll ever win at. Unless I happen to clean in the middle of the night- then I may get to enjoy for the remainder of that night.
And also we bought a 2005 Sprinter. Josh has to figure out how to install the back passenger bench. We've listed the 'bouncy Jeep' in the classifieds and have taken the hippy wagon (our Van) in to get an estimate on it's issues so we can fix them to sell it. We've been lucky to get to visit twice with 2 sets of our parents (sorry Dad, I'll come up soon). Then Josh 'surprised' me with a late anniversary date. Which was sweet but I absolutely am not a huge fan of fancy or surprises so when Josh was dressed up telling me to get dressed I was already objecting and mad. We'd spent the whole day trimming bushes, throwing out stuff from our garage and behind the studio, taken the kids to the dentist (where sick Soul had continued his prior morning vomit Fest), I was battling my own demons ALL DAY with heavy allergies, a bit of Soul's sick bug, my period and a migraine. All I wanted to do was sleep! But I knew Josh had gone to a lot of trouble so I hastily threw on some clothes and packed up another pair as instructed and decided not to fight him on this, but I did drag my feet all the way. He booked a room at The Hotel Monaco (which I highly recommend). We had dinner at the Bambara where Josh became reacquainted with an old skate friend, Jason Clark who was our waiter. A real nice, cute guy who was familiar with our current life style via facebook. We were able to carry good bits of conversation with him. We also went to a gallery showing where we saw Adrian Prazen who was wonderful to see and talk to as usual. We went to The Vault and then back to the room where Josh tried to watch Scream 4 and I tried to sleep off my migraine (he ended up saving me from it in the middle of the night by manning up and tracking down some Tylenol). In the morning we walked to Sam Weller Bookstore had a latte and poppyseed/zucchini bread then went to The Avenues Street Fair to visit Trish, Troy and Atticus Henderson (whom we can never get enough time with) and The Drivers who made some fantastic changes their booth and it looked great. I hope they both did extremely well at the fair!!

After picking up the kids from my Mom's we came back to continue with the yard work since the dumpster leaves Monday. I was smarter today and have been wearing a bandanna Billy the Kid style over my nose to help avoid the dust and whatever else I'm allergic to and it's been helping. We told some friends they are welcome to come by tonight but they probably won't. Nate Salazar and a few of his kids are over and the kids are playing while Josh and Nate watch the U of U football game. I'm just sitting on the front porch watching the sunset's reflection on Mount Olympus and enjoying the weather. I know it won't be long before we go again and when we come back the weather wont be of much enjoyment to me.
I'm hoping to get some relaxing moments in this trip and get one painting done. But for now it's go, go, go and clean, clean, clean.
~Ade

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Location:Murray, Utah, USA

Days 67-70

2011-09-05T10:13:00.001-07:00

Denver has been short but it's working days have been long and profitable. We haven't indulged in anything here, except one trip to the Denver Art Museum. Our booth neighbors have been exceptionally fun. I've taken great pleasure in getting to better know Josh's high school friend Darrell Driver and his sweet wife Amber. We are also surrounded by a few other great guys we were next to last year and of course another good road friend Kevin Eslinger. Kevin has had his daughter who is 4 and my kids have been having a blast playing behind the booths with her.

We ordered a new printer a while back and it waits for us at home. The quality of it is superb. So we are selling everything half off today only because otherwise I KNOW Josh will trash them once he uses this other printer. He has done it before. So I feel it's better to give a good deal on it all and go home as close to empty handed as we can get. I look forward to today for many reasons. Hopefully we will meet the Drivers at Stuebens (the restaurant I told you about before) tonight after take down.

The Drivers

They loved this zombie piece!

This was our favorite piece! The Red Fox

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I have been baptized in the pleasant fount of anticipation. A sweetness took over my soul as I woke for no reason at 5:30 a.m. this Labor Day morning. I lay in bed listing to the sounds of luggage begging to be filled and toys whining to be packed. There I lay listening for about twenty minutes, knowing I should really try for more sleep because today will be a long day and the nights drive ever longer. I don't pay attention to calendars but I hope the moon provides the light I need to keep this energy flowing through me. I love to drive in the light of the moon. The more full it is the more it quenches my desperate aching to see mountains and ridges, hills and horizons. While the rest of my family nods off the moon and I race. It's not a game of speed, I just like to see who ends up where when the sky turns silver by the approaching sun. Hope pierces me when that old sun turns the sky shades of blue and a tinge of dread leaks in as I know that sun will wake everyone and my sweet quiet hours have come to an end. But a blister of excitement fills the close confines of our vehicle. Their most certainly is a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.

You already know what that pot of gold is. It isn't the old ugly run down State Street. Nor the quietness of my cookie cutter neighborhood. It's not the over polluted chains store and eateries. Not the dishes waiting to be dirtied just so they can be washed. No. It is the roots. The roots to this family of four. Waiting patiently to be watered. There is nothing like Salt Lake for that reason. It's not a super hip cool city. It may lack in culture and diversity, but it has the elements and the beauty. It has The goodness of kindhearted people wanting to help those in need. It has 4 seasons each one dreadful, hopeful, unique and stunning. It has my memories and memories waiting to be made. It has my history. It has my friends. It has my family.

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Location:E Speer Blvd,Denver,United States

Days 65-66

2011-09-01T10:10:00.001-07:00

If feels fantastic to be in Denver. We are all so familiar with the city, even the kids know when/where major landmarks/sculptures will be lurking around each corner. Sorta feels like visiting a childhood home. Full of memories. You know what to expect and where. You know where the bums will be and the basic character of the people. It's not overwhelming and nerve racking.

Ahh, a breath of fresh city air. I think what feels soo good about Denver is that we know we are SO close to home.

The drive here was long, hot and grueling. But what made it really bad was my allergies. I couldn't not keep my eyes comfortably open. My nose itched and itched and itched. I think I formed a blister on the back of my tongue trying to scratch that weird space between your ears and throat. I wanted to help Josh drive but I seriously couldn't hold my head up and keep my eyes open (not that I was sleeping-just keeping the
As comfortable as I could). Then when we made a pit stop to look at this old creepy/ beautiful decaying church. We had to walk through a big open field and I thought back to the pioneers and Decided it was probably best for them to have gone in the winter. All the mosquitoes, the wretched wet heat would've probably have been just as deadly and possibly more miserable, though the food supply would've been better. And if they'd had allergies....oh the dreadful misery!

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Our hotel is great! It has a tiny kitchen, couch with a hide a bed and breakfast and best of all FREE PARKING! Which is VERY unusual in Denver or any big city.

Josh is stretching canvas. The kids are playing and I'm waiting to roll the gloss coating on the canvas. We will set up the booth later tonight. We have a few small errands to run including getting stuff for sandwiches and snacks. The hours of this festival are LONG and the food is sample sizes, it is SO incredibly crowded it's sucks waiting in line for food. It just takes forever even to get to work your way to the food booths. So if we can save a little, time money and calories on buying our food today it will be very helpful (we usually pack our lunches anyway).

Now that the kids can handle art museums I think this year I will take the kids to the Denver art museum (which is right behind our booth).

Here are a few pix of the drive to Denver

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Location:Sherman St,Denver,United States

Days 65-66

2011-09-01T10:08:00.001-07:00

It feels fantastic to be in Denver. We are all so familiar with the city, even the kids know when/where major landmarks/sculptures will be lurking around each corner. Sorta feels like visiting a childhood home. Full of memories. You know what to expect and where. You know where the bums will be and the basic character of the people and city. It's not overwhelming or nerve racking. A breath of fresh city air. I think what feels soo good about Denver is that we know we are SO close to home.

The drive here was long, hot and grueling. But what made it really bad for me was my allergies. I couldn't not keep my eyes comfortably open. My nose itched and itched and itched. I think I formed a blister on the back of my tongue trying to scratch that weird space between your ears and throat. I wanted to help Josh drive but I seriously couldn't hold my head up and keep my eyes open (not that I was sleeping-just keeping them as comfortable as I could). I felt real bad cause i could see that he was tired.

When we made a pit stop to look at this old creepy/ beautiful decaying church. We had to walk through a big open field and I thought back to the pioneers and Decided it was probably best for them to have gone in the winter. All the mosquitoes, the wretched wet heat would've probably have been just as deadly and possibly more miserable, though the food supply would've been better. And if they'd had allergies....oh the dreadful misery!

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Our hotel is great! It has a tiny kitchen, couch with a hide a bed and breakfast and best of all FREE PARKING! Which is VERY unusual in Denver or any big city.

Josh is stretching canvas. The kids are playing and I'm waiting to roll the gloss coating on the canvas. We will set up the booth later tonight. We have a few small errands to run including getting stuff for sandwiches and snacks. The hours of this festival are LONG and the food is served in sampling sizes, it is SO incredibly crowded it's sucks waiting in line for food. It takes forever just to work your way to the food boothsPlAy times it gets so shoulder to shoulder people can not see Nalei and Soul beneath them, which makes for many smashed little ties. So if we can save a little, time, money, toes and calories on buying our food today it will be very helpful (we usually pack our lunches anyway).

Now that the kids can handle art museums I think this year I will take the kids to the Denver art museum (which is right behind our booth).

Once upon a time I would've loved to see Boys II Men, so I'll indulge in my inner child Monday when they perform at Taste.

Here are a few pix of the itchy eye church excursion. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open to even take any pix :) but I'm sure Josh got some beautiful ones with the Nikon.

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This was in a different place it a whole house made of sod.

My cuddly sleepers

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Location:Sherman St,Denver,United States

Days 62-64

2011-08-30T14:13:00.001-07:00

I really, really, really wanted to go 5 hours out of the way to go visit Nauvoo, IL. WHAT?!?! I know that's what some of you are thinking and it sorta makes me giggle for you to wonder about it. But I have this fascination with certain religions. *Not to be confused with searching my soul and looking to FIND religion. Sorry.

Nauvoo directly links to us in Utah and even more directly links to my husband and kids with rumors of their supposed direct link from Brigham Young (I wouldn't be surprised if I have pioneer blood in me too). Also, the beliefs of MANY family members. Furthermore I LOVE history!!!! Every time we leave Illinois I find myself fantasizing about the trek the Mormons made. It's rather incredible. Only the strongest had to have survived. I mean strongest of heart, faith AND genetics. If I was Mormon back then and not too sure I fully believed what Joseph Smith was spittin' I wouldn't have left with them. They would've lost me just with the getting my kids over the freezing Mississippi alone. I wonder how many deserters of the faith 'disappeared' until the rest of the Mormons were long gone before resuming life near Nauvoo or in Quincy and either practicing the LDS faith in hiding or claiming they were never a part of it. However, had I been a faithful member and true believer i can only begin to imagine the extreme circumstances each and every pioneer was put threw. Some SO tragic. I'm not Mormon so I don't REALLY know the hardships, but as I've experienced winter and have seen the terrain I can only imagine. Really it would've been hard trusting Brigham Young to keep going SO far at some point you'd just be like "OK! This is Far ENOUGH!" but if they were pursued, their would be no question to keep going, I wonder if they were bummed when they found out The Great Salt Lake being undrinkable. It's all just so full of history and one I'm very familiar with,just from living in Salt Lake alone.

Faith, family, and fury encompassed Nauvoo and that combination ended brutally, though successful in the end. People were so afraid and outraged by the preaching, teachings and lives of Mormons.......I find it all absolutely fascinating (reminds me a bit of Today's society being afraid of muslims). I also think it's neat Browning (as in the guns) were from there-well for a time anyway. As were most of the lives there, just for a time.

Those are a few of the things I find interesting but I also love the dress and lifestyles of the times. The cooking, farming, trade, chamber pots and loo's, home layouts and structure, kitchen, food cellars and storage cabinets, architecture (I was really wanting to compare Nauvoo's architecture to historic SLC's architecture). Just like I love to see the antebellum houses and dress and fantasize how things may have been in the South, and even in the different periods in Muskegon, Michigan. But unfortunately much to my dismay we are leaving here too late and by the time we got to Nauvoo all the historic sites would be closing at 6 pm and we just wont make it. So again, we put this off (I really wanted to go last year too). Oh well, adventures and history to be had elsewhere.

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Now we've just loaded the rest of our stuff into the van and trailer, cleaned, swept, mopped and hit the road! We had to go into the city a bit earlier for stretcher bars since we couldn't find a utrect in Denver. We stopped one last time in Bucktown to exchange the hat Jean and Joe left in Chicago for Josh's birthday and ended up getting the three of them some awesome hats and grabbing an incredible breakfast at a little place called The Bongo Room.

On to another adventure and looking forward to the cornfields of Nebraska and all the barns, rust, the earthy and sometimes putrid smells, the nature and beauty near the Platte River and corrosion of old buildings I LOVE to see on the drive. I am happy.

I really love the mid west even as miserably HOT it was the first 45 days or so. But I also love Colorado and we'd love to pay off some bills so hopefully Taste of Colorado will do us right again! SO, good bye fireflies, opossums and always green greenery, while you were good to us,you weren't quite good enough to keep us home next summer-if you know what I mean. We'll be back....Bills to pay that never seem to go away....

Happy week to anyone who reads and everyone that doesn't! ~Ade

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Location:S Wabash Ave,Chicago,United States

Days 57-61

2011-08-28T10:20:00.001-07:00

The last few days were cool. We went up to Bruce and Chuckles hotel up in the burbs and let the kids swim and play while we hung around the pizza boxes and had a few drinks. We had a nice visit with them. It's been over a year since we've seen Chuckles and he's just a good and funny guy, plus the kids LOVE the attention he gives them. He's sorta like our 'Road Johnny'- just a fun character! It's always good to see Bruce too.

Wet soul just kept on sliding right off the slide- I didn't see that one coming.

Nalei fuzzy blob. She gets out, jumps in, gets out, jumps in, repeat.

Bruce, Chuckles and the super yummy Pizza!!

Yesterday was the first day at Bucktown Arts Festival. It's been a pretty decent but average show. There is a lot of cool work here. One guys work is so good he makes me never want to paint again and wonder why I even try. He is just so damn good, and just my style. If you get the chance google him. His name is Jason Brammer(One of these days I'll learn to make links for y'all). Another guy who I really like is Dolan Geiman. There are a lot of good screen printers with cool clothes too. And some fun potters.
So yesterday our cousin Josh Tipton's (Daela's husband) sister came out with her husband and step son. It was great to see them and meet Andrew, her stepson. We had been at the playground (that is almost right behind our booth) pretty much all day and then the kids got to play some more with Andrew, their 'sorta-cousin'.
Afterward we all went to grab some sushi. It was again nice to see some familiar faces.

Nalei awe-inspired after watching the arial dancers, jumped at the chance to give it a try.

Nalei and one of the many friends she made.

Soul and his friend playing super hero's

Kaci and Dino

Andrew, Nalei and Soul after they painted a tile that will end up in installed in a local park.

Soul after a hard day at the playground

At sushi where the Italian little Andrew wouldn't touch anything without Italian flair. We almost got him to eat pudding but to no avail

The kids getting their iPhone on.

The nights are getting cold. And certain trees leaves are shriveling up. And I'm counting down the hours till we leave Chicago. We will stay print and clean the flat on Monday. And head out hopefully early on Tuesday. We plan on taking it slow and doing a little light hearted exploring on the way to Denver (which is really only about 16 hrs from here). We are set to check in to our hotel Thursday.

I am way excited to go home. I miss my dogs, cats and turtles. The family and friends too. I'm sad we are going to miss Semi's 60th Birthday party. But what can you do. I'm hopeful this years Taste of Colorado will be another successful show. Also another one of our good friends (Darrel Driver) will be doing Taste also and his booth will be right next to ours. So that should be fun! We are going to have to take him to our absolute favorite Denver restaurant which I think is called Stimpson or Steadmans or something (we know where it is and that's all that matters). Anyway next time I write we will probably be hittin the road!!! :) I have a better appreciation for Chicago living and I really do love this city but the road is a callin!!!
~Ade (Aug 28, 2011)

Location:W Belden Ave,Chicago,United States

Days 54-56

2011-08-26T14:03:00.001-07:00

It's countdown time! Only 4 days until we depart to Denver. For what will likely (and hopefully) be our best show of the year.
I was up much of the night being anxious to get home. Thinking of the bushes that need to be trimmed and all the pre winter things I need to do to the yard. Also we have a TON of things we need to clean out so I need to get a dumpster ordered....so much to do in UT but its a lot of the 'feel good' stuff. Josh will have massive amounts of stuff to print since we will not be traveling with our printer on this next set of southern shows. I'm ready to go home.

So this week was again a bore. We did go to see fireworks at the pier and did some walking around Bucktown again. Josh found a place that sold used dvd's and picked up quite a few to help pass the time. Tonight we may meet up with Bruce Reinfeld and Chuckles Borromeo who are in the area for a different show. We won't stay out late though (if we go at all) my allergies have been acting up making my eyes feel tired constantly, plus another early morning set up awaits us.

Oh yeah. Joshs shoulder is doing much better! Though not fully back to normal. We figured out it was from him laying on his stomach working on his laptop for long periods of time on the air mattress. He is SO excited to have furniture again, either the Denver hotel or home, he just keeps mentioning he can't wait for furniture.

Our late night river walk

That is a water fountain block behind the kids

Picked 'em up an Italian ice. One in a Cubs ball cap and one in a white sox

Soul chowin on his mystery corndog

Nalei on hers. They used different sausages I guess

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Location:N Keeler Ave,Chicago,United States

Days 52-54

2011-08-24T16:15:00.001-07:00

I feel trapped! Like one does in the middle of winter. This basement is weighing on me. I am SO thankful for it, but the block windows with it's lack of visibility makes it feel like one long continual day between shows. I do take the kids out and we go for walks and run errands, but the second we come back it feels like time stopped. I can't say I'm not excited for Denver but I am far more anxious to get back of the actual ROAD!

We are all well. The kids may feel as trapped as us, but they seem to be enjoying the space and the ability to focus on playing and their art and schooling.

Speaking of school....Miss Nalei should've started kindergarten this week. Though I'm flabbergasted that she's reached this milestone, I have come to terms with her being with us on the road instead of us stopping for the year and going back in order to start the school year. I've met children who shy over situations, but she is not one of them. She is one who can (and has) easily handle starting school late and will likely enjoy being the new girl. Soul will gain by taking things slow and giving him a few extra months before starting Murray Early Childhood Education Center. Its a lot different than the preschool he went to last year.
Our life style has given us the ability to adapt to situations and I've noticed that they have the upper hand in many situations.
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So I'm determined to finish the painting I started BEFORE we leave here. Finally I feel like something is happening on it so I'm trying to put every spare minute into completing it. I don't want the burden of trying to finish when we get back to Utah. When we do get to Utah I want to begin a different painting on the wood I found at Jamala Beach in California and I won't have the time for this one.

I realized thinking back to San Francisco and comparing it to here, that I enjoy both cities...but for only a short while. If I'm to be stagnant I would prefer it to be in SLC. Yep, you read right. So I think the key to 'this' is to keep moving or go back home.

~Ade

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Location:W Cullom Ave,Chicago,United States

Days 49-51

2011-08-20T20:10:00.001-07:00

We had a pretty nice week. Except for Josh's shoulder somehow got hurt. If the pain doesn't start to go away soon, he'll have to go in to see a doctor. He was in serious pain for 2 1/2 days and today started to feel a tiny bit better but we had to set up the booth and work today so hopefully it didn't set him back. We considered not Showing up today and eating the booth fee, but when he awoke he wasn't complaining much so we just went for it and thankfully did because despite the rain (yes, not a drop all week-until it was time for the show) it's turning out to be a pretty ok show.

So this week I read 2 books and Josh worked on some older drawings. I gave up on my painting (for the time being-managing NOT to kick in half).
We went to the Contemporary Art Museum in downtown Chicago, a fun playground downtown. Hung around Bucktown, went to a library, A fantastic pizzeria (where we had to go deep dish again), saw Pinocchio at the Shakespeare Theatre (I was wrong about it being Peter Pan) it was SO freaking good! We didn't need to worry about the kids AT ALL, the show was so captivating and had me choking back tears at the end (why? No idea- I'm just a boob). We strolled the Navy Pier, took the kids to ride their bikes....AND tired to make Josh as comfortable as possible when his pain showed face a few days ago.

I'm SO tired today, went to bed way late and my phone (aka alarm) went off WAY, WAY to early today. So enough with the chit chat, here are some pix from the week.

P.S.-I think I'm just about over Chicago.

The sticker says it ALL!

Outside the museum.

Soul liked this piece and had to get a closer look

And his VERY favorite letter EVER!!!!

Nal in front

Look kids- a real Warhol!

A piece I loved and a few I liked

Looking up at the stairs in the Museum

I just thought this was funny since you really only see these in movies-I resisted the urge to sit on it and see if I could stripe my clothes

Ahhhh- pizza!- Yum

Here I was enjoying taking pix of my Trio

Oh yeah we went to a nice free Jazz concert too

Some Shepard Fairey on the way to Navy Pier

Nalei excited and waiting for the show to begin!

A crooked view of our tickets

The stage

Getting autographs the wonderful blue fairy

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Location:W Warner Ave,Chicago,United States

Days 43-48

2011-08-16T09:57:00.001-07:00

Hmmmmm.... There has simply been very little to write about.
Our show this weekend bombed HARD! But the kids had fun.

We have been enjoying eating in and playing house. This week we plan to do some pretty fun and inexpensive/free things to do. Plus Since we didn't sell much of anything we don't really need to print too much. We plan on going to see the Peter Pan production at The Shakespeare Theatre (that our friend Joel was able to score us free tickets too), Fireworks at Navy Pier, and possibly the Museum of Contemporary Art and/or the aquarium, the farmers market at the MCA and then an evening of a free summer concert series downtown. These things will consume most of our week.****For our parents- I know when you hear the show did badly you worry, then talk of us doing cheap/free probably makes you worry as well. But we are going the smarter route this time and pinching our pennies-alls well :)

I think having this flat will help us (or me) ease back into a daily routine once we get home. Only about 3 weeks left. Then we are home 3 weeks before going to try and retrieve my heart that got stolen from me last year in Louisiana. Our fall schedule includes these states in order: Louisiana, Tennessee, Florida, and lastly Arizona. Once time to come home, my heart will probably jump back out the window when we drive home though the back country of Louisiana toward Arizona, because I know I will be facing cold days and seemingly never-ending nights. Longing for the sun that never shines warm enough or hard enough in the winter.

I will tell you that though this may be very hard at times. Missing family, friends and my house and I'm sorry, but most of all my pets (and I assume they are 'most of all' because they are my responsibility and I don't worry so much about the rest if you). Ok, now this may seem rude to the aforementioned but the constant change and movement gives me a happiness in a way I've never before experienced. That is something I've been hoarding, and felt guilty about because I should feel this greatness at home near everyone dear to me.
This feeling makes me wonder if it triggers a nomadic instinct of long ago. Movement feels good, almost powerful. Free. It makes me a little ashamed of not wanting to go home to see loved ones, washed up in the greed of my own personal contentment, that I'm lucky enough to be sharing with my husband and kids. It's a battle between left brain and right brain. Once home I almost hate to go on the road and leave my pets again, often cry about it but once we've crossed state lines a profound feeling of freedom comes over me and I bask in it, holding it so tight that once home I'm almost constantly annoyed with the mundane monotony of each passing day.

There it is, I've said it. The confession of my gluttonous escape. I am however excited for the kindergarden chapter of Nalei's life. I'm excited to see my furry babies and of course I'm missing the conversations with friends and fam. But thinking of going home makes my heart feel like someone is wringing it out but because I so badly want to go home and so badly don't want to go home. After this long trek and knowing it's only 3 weeks till home I am a little more excited to be getting back.

I would think the mixed back and forth of my writing about this subject shows too obviously my mixed back and forth feelings of it, that are weighing heavy because I know we are closing in on this trip.

Here are a few pix from this week.

Fatu, Nalei and Soul

Soul, Bahim, Fatu, Nalei

The girls just embraced and held hands where ever they went

Oh yeah I forgot to mention MORE RAIN!

Wriggley Field just down the street from our show

I just love all the raised tracks

This was a cool collection of a Frank Pollard at kickstand coffee shop

Soul in his absolute favorite flip-flops

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Location:N Tripp Ave,Chicago,United States

Days 40, 41, 42

2011-08-11T11:47:00.001-07:00

Since we got to our Chicago flat, things have been simple and uneventful. It's been nice. I've had to remember how to shop and cook. And you may think that's like riding a bicycle, but for me I have to do a test run every time I get on my bike because like cooking I can't remember how to ride either. These kinds of things just go with being me. I must have remembered because I got 3 looks of disappointment minutes after I said "dinner's ready". No, lentils don't look great, and no it's not sushi, but I dared the kids to try them to see if they'd grown by morning. Sure enough after a few bites of the lentil/veggie/rice surprise they ate them all up without further complaints about the look of the food.

Josh has been working on drawing and printing for the weekend, the kids have also been drawing and enjoying the extra space. I went on a scavenger hunt for a piece of wood yesterday morning, found one and am happily enjoying painting it. It's also a nice feeling that I didn't drag my paint all these miles to let them sit in the van.

Yesterday we took a break from the indoors and walked to a corner barbershop so Josh could get his hair shaved off and Soul a trim. Which would've been lovely if I didn't feel like such an ass hole for making him get his supposed trim. It looks ok in fo-hawk, but he HATES hairspray/gel and says it hurts his hair when I use it. I have finally decided Lindsay Butters and myself will be the ONLY ones to cut it anymore. Apparently she's the only one who understands my very simple instructions.

That's about it. We've ventured out a few times but have yet to do anything that screamed Chicago! We will do some of that fun city stuff though over the next 2 weeks.

Here is a tour of our flat.

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Location:Kennedy Expy,Chicago,United States

Days 37, 38, and 39

2011-08-08T18:17:00.001-07:00

I know there is some controversy about having kids play full contact sports these days. I can understand not wanting to see your kid get hurt over a game, though I'm not against full contact sports I just never played any myself. Josh has of course been an advocate for sports having played them and built that special love, pride and bond with your team and the sport itself. I will say this. Once you learn to go for 'it' and that has been trained and instilled into your being, you WILL go for 'it' and plow over and through anything in your way regardless of age and abilities.
----------------------------------

Friday evening Josh's cousin Sina, her husband Jeremy and 3 of their 4 kids graced us with their company at our booth. It was great to see them and share some good conversations. I was too caught up to take pix, but they looked good and their baby's are huge- no longer babies at all.

Saturday the kids and I hung back at the hotel where we were quite lazy (besides the swimming and the school work).

Sunday Aug 7, 2011 we went to the booth for take down. I was shocked at the amount of traffic that was down at our end of the Fest. There were tons of bicycles discarded at the lake and locked up to any semi permanent structure. All the locals must have rode over and started at the bottom.

We did pretty well overall at the show. The day was overcast and cool in the shade. It had to be at LEAST 30 degrees cooler than it was the last time we were in Minnesota. The kids made some more pottery (which will ended up being donated to the the Uptown Minneapolis Library-they would've been available for pick up in a month but....).

"I'm getting eaten by Mosquitos!"

"I'm not going down there!"

"ahhhh"

Josh w/ Devin & Eric of Makeshift Accessories

Nalei molding and smashing before she knows what she really wants to make.

Souls 'Angry Snurf' (smurf) who was angry cause Soul was playing Chucky with the pottery knives slicing and cutting the poor Snurf.

Soul played in his very favorite letter while we waited for Nalei to finish her pottery.

Nalei's finished -something?

Nalei's first art customer. At 50 cents he got a steal of a deal, plus her dad hooked him up on his purchase for his kindness.

Take down was going pretty
smooth. The kids were well on their way to earn their $5 for good takedown behavior. This is a very important part of every show. It can be a somewhat dangerous time for them. The streets that were just closed to cars open up and big vans and trucks are not looking for little kids- their looking to get in and get out! Plus my kids could still assume the streets are essentially a playground. It takes about an hour or two to take down and all the kids need to do is stay/play in a designated area or occupy themselves by drawing AND try to NOT ask for me every 40 seconds. They get a dollar taken off for each time they either yell, cause the other to yell (because few artists seem have kids and they have a hard enough time tolerating kids without the whining and yelling. So we try VERY hard to not make a stressful situation worse) or they can get a dollar taken away by not listening. Pretty simple $5 really.

They were doing pretty good. They had a few iffy moments and I could tell they were getting ready to get a little rambunctious so I had them go sit in their seats in the car, not wanting them to screw up and have money taken away. We had only a few more things to load in the trailer and were loading those few things up when all of a sudden our trailer starts rolling away from us toward the traffic some 60 feet ahead down the hill.

Josh and I RUN for the drivers seat of the van- he down the passenger side and me down the drivers side (that was occupied by my two little miscreants, the with look of genuine horror plastered on their faces). As I was running along side the driver door trying to open and unlock the damn door through the open window, the van jumps the curb heading toward a tree when our fast-action-sports-hero, Josh, opens the passenger door, swan dives in the van, pile-drives the kids back out of the way and manages to push in the floor emergency brake saving the kids from their awaiting doom of either the tree or the traffic that now only laid about 30 feet ahead.

Here is where I thank Seminale and Shirley for putting Josh in football as a child. There have been far too many times where the kids are falling down the stairs (or similar) and I'm always 2 steps behind them reaching and trying to catch them and always failing, while Josh miraculously hears the thuds from the other end of the house and super-hero-catches them from the rest of their fall. That, is what I've come to see you really gain from full contact sports, the agility of a jungle cat during a high stress situation with no subconscious reservations of being hurt, because you taken hard hits and falls many times over. So thanks Sem and Shirl!

After the car was successfully stopped I yelled at the poor kids to 'GET OUT of the VAN RIGHT NOW and go put your noses on THAT tree!'. Soul was crying hard and sobbing 'but N-N-Nalei said I could d-d-drive.' while Nalei held up her hands 'I didn't do it'. No doubt Soul threw it in neutral, since he sits behind the passenger seat and can clearly see how Josh maneuvers the van.

So while they stood in time-out we loaded the rest up said our very quick goodbyes to our booth neighbors (who advised Josh 'probably one of you [Josh or I] should drive back') then I let their noses take a rest from the bark of the maple and had them get into the van, where I then fully re-explained the reasons why they were not allowed to play in the driver seat. Most of which they knew, then told them neither would be getting their $5, and they were very agreeable, knowing their wrong doing. They apologized and passed out quickly probably wiped out from the crying, fear and adrenaline.

Josh and I decided we'd really lucked out and that he'd better start using the emergency brake.

It is funny now, that no one was hurt and no damage was done (I can only imagine if there had been a car in front of us or someones art set upon that curb). But good lord, I hate that feeling! It was almost equal to same as when I was a child in trouble. And all I wanted to do was hold those two and not let them go. But Josh's appetite was set upon food.

We decided to not bring it up to them again. They know they made a choice and a bad one at that and we don't have to remind them of it for them to remember. As young as Soul is I hardly think he'll forget and KNOW Miss Memory won't forget it. So if you bring it up to them maybe do so lightly or leave your comment here on the comment section of my blog so they can read it when they are older.

They slept through the night with no nightmares of car wrecks and no mention of the day before. And here I had been thinking the last week had been really boring and without adventure!

We are now en route to Chicago. Where a full stove and refrigerator awaits us in the unfurnished apartment we rented for the next 3 weeks.

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Location:Wayzata Blvd,Golden Valley,United States

Day 35-36

2011-08-05T11:34:00.001-07:00

When I think of The Mall I think of stores and Sabaro's and cinnabon not a grassy island in the middle of the road. But apparently that is the The Mall is here the stretch of grass that our booth sits upon.

Yesterday Thurs Aug 4th, 2011 was setup. We had a hell of a time for some reason the ground was way crooked on the grass and our booth was leaning WAY over. I don't know what was up with us. We could not figure out how to fix it. It took us FOREVER to set up. But in the end we somehow figured it out and it appears to be standing strait.

Our hotel room was huge. And the bath may as well been a pool. It was a small version of what Francis had on Pee Wee. Needless to say the kids loved it!

Friday Aug 5, 2011. The festival started at noon today. Though we are in probably the worst spot in the festival, there is decent traffic so we may survive. I KNOW if we were on the main street we'd kill it but... we'll see. Uptown Minneapolis is cool, very active community and a lot of hipsters running around. Also a lot of strange beetles flying around making me jumpy. I'm not scared of them it's just when these giant things are headed strait for your nose to use as a landing pad it's hard not squeak and jump out of it's path. They are driving me freaking crazy!

The kids and I are about to go for a 'schwag walk'. That's my way of getting them to willingly walk the length of the festival, since they can get random free promotional pencils and stuff, the. I get to check out all the art.
After we do that we will stop at the van make sandwiches and then head over to the lake across the street. Rumor has it, there is a beach a short way down that if it gets a little sunnier we will go swim.

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Location:The Mall,Minneapolis,United States

Days 32, 33, 34

2011-08-03T09:18:00.001-07:00

I've put this off too long. But I'm gonna make this short because as I type we are driving through the country in Illinois, and I just need to take in it's beauty and simplicity. Oh I love the country!

Saturday night our house sitter txt'd me a picture of my sweet dogs and they were smiling. That warmed my heart and made me yearn to pet them. I miss them so much! It was so good to see their faces.

Sunday was good. Woke up and saw the Smurfs. I love popcorn! Even for breakfast. Then went swimming, afterward Josh printed and I did laundry. A pretty good/simple day.

Monday we packed it all up again and hit the road around noon. After talking to our good old friend Joel Huff we decided his brand new home in Dekalb, IL would be our destination. We arrived to his house by 8 and ordered a Chicago deep dish pizza and lounged in his a/c. Sadly his wife Patricia was in Boston so we weren't able to catch up with her.

Joel's new house

-Joel's story time-

Tuesday Joel busted out a pool for the kids and they got busy playing in his 40 acre back yard. Then he made us incredible omelets for breakfast.Josh worked on the computer and Joel played Big Brother to the kids making popcorn and watching movies with them, and I don't know what I did. Later in the day we went for a 'run' across the land that stretches past Joel's yard. Then we Taeoalii's loaded up and headed to the store for stuff to make for dinner. 2 home made meals in 1 day! Our first in 30 something days! It was a nice and relaxing day.

-Joels incredible back yard

Our crazy kids dancing

-at Joel's 'movie theatre'-

-our run through Joel's back yard-

This is how I felt too

Soul and his 'kite' not enjoying the hot walk back

But, good lord is he cute when he's not happy!

It was good hot n humid!

This morning we woke up grabbed what little things we had at Joels and like I said we hit the road again. Final destination Minneapolis, Minnesota. We didn't take Michigan's U.P. But def plan on it next year. I'm looking forward to going through Wisconsin again. I'm going to get some SQUEAKY cheese this time and see if we can see cranberries ripening in the bogs. Since I was reminded its harvest time. We've saw signs of fall, some deep reds and oranges the corn stalks are high and it makes my stomach tighten to think of fall. I have a love/ hate relationship with it. It is truly beautiful, however it means the short cold days lay ahead....but I suppose at least we get to cheat ourselves out of some of that, by heading south at the end of September.

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Location:Fox Hollow,DeKalb,United States

Just a note from my last post.

2011-07-30T11:39:00.001-07:00

Just a side note. I do consider art to be more than just something that's hung from a wall. It depends though. When I said their are 3 artist, I should've said there are 3 wall artists, us another painter and a photographer. About half of the booths are jewelry and the others are dresses, randoms crafts and things like dog collars and cat houses. While I do think they are neat and some even impressive, they should consider not calling this a art festival rather just a festival. Just to be clear.

Here is a bracelet I got that I would absolutely call the maker an artist (though he is not at this show) for Devin's info google MAKESHIFT ACCESSORIES.

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Location:Utica Rd,Sterling Heights,United States

Days 30-31

2011-07-30T10:28:00.001-07:00

Utica. I say U-tic-a. They say You'dika. Doesn't really matter though because the area is likely to be filed in my head in the same place as Taste of Dallas and Santa Fe, marked under shows that sucked for us.
It's not that they are broke. It's not that we are competing with beer money. It's not that there are only 2 other artist at this ART festival. I think that people come for the carnival across the street and come over here to browse and walk around. I get it, I do the same thing. I don't go out looking for an orange piece for my orange room. I buy pieces that speak to me and then I figure out a way to make it work in my house. Josh said it best when he said "these people just aren't ready for our work".

So is the glass half empty or half full? We were able to get all of our canvas rolled with protectant. The kids had lots of fun with friends. Josh was able to go back to the hotel Friday and Saturday and spend one on one time swimming with the kids and get some work done while I enjoyed alone/down time working the booth. I was able to sketch out my next painting, finish reading a novel and start reading another. Also we bagged all our retired 8x10 prints so we can begin to lighten our load and give them away with a purchase (or in the special case like this show, sell them for cheap, just so it feels like this wasn't all for nothing). I also set up a $30 per day spending budget which is basically BS but it's a goal, and I had Josh look at our Allstate motorclub restaurant discounts and he was able to find us a $25 GC for $3!!! But the bill had to be at least $35, so dinner for $13! The food wasn't bad either. So we will start to take advantage of that and planning ahead.

So again. Glass half empty or half full? I'd say if not half full then completely full. If only for the sake Josh was able to finally take time for himself.

The show ends today but we have the hotel till Monday morning. So we can do laundry, Print up the prints that sold at this show and maybe hang around at the pool. Then we head up to Minnesota for Uptown, which is supposed to be a great show...but supposedly our spot is not too great so our hopes are not up. We may take the upper Michigan route to MN, a local told me "you haven't seen Michigan till you've been up north", so as long as it's not a whole lot more $ in gas I'd like to take our time and head that way. I see beauty in almost everything, except for suburb America, I'm always open to experience more beauty and travel more trails.

-till next time y'all ~Ade

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Location:Utica Park Blvd,Utica,United States

Days 28-29

2011-07-28T12:10:00.001-07:00

July 27
After many days of errand running and working in the hotel room we decided to take a break and go see Captain America.

I thought the movie was good but think they should've cast Mark Wahlberg instead ;) mmmmm.
After the show we stopped to grab dinner and started to wonder why we haven't gotten a packet or email from our next show Sterling Fest. So Josh got on the website to see if there is any info, when he see's the show goes from Thurs-Sat not Friday-Sun. Well crap that means the booth should have been set up while were at the movies. We got our check, boxed our food and hurried over to see if set up was happening or if we had to set up in the morning. They let us in to set up and luckily we knew the booth number. Right when we opened the door to the trailer the rain started. Just our flippin luck! We are kinda getting used to this.

I wish these pix wouldn't pixelate so bad when I upload, you may not see the downpour in the light reflection. Anyway, it rained so hard and the bitty critters were eating our ankles up the whole time. We got most of it set up by midnight and just figured we'd get to the rest in the morning. Since it would be a Thursday the only people out right at opening would be the geriatrics and the stay at home moms, neither were too likely to be disappointed if we opened late.

Thursday July 28, 2011
Nobody wanted to get out of bed! I was trying figure out a way so that the kids and I wouldn't have to go but I didn't feel right about Josh doing all the work so I put my shorts on (right-side-out) and made him stop at Starbucks. It was gonna be that or a cocktail to get me out of my grumpy mood, I figured it would be better for all if it was infused energy rather than a night cap.
There are kids a booth down that my kids must be driving crazy with their enthusiasm for making new friends and nonstop play. I keep trying to pry them away to give the other kids a break but mine don't want to go anywhere with me. I am very happy we came so they could play and make friends though. They don't get enough of that on the road or at home.
As suspected the crowd is not really our type. The fire chief came by and told us we had to take off our outer tarps. But after last weeks water damage to 1 print box, if the rain hits hard again (and thats the whole 3 days forecast) then it's likely all will be lost. Not quite worth it. On the other hand I realize tarps are non-flame-retardant but either are our prints, paintings, tables, tablecloths and likely our panel walls so if our booth was on fire I'd expect people to be non-retardant like the tarps, and not seek shelter in or near a burning booth.

Josh had that feeling going into this show it wouldn't be great but it was this or a week off. Nothing else going on this weekend. So, Better to try make something rather than to have the weekend off. After we make back the booth fee we're cool with anything small or large. There is one photographer, one other painter and the rest is jewelry and crafts. In a way the cards are in our favor if there happen to be young hipsters walking through.

Our booth is soggy like a soaked sponge so we are out on the grass in front of our booth listening to the cicadas and watching the folk walk by and Josh is drawing. There is a super carny area across the way so people may come out later with their kids. Until then we'll just hang here itching our ankles and flicking the ants off of each other.

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Location:Utica Rd,Sterling Heights,United States

Day 25,26,27

2011-07-26T19:00:00.001-07:00

This is a very common conversation Josh and I have with either one of us starting it. Goes like this:

"Where were we when we saw/did/went to __________?" [the underlined is the variable but the question is always the same]

"Ummm....aaahhh...hmmmm...."
-silence for about 2 minutes-

"oh let's see. I think it was that little town in Florida. Was it Plantation or DeLand?"

"No. It wasn't Florida. I think it was Tempe. Wait, no. Texas...or New Mexico?"

-another 2 minute silence-

"Hmmm..."

Pause

"Sh#t...."

"I can't even remember where the hell we were at last week."

"Me either....Ah, I know what your talking about though."

********************
Sunday July 24, 2011
The show was over and we'd taken down on Saturday. Getting bombed with rain at take down, AGAIN. Ink, paper and water- just doesn't mix in our line of work.

Josh and the kids drove back to the hotel to get the trailer I stayed with our stuff so if it rained again I could cover it. Up walks this guy
"So, how'd ya do?" he asks me as I sat their reading and waiting for Josh. I assumed he'd been a volunteer or a booth neighbor possibly purchased our art, I said "Oh, not bad." I said.
His reply was "What were you selling anyway? I never came over here."
The red flags and sirens go off in my head. I instantly start profiling him as the serial (not cereal-lol) Ann Arbor U of M campus rapist I saw in the news.
Josh and I both know I have over active man paranoia so I try to be logical and think this is just some random dude trying to make small talk who happens to be wandering the campus.
"My HUSBAND's art." I say. Sending out the "Quite obviously I'm not interested in you, guy" vibe. But he didn't even hear my answer and started flapping his lips and I wasn't really hearing him as he was talking about doing a booth to sell his CD or something, my mind kicking into survival mode. I kicked my flip flops off since they were wet, if I had to act quick I didn't want to be held up slipping around in my shoes. I made eye contact with the neighbor who was still busy taking down and started looking everywhere but in the eyes of this person. Certainly if it was the rapist he wouldn't do anything on such a busy, crowded street.
I was still being modestly polite by answering very closed ended yes' and no's to what ever in the world he was saying. And he just kept on talking, talking, talking and I continued plotting. I went ahead and confirmed my suspicions as to who he was as he was reaching behind his back and unzipping his guitar bag. I decided if he took anything out of that bag that was not a guitar I was gonna jump over to where I had two, two foot lead pipes and I would grab one and bust this suckers knee caps in. I couldn't kill him but I could definitely immobilize him. I watched him intently as he slowly unzipped. What do you know, out comes a guitar and I was only slightly relived because then he began to serenade me. I think I would've rather busted his knees than listen to him stand there and sing to me. He played that frigging guitar for like...EVER! I knew then this would've been the perfect time for the Fake Phone Call app, if I'd had the app and if my phone wasn't dead.
I was totally cold shouldering the rapist at this point hoping Josh would roll up, or Bruce and Seth would stop by to say goodbye, looking for anyone familiar to hail over to talk to me and send this guy on his way. Finally he got the hint when he was asking if I liked Jazz music and my instant answer was "NO! Nope, I don't like music. Good luck with your CD." then got up like I was doing something. He left and I made sure he was good and gone before putting my shoes back on.

When Josh finally got back he brought the second wind of downpour rain with him which made loading up the trailer (that was parked a good distance away) the icing on the cake.

Day 26 and 27
We left Ann Arbor on Sunday the 24th of July to the area of Utica/Sterling Heights only about an hour or so north near Troy. We wanted to stop at our favorite restaurant The Blue Nile, that has THE BEST Ethiopian food! But the township of Ferndale, where the restaurant is had it's power out for almost a week and I wasn't sure it would be up and running yet. So we skipped it and headed straight for our hotel.

On priceline we got on of our favorite hotels (Hyatt Place) and were so excited. Their rooms are huge and so clean and have little wet bars. Plus their free breakfast is among the best continental breakfasts. We only booked it till Tuesday planning on extending it at the same rate after we made it to the bank. We had plenty of stuff to do and errands to run that took up ALL of Sunday and ALL of Monday including setting up our booth in the hotel parking lot to get a better booth photo for judging so hopefully we can get into the good shows and cleaning our van which was straight up nasty. I planned on vacuuming it out on Tues but when I went to extend our hotel it wouldn't let us :( total bummer! So we had to gather up ALL of our crap and move out (and we had EVERYTHING in there). No vacuuming ended up happening. We moved less than a block away to a Courtyard by Marriott. It was disappointing after having the space and the modern design of the Hyatt Place. We once stayed at a Courtyard in Coconut Grove, Florida and it was real big and had a full kitchen with stove and everything. So my expectations were set on something like that. Our room is much smaller, no kitchen or fridge but it's fine, we have certainly stayed in worse. Just bummed still about having to leave the Hyatt.

We finally got loaded in our new room around 5 pm. Josh started printing more Internet orders and we made sure to call my wonderful stepmom who's birthday it is today. Then we went to the pool. Nalei is now a pretty freakin good swimmer and now swims with her head under the water and Soul is in the very beginning stages of independent swimming. If nothing else, at least my kids are getting in good with the water because of all the hotel pools.

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Location:Covington Dr,Clinton Township,United States

Days 22-24

2011-07-23T13:35:00.001-07:00

Really, there isn't much to tell. The show wasn't as great (but ended up being our best so far-just less than we hoped) but hasn't been a waste of time either (just no Sprinter purchase any time soon). The weather was hot (heat index about 110) so we cooled with wet bandanas and rags and that helped tremendously! The kids and I visited the fine art museum that is conveniently located right behind our booth. We saw some amazing work. Some from the year 500 (couldn't tell if it was bc or ac) that was Chinese and Tibetan. Then some great religious works also around 500 AD. I asked Nalei to try and see what she thought was inspiring for each of the times as we looked at each piece (and they varied immensely) to help her grasp times.

There were a lot of paintings and other types of art, including some work from Picasso and Monet (though I must say these people's works sometimes leave me dumbfounded at their popularity and leave me uninspired). There is apparently a Warhol that we may go back to try and find. And we saw a bunch of Tiffany glass works and railings.

I was looking at the prices the museum paid for each of the pieces and most of them were between 2-3 million. Pretty incredible especially considering the admission was free. I also saw what I believe could be an Ed Templeton photograph of a naked girl (but not his Asian wife) in front of a skate deck but for what ever reason it wasn't labeled, so it may not be his but the photograph was a simple black and white like his.
A few pieces sorta pissed me off. They put me into the "You call THAT art?!" stereotype that I felt guilty about. But the museum paid over 1.5 million for 2 simple white light sockets that were tied together by the cord and hung by a nail on the wall. No lamp shades or interesting light bulbs just the regular soft white bulb. I am completely baffled and trying to figure out if there is something magical inside of the cords or if it's the way the two are loosely tied together or if it just this artist brilliantly fooled people into buying his 'art' that he picked up at home depot and tied them together and said "yes! You see that is ART!" and threw down a 1.5 million dollar price tag on it. I wish I looked at the artists name (watch, that was probably the Warhol). There were others where others I felt baffled about too, but that's art for ya.

Nal diggin the Hare Krishina's. I was digging the Jewish guy whos apron was blowing in the wind. And curious about Jewish Hate Karishinas.

The repetitive chanting put Soul out like a light.

Shots of the U of M campus

Nalei at the pool

Gettin down with the chalk

The kids and I hung back from the Fest on Friday just to give them a break from the heat an monotony. We went to the pool and ordered a pizza, then just hung around the room. Josh got rained on and flooded and had about $2500 worth of prints get ruined. We thought about claiming it on our insurance but it would probably be more trouble than it's worth. So when he came back to the room and he printed till 4:30 am.

Since today (Sunday) July 24, 2011{correction:Saturday July 23} is take down day we all came to the fest.

I am determined to find the kids area in this maze of art that joins 4 large art festivals. Meanwhile kids are currently rubbing sticks together trying to make a fire in between making houses out of leaves and grass for the squirrels. While I'm looking into where we go tomorrow, since it's cooler and our next fest is only an hour from here we may try to camp at a lake again.

The pyro's

My 'Just Add Humidity' hair do, wish it would do this in Utah!

Nalei's: Good-night, hippy feet

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Location:Tappan Ave,Ann Arbor,United States

Day 20-21

2011-07-20T12:11:00.001-07:00

Tues & Wed July 19 & 20
Tuesdays drive was simple, we were only 80 miles from Ann Arbor. We stayed the night in a rest stop I don't even need to say it was hot, but it was. Josh and I slept in the front so we could keep the windows down. And then we became the all night buffet for the local mosquitos.

We stopped at Denny's in the morning to kill time, eat and indulge in the cooled air.

The hotel let us check in early so after we loaded into the room and showered we ran a few errands, grabbed lunch and scoped out our space. Then we went back to the hotel to nap in the cold room while the kids entertained themselves with nick Jr.

About 8 pm when the sun was setting we headed over to set up. It took a long time but it was fine. We are the University grounds and there is grass and shade behind the booth. The kids had a blast catching fireflies, riding their bikes, doing school work and playing. We got back to the hotel around 2 am. The kids fell right asleep on the 3 mile drive to the hotel.

Catching firefly's behind our booth

The Caught fireflies

Paging nurse Nalei

I told him not to sit on the fire hydrant!

The show started this morning and it hasn't really been our crowd. But it IS a Wednesday afternoon....so we'll see. Our friend Bruce Reinfeld of http://www.highfidelitydisco.com/ is here and is staying at the same hotel as us. So maybe we'll be able to hang out with him at some point. He's a good guy and is from the east coast so we usually exchange info on what shows are good and bad from coast to coast. Between him and us we've just about have all the states covered. But he's been at this longer and we value his opinions. The hours here are long so we may not get the chance to hang but at least we get to catch up a little with a familiar face.

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Location:W Washtenaw Ave,Ann Arbor,United States

Day 17, 18 & 19

2011-07-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

Sat and Sunday July 16th and 17 were HOT, muggy and miserable!
Wait maybe your thinking "oh it was hot, muggy and miserable." NO it was freaking Menareded HOT! SAUNA humid. The type of hot words can't begin to describe with complete accuracy. I am NOT a liquid type of sweat-er, I had a small stream running from my neck right into my bum from 9 am till we were back at the hotel around 9 pm. Back When I ran 10 miles from LaCaille to my house in late June (not this year) I did not sweat like this. The table our prints were on sunk into the asphalt.

Sales were not great but not the worst either. I was surprised anyone left their houses.

We are now in Wisconsin headed back to Ann Arbor, MI. And at least we have the wind blowing our sweat.

Since we skimmed by Gary, Indiana unharmed last time I don't think we'll be taking our chances this time.
~Ade

Their wet hair is Sweat hair.

Souls BIG "cheese"

Oh don't mind the carny kids-just walk around them.

One of 2 things that make the kids happy in the heat-Cheeto's. The other is popsicles

It was so hot Soul was roasting his cheeto's in the air

One morning i was cruisin with my shorts on inside out (no coffee that a.m.) kept looking for my pockets and giving up until finally I actually looked down for them. If my face wasn't already red from the heat it would've been.

The Hudson River (peace out MN)

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Location:Wisconsin

Day 16 & 17

2011-07-16T11:27:00.001-07:00

Day 16 July 14, 2011
So the 14th was a pretty ok day. We had A LOT of work to get done from the hotel room, so I knew with that being on the fore front of Josh brain not to push to go do something fun for his bday, because he'd only be thinking of work the whole time. So we ordered room service for breakfast gave Josh his little gift and got right to work.

In the afternoon we were almost done and I had mentioned the Sears across the street was having a good sale (the kids and I ran over to see if they had the 2 things we wanted to get him - which was a better handcart and a better trailer hitch pin lock-they had neither, though). Instead of going just to Sears we went to The Mall of America to get out for a bit and then dinner after. So I was under the impression MOA was going to be all Charlie and the Chocolate Factory magical, it would be like Vegas and sparkle and have like free old fashioned soda fountains on every corner- just something super fantasy. But when we got there we very quickly learned it was just a mall. Sure it has a nickelodeon amusement park, mini golf and an aquarium and I suppose if we were on a once a year never left Salt Lake type of vacation we'd throw down $30 a person to ride like 15 rides and then throw down some more for the aquarium. But since we DO leave Salt Lake and it did NOT shimmer and shine and have something super out of this world amazing I will tell you -it was JUST a mall. With every single store every other mall has, so what's so special? Nothing. Unless however you were a regular mall shopper, where mall prices were affordable to you and your kids were over 42"... Then I could see how you would love it. Send the kids to have fun at the amusement park while you shop, have a cocktail at a restaurant with your girlfriends while the kids miniature golf- or it could be fun to mini golf on a freezing February day. For a local it would be a great go to place. For a tourist attraction- I don't know. personally I'd rather visit the St Paul cathedral or an art museum or something rather than a supersized mall. Josh felt the same so we high tailed it outta there and went to sushi. And the sushi was GREAT!

Josh opening his birthday gift from us

The happy owner of a new marker case

Nalei working VERY hard of some art pieces she wants to sell at a neighborhood art festival she is planning

Josh at the MOA "Stupid Consumerism Drones" (my interpretation of Joshs thoughts)

"can I get my picture with sponge bob?" says Nal "yep, turn around and say cheese" -he's way down there in the corner.

Mini golf looked nice

Joshs sushi dinner

Naleis spider roll

Soul gettin down on his Spider

When Soul misses UT we thrown on the U hat

The music institutes: Minnesota musician Dino

Back at the hotel Soul put on a pretty dress for his and nalei's favorite game "sisters"- but he still wanted to watch Batman

Josh and i get back to work

Nal and Soul get back to work too

Then finished up by spraying the canvas and loading up the prints

Day 17 July 15, 2011
Friday morning it was time for set up. We got to the booth nice and early. Where it rained and poured and thundered and lightninged and rained and pour and rained and poured. We set up the structure and went to breakfast and set up a little more but didn't want to risk getting the paper prints and canvas wet so we went back to the restaurant had more coffee and waited some more. If finally eased up and we were able to finish set up. The weather stayed iffy.

Soul had started to grow a rat tail so he needed a trim. Nalei needed a trim too so I walked them over to get it done. Earlier she had decided to chop it off and since it's her hair I said it was her choice, but I was really hoping she wouldn't ESP since the hair stylists didn't have great hair themselves I wasn't sure I trusted them. When I told the stylist what she wanted I made it very clear not too short around her face, longer than chin length. Well she strait butchered it and I thought I was going to cry and throw up the mixture of both feelings kept me from doing either though. I watched her carefully to see her reaction and she was happy with it, so I am happy for her. It is too short but its still cute. I just think though "where is Lindsay Butters when I need her!". I so wish Lindz could've cut BOTH their hair though, we're just always short on time in Utah. Maybe I'll have to fly her out for family cuts next time (Al, if ur reading please tell her I may fly her out next month).

The day ended up being low in sales but we figured with the weather we wouldn't make anything so it was more than we thought.

The river in our booth

The kids watching the cool water ballon game

Braids nalei wants to donate to Locks of Love

Too late to turn back now

The man who wrote the peanuts strips was from St Paul

The funnest part of a rain storm

Watching the ballon game again

Riding around hanging out

This what happens to your booth when a storm hits and it's not properly weighted-that really sucks for them

Have a great day! ~Ade :) Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:St Paul, MN

Day 14 and Day 15

2011-07-13T15:20:00.001-07:00

I just laugh and laugh when I see this! Josh has to hold the ignition in place when turning right. Finally no more txting and driving for him!

It's awful I know, but I can't help but laugh!

Day 14 Tues July 12, 2011

We REALLY took our time getting gone yesterday. The kids and I explored and got attacked by mosquitos at the rest stop while Josh blogged in the back of the van.~

Wisconsin is B E A utiful! Lush and green, the homes full of country flair and the whole state gave off that good 'ol Norman Rockwell vibe (like Myskegon)-which I love, love, LOVE! At lunch I thought I'd break my no cheese rule (we were in Wisconsin after all) when I saw cheese curd on the appetizer list, so i ordered it and when it came I was sad to see it had been tortured by breading and a deep fryer - squeaky cheese just ain't squeaky cheese if it can't squeak! But...I ate it anyway.

Wisconsin pictures>

We took a pit stop in Eau Clair, WI at Paul Bunyan's logging camp. A museum about the history of logging and loggers and the Giant too. It was a cool nice break from the road.

We arrived at St Paul at the exact same time we arrive at any large city. Smack dab at rush hour.

Once loaded into our room Josh got right to printing. We need to print for 2 shows, since we will be arriving back at Ann Arbor, Michigan the day of booth set up so we need to be prepared for this one and the next (the next is a BIG one too-or we hope it will be).

Day 15 July 13, 2011

This morning I booked our room for Ann Arbor and it was a hefty chunk of of change. Priceline wasn't havin my bid and I am NOT staying in anything under 2 1/2 stars (go ahead and call me a snob) just not a fan of staying in ghetto areas. Plus parking is an issue for Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor has 4 major art festivals all at the same time in the same general area so parking is a HUGE issue unless I want to run to a meter 9 times a day. So I got a room 3 1/2 miles away from the Fest so we can finally get a chance to ride our bikes (that was the closest under $200 a night). Plus it's a super nice room- so the relieved stress is worth extra money than we spent on the room.

After we got the Ann Arbor room all situated we drove down to Utrecht for some supplies. Let me just say if you are ever looking for the hipper part of town, in many cities all you need to do is just find the Utrecht, they are usually in pretty cool areas. We had lunch in Minneapolis just after we got our supplies it was just a few steps away from Utrecht. At once attracted to the street of brick that was lined with old mechanic garages turned hip, happenin little cafe's and restaurants.

Lunch on the roof.

The Twin cities could be sister cities to Salt Lake. It's nice and clean and many of the locals just look familiar like Utahns. It seems like a great place to live and visit.

Some Street art in Minneapolis

I wish I would've gotten a better shot of this lion man. He would be the perfect mate to Joshs tiger lady.

Now Josh is upstairs in the room printing (or possibly in the lobby for happy hour?) while I am at the pool watching the kids swim and blogging obviously. Tomorrow is Josh's birthday so I've got to come up with something special for us to do besides let him print all day. Maybe I'll take him to The Mall of America (and don't laugh cause if you EVER see us at a mall it's likely it was HIS idea to go there). But there has got to be something better to do than the MOA. ~~Ade

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:St Paul, MN

Day 13- en route

2011-07-12T12:31:00.001-07:00

Enough with the boring stuff I can't hang.
Yesterday we got en route to St Paul, MN. And as Josh man handled, further damaging the van at departure I withdrew. Worry blanketing over me...OK, I hesitate to write this cause I know my parents are about to stop reading and pick up their phones- so before I go any further- the van is running FINE, I'm just not gonna be the one to drive it. Read Joshs blog to find out more about what its doing www.weirdchief.blogspot.com (I think ?). So I went ahead and entered Self while still partially present, and I wasn't mad, anxious or moody, sometimes I just have to choose to take the route of ignorance and Check-Out to comfort myself. I did a wonderful job and am now more comfortable with the van and it's operator.

I'd been battling a oncoming migraine so I tried to lie to myself and say it was because I hadn't any coffee. So when we stopped at Olive Garden for dinner I ordered a latte. I would've been better off ordering a old chocolate milk, cause I think that's what they brought me. I'm not a huge OG fan nor against it, but it is a place I usually don't mind going. This one was lacking in quality big time though.

Back on the road, troops started to march with heavy boot-falls inside of my head. No more lying to myself this migraine was ON. The sun had lowered and it was staring at me like a threat. I could A) sleep it off for the next 5 hours and TRULY check out or B) wave the white flag and throw down 2 Excedrin. B was the obvious choice as I'm not a huge fan of self torture. I read to distract myself waiting until the pounding in my skull slowly decreased to a patter and eventually disappeared altogether when Josh says "You are missing this. Look at this place. Looks like a bomb went off or something." and sho'nuff he was NOT lying. Holes through rooftops of houses that appeared occupied.
Windows smashed, broken and boarded. All the homes had historic character and appeal and I'm sure used to be charming. Some houses were completely caved in, yards overgrown but worn down paths leading to the front doors. Oh shit. This is not like the ghettos we've been through in Englewood, CA or down South. The difference being the lack of iron bars protecting entryways and windows. The people here were united, safe with each other within its confines. One unit against outsiders. And we of course were outsiders. The cars here in Gary, Indiana had no tinted windows or nice rims, they were broken down on streets/properties completely unused (for like decades). A little black girl was sweeping her front porch and many young adults were on the sidewalk talking and taking inventory of each and every vehicle going by. And I'd never felt safer being in the cover of a van that doesn't look any better their homes, their eyes traveled right on over to shinier vehicles (or so they did in my mind). Josh was tense ready to defend what is his. Waves of tensions rolling off him over to me and finally seeping in. I got all NASA and figured out our coordinates and the DL on Gary, confirming what we already knew. By the time we hit train tacks (which of course had a train rollin' in) I was rolling up my window despite the heat and checking the rear view. In its own uniqueness it was beautifully broken, overgrown greenery brought color back to faded buildings. In it's own uniqueness it was utterly beautiful. Something I'd love to paint a picture of, sadly so wrapped up in the moment I never took a single picture and I don't think we'll be back...ever.

A ways outside of Chicago a firefly landed on my leg in the van. It was a lot of fun, one of those 'you had to be there' moments. Then we saw a frog in either Illinois or Wisconsin (another one of 'those' moments).
The kids zonked and we trucked on to Juneau, WI spending the night in a nice rest stop. The kids woke up full of life at 1 or 2 am and drove me insane while I gave up the fight both with them and to keep cool. After Nalei drug me up out of my sleep sweating in the stiff air to take her to the bathroom upon returning I flung open the back doors of the van and bathed in the cool drifts and fell asleep to the lull of diesel engines.

I awoke to the happiest and saddest dream I'd ever had. About a polar bear I found he loved me so much and I him. He was full grown and as sweet to me and my family as could be. But we had to return him to the wild and as much as I didn't want him to go, he didn't want to go either. It was so sad I could've been crying when I woke-I think I'm gonna cry now. It was total Harry and the Hendersons-esq. The good part of the dream is that I know who the bear is and I miss my giant white fur ball tremendously-she's not going anywhere my home IS her home.

Chicago sunset

Looking at the frog

The rest stop

The rest stop

One last sunset shot
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Location:Monroe, WI ?

Day 11- Day 12

2011-07-10T13:09:00.001-07:00

Day 11 Saturday, July 9, 2011
'twas a lazy day for the kids and I at the hotel. Got a little Internet stuff done, kids school work, a on demand movie and went to the pool. When Josh got back we went to benihana's for dinner. It was good, but took too long. We are in the process of getting another printer. So we don't have to cut down each and every print. And make it easier for Josh to print from the computer side as well. Anywhere we can save time and up the quality is worth the seeking and researching.

Day 12 Sunday July 10, 2011
The kids and I came to the booth today. They are getting along much better (meaning I only have to get crabby every 10-15 rather than every 5 minutes). I'm officially used to the humidity now. Though hot is still hot and I'd still take it over the cold, as long as the air is moving I'm good (Unless we are sitting in an unmoving car then I get restless). I mostly am tortured by the heat when the kids don't want to wander with me-and wondering keeps them from fighting plus its just fun to see what artists are up to. Otherwise I'm a fan of heat.

We went to find Josh a birthday gift here at the festival but all the stuff here is super LAME! Unless of course you happen to be a great-grandma (and I say great cause none of my 3 mothers would even buy any of this stuff-unless they've turned a new granny leaf while we've been away). We didn't find him anything so I decided to get Josh a new _____-______ for work. Or possibly a new ________ for the ______. But I can pick those up on the way to Minnesota. And take him to sushi of course. (I busted him reading my blog the other day hence the blanks- he said it's the only way he can figure out what's going on in my head - I wonder if he meant more like if there actually anything going on in my head. Just cause I'm quiet doesn't mean it's empty and dusty in here).

So not much going on today. Sales are pretty good and we take down in a few hrs. Then I think we'll go buy that printer. We leave to Minnesota tomorrow. It's 11.30 hrs nonstop but we'll sleep in Wisconsin or Illinois and take it slow. Then we need to get printing and have the van looked at.
I wonder how much the accent will differ from here to there. When folks are talking about the heat I mistake their conversations for about head gear. Those poor kids must have a hell of a time in learning to read. Cause Starbucks is NOT Starbox and hot is NOT hat. Too confusing.

This area has been quite boring there is a civil war museum I might take the kids to down he street---or might not. I need to find paper for this new printer and have it shipped to the hotel in St. Paul, Minnesota.
TTFN~Ade

Location:Plymouth, MN

Day 10- Plymouth Art in the Park

2011-07-09T09:14:00.001-07:00

Day 10 July 8, 2011
Surprise surprise it was hot yesterday. Not bad in the shade (when we had it) but the kids were not up for walking around and checking the art yesterday. They were more into yelling at each other. By 11:00 a.m. I knew it was going to be a VERY long day. Right when the bickering started I thought a distraction might help. So I ditched Josh (who I had been helping by putting velcro on the back of signs and price tags). And jumped to the assumption his stress was rising cause if the kids' yelling. What I didn't know was his stress was rising because people were looming and he wasn't ready yet. I had no idea. I felt real bad when we came back and said "I can't believe you left"-oops I thought I was doing him a favor. I took the kids to the park area where there was a Lego booth. After a hefty wait in line we went in and basically watched a commercial on the new product and then they have you battle the spinning lego's. Then you can buy them. Basically they tease you with them so that anytime you see them in the store your kids will whine to you for them until you eventually give in. It was fun for them though. Then we walked around the small park and found table/umbrella booths with youth selling their arts and crafts. I loved this! What a great supportive thing for these kids. Plus all their stuff was cheap! Not that we bought anything but I may let the kids buy something of use on Sunday. We went back and forth between the grassy park and hanging behind the booth. The kids just weren't into it at all. I felt bad but knew we'd not go on Saturday to give them a break and do some school work. But 2 days in the hotel would have been just as dreadful for them, so we needed to break it up. Then Sunday we will be back at the Fest with Josh.

The crowd was weird. Very...yuppy? Or snobby?? or something. They did have money though. So the select crowd who liked the booth bought a print or two. It felt awfully slow- but the streets were packed. Apparently people don't work on Fridays 'round here. Saturday's crowd is supposed to be different though. Sales weren't bad even though it felt like they were.

~Soul has been talking about 'our boat' since we left Utah, and I've told him over and over we don't have a boat, he'd get pissed and and insist that we do (exactly like when we tell him he's 3 and he goes crazy saying "NO! I'm 5!!!") so when he brought it up yesterday that we should just grab the boat and go to the beach, he finally told me the boat was on top of the van and it's not fair dad and mom can go up their but he can't. Ahh, finally figured it out! The rocket box. Yes it does look like a boat! No wonder he was getting so mad. I was finally able to tell him its for storage not floating in. His poor hopes were up, but maybe we can take a ferry or something on lake Michigan up to Canada and he can still get his boat ride...I know for a fact he's 3, but he can go ahead and think he's 5 if he wants. ~

When we left the booth we stopped at Claddagh for dinner. The kids menu was the same as any other. Mac-n-cheese, chicken tenders, pizza. So I told Josh we should find them something authentic Irish to try (or at least i can assume it was authentic Irish). We got them Bangers and Champ. Soul loved his Bangers and Nalei thought they were ok. They both liked them more when we told them this was little leprechaun children ate :) Josh got Guiness Stew and was convinced there was no meat and that I should try it so I did, and the first flavor I could taste was a beef roast. It was delicious though. I don't understand how he can't tell there is meat and after all these years I can tell you exactly what type it is with the tiniest lick or smell. ?? He must just be getting me to try it cause he knows theres meat in it.

When we got back to the hotel we Skyped Josh's parents which was great. His dad had phenomena last weekend so it was good to see his face looking healthy (even if through a screen). It was great to see and talk to the both of them. It's always nice to see family while you talk to them, when we are this far from home. If only our other friends and family would skype us ~hint, hint ;)

Nalei making a friend while I wait in line for Lego's

Soul making his ninja friend

The 'commercial'

The ninja's the kids made

Spinning their ninjago's

My kids with another kid who wanted in our pic

The kids painting a community art project

By the end of the day my kids always are filthy and remind me of peasant begger kids ESP when they won't wear shoes

Bangers and Mash

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Location:Plymouth, MI

Day 9 continued

2011-07-08T11:39:00.001-07:00

This is what Booth Set Up looks like

1st we find our spot (8:00pm)

-

Then we unload the goods and set up the tent

Then we move the van

The walls go up

And up

And up

Then the paintings go up

And the kids down

Then we save some work for the morning

And tarp it up (11:00 pm)

And open up/finish up (10:00 am)

And the shopping begins :)

Location:Plymouth, MI

Day 8 & 9 work before the show

2011-07-07T15:00:00.001-07:00

Day 8- Wed July 6, 2011
We woke and got right to packing up. As we were leaving the park I saw a eastern box turtle trying to get up a curb, i worried it would either cross the road again or get stuck upside down so i had Josh pull over so i could help the little guy get on with his journey. I wish I would have taken my phone to take a picture but was in too much of a hurry because Josh couldn't really pull over. He got a picture with the Nikon though (maybe he will post it on fb). The turtle was a good size twice the size of mine with beautiful bright yellow markings. Either he was old or they are a bigger species. It made me happy to get a look at him and help him out.

Muskegon is on the west side of Michigan and we were headed pretty much straight east to Livonia on the other side of Michigan. We had a room booked in Livonia for Wed to Mon but I'll probably extend the stay until Tues depending on when we need to be to Saint Paul, Minnesota. But it's much nicer to restock and print right after the show instead of rushing the day of or night before, like we are doing now (but sometimes it can't be helped-like this time). The drive was hot and longer than expected. But once we got to our room it felt more like a palace. For 2 reasons its a whole lot bigger than the van and it's a very large 2 room suite. We haven't had stayed at Embassy Suites before and though it's a little outdated in decor it isn't overly tacky or give the feeling of dirty. I would defiantly stay here again. The parking is easily accessible and a trailer and 2 bikes on top that's is something we look for. The area is safe. Free wi-fi w/ laptop printing and there is a free cook to order breakfast. It was a great find at $50 a night. We got in showered and settled then hit the asphalt again to go buy some canvas stretcher bars and see where the festival will be.

We then grabbed a quick dinner on one of the streets the festival takes place on. I had a wrap and Josh had some fish (one of our first strays from a salad-but we are still doing good saving money having the kids share a kids menu item and not eating out more than dinner-usually saving some calories).

Back at the hotel Josh got to printing straight-a-way and stayed that way till 3:30 am. The kids and I slept.

Day 9- Thurs July 7, 2011
We slept right through breakfast. But we had plenty of bagels so it was no big deal. I got right to cutting The prints to size and packaging them and doing laundry (that I was grateful wasn't being used). The kids got good and caught up on PBS cartoons and Josh finished the printing. It's now pushing 6 pm and I just finished cutting and packing prints, so I grabbed the kids away from the TV and brought them down to the pool to get some fun in for an hour before we head to get the labels laminated and set up. Pretty lame day in print but no one person complained about it (including me who usually does when it comes to packing and cutting).

Soul under his napkin at dinner on day 8

This is how our room looks when we are working -crap EVERYWHERE!

This is why we are so happy our room is big!

This is the bedroom portion of our room, where the TV has been babysitter

Location:Muskegon, MI

Day 7- One week feels like one month

2011-07-06T10:40:00.001-07:00

Day 7 -Tues July 5, 2011
I woke before everyone else and put my ricecooker to work boiling water for coffee in my French press mug. I had a good 40 minutes of solitude before the rest of the Taeoalii clan crept one by one out of the tent. I found shade and opened my book to take advantage of the uninterrupted minutes. Josh woke with a sense of urgency knowing he had to get to the bank, order canvas and have it shipped to our next hotel in Livonia,MI. He rushed to the shower NOT taking Soul, and I had no desire to shower both kids and then myself...so the kids and I made due with our lake cleanse the day before (maybe that's gross? But I didn't stink and I'd washed my face and I always keep give my teeth proper care twice a day regardless of access to running water). We hit the bank, then the park playground to pay bills. This could have been done from our campsite, mind you...however we had the ONLY spot in the loop without at drop of shade. The park was a welcomed place not only from the kids. Pine Park was precisely that surrounded by towering pines. I'd packed sandwiches and carrots that Josh and the kids had while I had a grapefruit (since my sandwich would've just been hummus and mustard bread), I prefer grapefruits anyway, I enjoy the work in peeling and the bitter skin on the sections. I wrote while the kids played and Josh did what he had too.
Muskegon is simple, it has the amenities of suburbia and it certainly has suburbs. But when you go toward the lakes it has charming homes that are large and NOT cookie cutter. Some older, some newer, ALL set on acres and acres of woodland. All very different but all having that good 'ol feeling of 'home'. I've talked to the locals and they say winter is Nov-March (same as Utah) not that I'm looking to move but this area is SO perfect on the lake with personal docks out back and in the woods, space enough to for privacy and shade (and in the shade or on the lake the temperature is not bad) space enough for the dogs to wonder and bark and not disturb neighbors. It really is a lovely area that I day dream about, but I know I would feel guilty about leaving Utah. These homes and properties ARE on the market and in the $200k range which makes it mind boggling and impossible to not be interested.
~
It was thoroughly hot by the time we were heading back to camp. As we passed a mini golf/go-cart place Josh made a quick swerve into their lot and asked if we wanted to miniature golf or kayak (they had kayaks up along a waterway-river maybe?) I said I would love to kayak (I'm not one for games). We ended up with clubs in our hands and heading to the course, intending on kayaking for a 2 hour session afterward.
Soul may choose to play hockey over golf one day as he seemed to want to wack the ball to the moon. Although he was the only one to get a hole in one (with Josh's help) so I may be way wrong there. Nalei hated Josh correcting her stance and hands so badly she decided to just start doing it right to avoid the corrections. She was pretty good when she did it right. I got some birdies and Josh did good. When the game ended we went in to return our clubs and rent a kayak and were told the last double had just been rented. It would be a 2 hour wait so we decided to head back to camp. Nalei started her "song" about being hungry. She does this when she thinks we could go to a restaurant (another way she is like her dad, just not into meals made by yours truly). Josh was thinking along the same lines starting to say he was hungry too. But I put my iron foot down and said that there was plenty of food at camp and she (but meaning They) could wait and I'd make more sandwiches right when we got there. And when we did do you think she ate hers? Of course not.
We planned on going for a bike ride over to lake Michigan and I suggested letting the kids ride on their bikes along side of us. Josh was turned off from that idea because he'd wanted to get exercise. I think between me making lunch and him not riding he was put in a foul mood and so when we got to the camp he sat in the van and paid more bills. Well the sun was shining on the passenger seat and it was HOT! I wasn't gonna hang in the van! So I suggested we just bag the bike idea and go to the lake. Josh said he'd be 10 minutes. After 20 minutes of sweating, walking in circles aimlessly trying to find shade or relief from the sun, I told Josh to just meet us down there. That seemed to piss him off which in turn pissed me off cause when I'm hot I'm on edge anyway so I'd said something like "No! Fine! We'll just wait!" and stubbornly (or stupidly) stood my ground, so the kids and I stomped around in the sun for at LEAST another 45 minutes (or more). Then we FINALLY went to the lake and that fixed everything!
Josh was over the lake about an hour and a half later (where I could've been there morning till dusk). Then he started on the whole "lets go grab something to eat" trip "you can still make your "hamburgers" later..." then again with my foot "No. Find something to eat for a minute." and then he started "well let's just go get some firewood so you can cook your burgers." but I wasn't going to be manipulated so easily today. Is it really that big of a deal that we don't go out to eat just 1 day in 7?! I reminded him over and over as he used the firewood excuse that we had charcoal and we were going nowhere! He went ahead and grabbed a bag of granola knowing this coveration was going nowhere.
We grabbed the kids bikes down from the van and put their helmets on and headed toward the channel that joined Lake Muskegon to Lake Michigan. The kids rode the whole channel on the concrete walkway while josh and I walked it and took pictures. It was nice even with the sun, the wind lifted off the water and kept us at a comfortable temperature. There was a beautiful lighthouse at the end on Lake Michigan and the sun was perfect being almost The Golden Hour. I dont know if my iphone was able to capture it but I'm sure Josh was able to with his Nikon.
When we were headed back the hunger conversation was on again. At the point we got back to camp I lit the bag of coals.
Dinner was good we had baked beans and Bocca cheese burgers and then roasted mini patriotic star mallows afterward. I talked to Jess a few times during dinner to try and help him with a school assignment of his and then I desperately needed to shower, not so much because if my smell but because I can't stand hairy legs! But I seemed to be of no interest to the Mosquitos, so I really didn't want to shower until I'd be in the tent for the night cause I know they love the sweet smells of the soaps and lotions. I took the kids over to the showers first and gave them both good scrub downs. Josh had slept horribly in the tent the night before saying the sand was way too hard so he was going to sleep in he van and expressed and interest in watching a movie in the van. I dropped them off at the van after their shower so they could have at it while I went and showered. I returned to the tent not the van cause movies really aren't my thing either I prefer the smells and sounds of flora and fauna and reading over chillin in a hot van. The camp ground was packed for a Tuesday and there was no wind. It was SO smokey from all the fires and the sites being packed together so tight that when I started to get sleepy I worried that I was getting tired from carbon monoxide and I decided I was too worried I'd die if a fell asleep so I kept reading though squinted eyelids until people settled in and fires went out. When I felt a cool fresh wind lift through the cover over my tent and after assuring myself it was air that was coming in my tent now I put my book down and drifted to sleep. A few minutes later the rest of the crew joined me, a sweaty soggy Soul was placed on his sleeping bag and Josh said it was just too hot in the van. I sunk right back into my slumber glad to not be alone.

-a not great photo but this was the 4th

Ade's Auto right across from Bill's

Nalei riding on the channel (no training wheels)

Lake Michigan shoreline

Josh holding down his spot

Location:Muskegon, MI

Day 6- Monday,4th of July

2011-07-05T09:12:00.001-07:00

We woke on day 6 in the HOT van, our last moments in the Swamp Lot to Nalei needing to pee REALLY bad and of course the out houses were gone, whisked away silently in the night.
After fumbling for my clothes while listening to a whiny girl in despair we rushed off too... Sh!t where to go? Downtown Muskegon is a ghostown and more so on the 4th of July. No coffee shops, no restaurants. A Shell gas station 3 blocks up but I wasn't sure she hold up that long.... Oh! (light bulb) I thought of the Holiday Inn where we were staying 2 days prior. Even though the pair of us looked like Scraggly Ann and Andy, I thought we'd just fake it. I knew we'd have to pass the front desk but we'd hold our heads high and act like we owned the damn place.
After Nal was relieved we fixed our hair, washed up our faces and I scrubbed my arms and arm pits. After I was half human again it was Josh's turn to take the trip. He went solo, Soul was still asleep.
It was around 9 am and after realizing the bank was closed we hit Target for shipping supplies and time killing purposes. The kids had $11 dollars they were ready to spend and it was nice not being in a rush so they could really think through their purchases. After much consideration and switching Nalei ended up with the mini unicorn Pillow Pet, that she has wanted FOREVER! And Soul bought himself 2 more Imaginex Batman villains to add to his collection. We had really needed a better cooler so we made that purchase as well.
We grabbed a salad at Branns then headed to a park so the kids could play while Josh made some much need adjustments to the van. Our check in time at the Campground was 3:00 and we were busily occupied until then.
Once at the campground we set up the tent etc then proceeded to the Lake for a much need baptism, washing away most of the street urchin residue.
Josh helped the kids build a sandcastle (or maybe it was the other way around) while I snuck in a few chapters of reading and letting my white butt catch a few rays.

I had really wanted to BBQ veg dogs or veg burgers over the fire and get a pie for the 4th...but the nearest little bait store didn't have anything, especially veggie foods. So when we stumbled upon a cute little restaurant I was rather easily manipulated into going there. We grabbed two more salads and a burrito for the kids. After we ate Josh decided to tell me there was a grocery store across the street (I'm a sucker-I know). Then I told him I ENJOY cooking over a fire, he did the "well, ok." thing and we went to the store and found veggie burgers and fixin's for dinner the next night, and made it back to the camp in time to secure a good spot on the beach for the fireworks. There were 3 spots across the lake were the fireworks were going off and the reflections they made on the lake were almost more beautiful than the fireworks themselves. When we got to the tent we were too tired to even gaze at the stars. The temperature in the tent was perfect never too hot or too cold.

Ahh let the baptisms begin!

My beauty

The beginning of the sandcastle

Working hard!

Sand-nosed Soul-man

"you have to have a good foundation...."

The sandcastle

Nalei's tunnel "that everyone can stick their heads in!"

Waiting for dark. Waiting for fireworks. Waiting for firefly's. Drinking some Firefly.

"we love this sand!"

Our firework spot

Soul and Ade silhouettes

Our campspot at Muskegon Lake State Park.

Location:Lake Muskegon Camprou

Day 5- show take down.

2011-07-04T08:50:00.001-07:00

We slept well in the van without incident. Better than I would've in a ghetto hotel/motel. Nothing of interest pops into mind that happened on day 5 Sunday -July 3, 2011. So I'll just do a quick run through of the day. We ate granola at the booth. I ran across the street to the Masonic Temple for their free vendor coffee. Then Nalei and Soul made 2 little friends, I took advantage of the time and blogged. Once the kids needed a break I took them for a lemonade. It was really hot yesterday. Then we did a tour of this depression era house and a 1860's fire barn. We learned of two more houses having tours and walked to see them. All the houses were incredible, rich with history and ways of life long gone, simplistic hardships and elegance. Soul LOVED the tours and was upset with me when we'd done them all. It was surprisingly Nalei who wanted to touch everything. I accidentally posted those pics yesterday on day 4. After that we took the booth down. All in all the show wasn't bad, not great but we can't complain. We were in no rush since we'd planned on sleeping in the swamp-lot again. We grabbed dinner at an Applebees since all the local places were closed early on Sunday. We planned on going bowling but the lanes were also closed so we went to the movies again. This time we saw Green Lantern and Soul stayed awake. Then we went to the lot and crashed out. The tours were great and it was overall a great and simple day.

This was on the Masonic Temple...I'd never seen this sign before.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Muskegon, MI

Day 4 ~zombies and swamp monsters

2011-07-03T15:31:00.001-07:00

4- Sat. July 2, 2011
Let's see, I need to back track to day 3...I had found some parking with rv's set up in it and a few vendor vans and trailers, when I went over to ask about the parking I only saw a boy so I figured I'd ask about it later....later came on the way out to Costco. I told Josh about the parking and we'd figured we could just detach the trailer there instead of doing it several times. Also my thinking was that instead of getting a room 40 miles away for $114 a night we could just urban camp in the parking lot Saturday and Sunday night. It was the last day of the show anyway and 40 minutes in the wet heat wouldn't matter if we showered or not. So, we go over to this parking lot that has a vast amount of empty spaces. Since the Fest had started and it wasn't packed I didn't see that it would be an issue. We go over and are approached by a very nice but extremely simple minded single toothed female. We give her the LD on our plan so she runs over and talked to a very nice male who happens to have a goiter the size of a bing cherry protruding out the small of this neck. I suddenly think "wow these swamp people are a long way from the South..." then I think of all the swamps I saw coming in-it suddenly made sense. We tell them that we are staying in a hotel tonight but parking the van, then will be parking the van and "camping" the 2 days after. Pretty simple. We heard a lot of "Ohh. Hmmm?? Uh...OK...Ohhh...huh?" from them and right away I'm thinking Sh!t we NEED to get to Costco before it closes, so I've given them my fourty dollars for parking and they are examining a map that has the names of the vendors who are already parked (all of about 12) the rest of the 75 spots are empty and this family of inbreeds
two are scratching there heads over where we should park (ok thats a little harsh but...seriously somethin's doin' there). Then they started making phone calls to figure out where to put us in a basically empty lot. I start to worry thinking Josh is getting pissed, and I say nicely "ya know we can just park it at the hotel tonight and we can come back tomorrow." I can see her brain scrambling to not loose that $40, as she scratches her head looking over the open map of vacant spaces about 20 minutes later she asked were out booth is in the festival (as if that some how makes a difference-and apparently it did). You could see the light go off on in her head, her face brightened up and she opened her mouth to flip me off (AGAIN!) with her one yellow dangling tooth. "oh! Well you need to go up here! that waay it's closerr to the paark!" (the park is 2 blocks away.?! WTF? There is absolutely NO difference!). So we finally got it parked and made it to Costco in time.
-Fast forward to Saturday-
The morning was hectic trying to load the printer back in and clothes back in the van but we got it done, got everyone bathed (since we figured it was last call for freshness) and got the booth opened in time. The kids and I went down and used our tickets for a free breakfast, then went to the festival. We walked it several times, played frisbee, and chilled out behind the booth. Sales were fair enough. After the show we grabbed a bit of grub, moved the van from the hotel to the swamp people parking lot and walked down to Summer Fest on lake Muskegon. We got good and carney with rides and games. We debated paying to watch Sugar Ray just for something to do, but in the end went against it. I could see Josh struggling, jones'n for a room, not wanting to talk to snaggle tooth and goiter neck, so at 10 pm we went to see Cars 2. When we came back to the Swamp-Lot it was hot and the native creatures had returned to the lagoon. We opened up the very back doors for air flow(kids were in the front) and crashed till our alarms went off in the morning....I only wish I had the words to describe the zombie who worked for security.

Bugs on our bikes! On the drive to Michigan.

Our breakfast stop in Iowa. Weather Vane Cafe

Nalei in front of a great historic house that up for sale.

Kids on a festival walk. Muskegon, MI

Souls shadow puppet show. Muskegon, MI

A cool church, Muskegon, MI

Soul taking over his dads position in the booth.

One of four historic house/museums the kids and I toured.

Another one

Didn't tour this one but it's under $200k

This is what Soul thought about Cars 2

Day 3~ A lazy day for 3

2011-07-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

Day 3 -July 1, 2011
Friday started with booms of thunder that shook the hotel room. Greedy in my sleep I smiled knowing it would absolutely be wrong of me to take the kids out in such dangerous weather. Our alarms went off and Josh proceeded to drag himself out of bed. I fell into a coma like state but remembered at a point to ask Josh to pull down mine and the kids' clothes from the Rocket Box on top of the van and just put them inside the van. Unfortunately he was running late and he thought I meant for him to deliver them too me, which didn't make him happier in the least (it was helpful however). My hair at that point was moldable like it had been starched, each strand had it's own bizarre stiffness to it. Once I heard the bags thrown into the room and Josh huff something that let me know he wasn't happy any late, I resumed my coma...as did Nalei until Josh called to see what we were doing at noon. I couldn't play off that we were still sleeping because I had no voice, not like he cared but I felt bad he could sleep in also. After we hung up, house keeping came so I HAD to get up. Soul had been awake playing with my hair while I slept telling me he was hungry for about 40 minutes. In my greedy state I remember trying to tell him it was still the middle of the night, but he's no fool, the hotel room had windows.
Once we were awake and the kids and I were cleaned up I made PBnJ's and we walked over to the festival to give Josh his lunch (granted it was passed 2:00).
The festival grounds consist of streets and a park. The booths in the park are well spaced with lots of grassy space behind. Our booth is in the park so it's perfect for the kids and a major relief for me (streets are gross and the asphalt is HOT, I always fear anything at their height has been properly pissed on by a bum or a drunk- I hate sounding like a broken record "eww! Don't touch that! Don't play in THAT dirt! Eww! Don't! Ewww!...") After being on the streets only in California all last month the grass is welcomed! It's not as easy to set up on and occasionally a turn off when it comes to art shows or something (we always have a bit of a worry when we see a park, street fest's are usually better for us...but not always).
The kids and I went back and forth between the festival and hotel (for snacks and potty breaks). Then we walked the whole festival. The area of Muskegon (musk-E-gun) that Summer Fest/Art in the Park is in is cute and historic. The area feels rich with history and there were a few museums I'd like to go to with the kids (though they'd probably be boring for them and stressful for me). We sat and watched a symphony type band where most of the musicians were seniors but they also had teens and boomers. Nalei was hypnotized by the soft but erratic movements of the conductor. The rain stopped around noon and sales picked up a bit and worked out to be a fairly descent day.
We closed up at 6 then ran 30 miles to Costco for frames so we could sell some Lebowski sets over the weekend. Then we stopped real quick at Olive Garden for soup and salad. When we got back to the hotel we lugged the 24" printer to our room and Josh printed and I read for a bit. Today (day 4), we check out. We are going to do some urban camping tonight with some swamp people, I'll tell ya about it Tomorrow :)
A.T.

Day 1 and 2 of our 3 month tour around The Great Lakes

2011-07-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

Day 1 was supposed to be day 2. But because of van issues yesterday (Wednesday)ended up being day 1.... We hit the road around 11 am after a very long and sleepless couple of nights of extensive work and packing. A little hesitant about our van, we have been not pushing it and taking it a little slower with extra stops to let the van have breaks....We stopped in Wyoming for dinner then I took over driving. I drive till dawn watching a distant lightining storm with my headphones in and my favorite playlist on. I put Howard on at 3 or 4 am, I listened for a while but felt the pull of sleep. The Howard show was relatively boring so I struggled.
~ Day 2 ~
I woke Josh up at dawn and had him take over. I had gotten us almost all the way through Nebraska when I we traded. I slept for a bit, then I felt the heat at about 8 am and that was it, I can NOT sleep in the heat, and I also can't seem to muster up my energy, so I go into sloth mode. I read till about 10 am and then Josh and I switched again in Iowa(the heat puts him out cold). The drive was hotter than hell (and I really mean hotter because once the sun started to rise back in Nebraska with that sticky wet air we soon realized we'd crossed over and were no longer in the lovely dry west heat) the heat made it feel like we were in a zip lock baggie with a little water in it and left on the dashboard on a hot day. There was no escaping it! There we sat in the loud rush of hot wind doing it's best to pretend to cool us down, radio blaring but barley audible. The van does have a/c but it's not great we are better off with the windows down as it doesn't seem to pull into the back for the kids. The kids were great or so they seemed, if they were whining I couldn't hear it over the wind and radio. I drove till about 3-4 and we stopped for lunch at McDonalds in Illinois the kids could play and we could sit in cool air for a bit.... But there was no playground. They were happy anyway. I then learned my brother Jesse got the marketing intern for the incredible alternative hip hop artist Sole. I was suddenly energized and didn't have the patience for sleep or reading. Too happy for my brother who is an incredible talent himself in SO many ways. Like what has been happening with me the lately, I've been witnessing him from the sidelines evolve unto himself in the last few years. I also must admit being proud for another reason. A few months ago, I saw Sole post he was looking for a marketing intern on Facebook and I texted Jesse to look at Sole's post right a way. Of course Jesse did totally got it on his own, but I smile to myself thinking that maybe it was my txt that brought the post to his attention and that in some small way I did something to help someone who has constantly had my back, been an inspiration and supportive of me. ~ The sun set and it was much cooler. We hit a huge lightning storm once we finally got to Michigan, witch was exciting since it felt like we would be struck at any moment, the thunderous booms rattling our heads. Between the lack of suns heat, the heavy rain, thunder, lightning, fireflies and trying to find a hotel room. The rest of the drive was quick. We arrived to set up the booth at midnight. Soul was out cold, Josh and I were dragging feet BIG TIME, but Nalei was energized and eager to help set up. We threw it up in about an hour leaving plenty of work for Josh in the morning. The hotel cost a small fortune and we only have it for today and tonight but it's perfect! It's not even a block from the festival... So day 3 starts with massive rain and thunder and I will write about how unfolds later :) I've got to take the kids on a festival walk before I end up sasa'n muli's!

Been home 6 days and Cleansing 5

2011-04-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

As stated in the title we have been home 6 days and have been doing The Master Cleanse 5 days. The Master Cleanse is a 10 day cleanse where you drink fresh lemon juice, pure maple syrup, cayenne pepper & filtered water. You also drink a laxative tea at night and then salt water in the morning to flush toxins from your digestive tract. I've "done" this cleanse twice before but have never made it near day 5. Today I am quite proud to make it to the half-way point. The cleanse was inspired this time around because Josh has been eating a little poorly (since we know a few people around Josh's age dying from heart attacks because of their high cholesterol), I have been afraid he is going to have a heart attack. Maybe I am overly obsessive when something gets me worried, but you just can't undo a heart attack. So I have been doing this to support him in cleaning out his blood. He threw in the towel on day 2 and by the end of day 3 he decided to join me in this again. I am SO glad I didn't give in when he dropped out, I was seriously tempted and ate half of a grapefruit knowing that it was enough like a lemon that I could change my mind right quick and get back on board. That I did and wrapped up the rest of the grapefruit and put it away telling myself to give up was stupid especially since I have 3 bags of lemons on my counter. My second day was horrible! I had a 6 hour migraine and threw up 3 times, it felt like there was a vacuum in my head trying to suck my eyeballs into my brain. But when it was gone it was gone. The temptation of food has NOT been easy, but at the same time I haven't really felt hunger pangs. When I am hungry around 5 p.m. I just double up my drink making it more filling. Now the only time it is truly hard is drinking the laxative tea because I HATE licorice and fennel and then the salt water drink really upsets my stomach and I have to go outside in the fresh air and focus really, really hard on not yacking. I've been keeping myself busy so I don't need to think about how tasty some hummus and pita slices would be or how delicious a warm thick bowl of creamy potato soup would be and that has resulted in a very clean house. I haven't been productive with work however I'm almost afraid to indulge. So when I haven't been cleaning I have been occupying my mind reading, and doing activities with the kids.

So I'm half way there and though some parts of this are still a struggle (salt water and food cravings) I feel incredible. And am surprised at how great I feel for not eating in 5 days. I think I could do this multiple times a year to keep my system clean and in check. Now that my need for caffeine is gone, I should plan on giving up coffee. But there are few things that I simply enjoy and the calm feeling of a warm mug in my hand is one that I want to hold on to for comforts sake.