This blog is "a bit about me", my family, & the Personalized Sketches...that's All about You!
I am truly blessed, a wife of 33+ yrs, married to a wonderful retired Army aviator, mom of 1 fund-raising son, 1 accountant daughter-in-law, 1 Dentist daughter and 1 Dentist son-in-law, 1 Dentist daughter and 1 Doctor (Dermatology resident) son-in-law, and our first granddaughter born March 10th...2 and a half years later, twins: granddaughter and grandson bornDec5, grandson born Feb 8, and granddaughter bornJune18!
I was a SAHM for many years. But when our children got older, I became a licensed dental hygienist. (I really love meeting those who come in for their pearly white cleanings!)
I'm a self-taught artist, blessed that others are interested in the Personalized Sketches artwork I do...each one is drawn entirely with a name. (have been taking orders for these since 1985).
For more about me, hit the "a bit about me" button @ the top labels. or just follow me, peek in & see...
...news of the birth of my baby sister on Mar 29, 1984...
(vintage postcard from bing.com)
...born 11 years after my brother
& 20 years after me!
Happy Birthday!
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About 8 months earlier, my mom and 9 yr old brother had flown from Wisconsin to New Mexico to be with us when our oldest daughter ~Girly Twirly~ (aka theluckiestmrs) was born.
While they were visiting us, my mom was feeling a little "under the weather", but thought it was the flight, etc...
Well, my parents found out that she was expecting!
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When Mr B, Girly Twirly and I were staying at Mr. B's parents home in Hawaii, we got the phone call that yet another answer to my childhood prayers and birthday wishes had come true.
(On this previous post LONG AGO PRAYERS & BIRTHDAY WISHES, I wrote about the exciting, first time my prayers & birthday wishes were answered when my brother was born!)
How wonderful to get the phone call of this Joyful announcement from my dad.
Here are some photos when she was itty-bitty:
And here are a few more photos:
Girly-Twirly, Leonard, Megan and my mom
Summer 1986
Leonard, Megan & Girly-Twirly
Summer 1986
Megan and me, when Mr. B, Girly-Twirly and I went to visit...
I was pregnant with our Girly-Whirly
Summer 1986
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Here are a couple of my "little" sister...grown up :o)
...through family, friends and experiences in my neck of the woods...
My hubby is mainly of Portuguese ancestry...but they do have Some Spanish, maybe a Fraction of French...and somewhere along the family lines... there is a wee bit of Irish.
When he was a little boy (and after getting spankings or reprimanded...which he says happened often... and that he deserved every bit of it...well...except for the times that hesays he got in the way of his brother getting a lickin', so ended up getting a lickin' too :o)... he would look at some old baby photos and "know" for certain that he had to be adopted!
He had light reddish/blondish hair and was very, very fair, compared to his older brother with dark curly hair, so he thought he was an adopted child that got all the spankings.
(Too funny to think about, especially, since you take one look at him and he looks like his dad and you can definitely see he is related through and through!)
~Check out this late 1970's family photo ~
(does anyone else remember wearing shirts with big collars?)
(My Mr. B is in the top middle)
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My sweet sister-in-law has quite a lot of Irish in her blood. My brother and SIL named their little girl "Brecken", which is Irish for "freckle"... How cute is that!
Here's this little Irish/Filipino/German/Chinese/Spanish sweetie~
(These are recent photos of our niece Beautiful Brecken and nephew Cutie Crew).
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This night scene postcard of River Street in Savannah, Georgia has a bit of the green shining through...
We live in a town right on the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia. Before moving here, I never realized just how celebrated St. Patrick's Day is in Savannah! ...but an example of this... schools in the area and surrounding area are closed on Mar 17th (they gave in to having St. Paddy's day off, since a lot of students end up going to the huge parade).
This taken from ABOUT.COM contributer Sheridan Alexander:
"The St. Patrick's Day celebration in Savannah is the city's largest annual celebration including the second largest St. Patrick's Day Parade and by many accounts the largest St. Patrick's Day street celebration in the United States. Likened by some to Mardi Gras gone Irish, the spirited St. Patrick's Day festivities in Savannah go on for several days, attracting roughly 400,000 Irish and honorary Irish visitors each year in addition to local revelers. The comparison to Mardi Gras ends when it comes to displays of public nudity, however, which in Savannah according to authorities can "get you arrested."
...A humongous crowd on Riverfront Street, after the parade.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Savannah Waterfront Association
The fountains flow with glistening green water.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Savannah St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee
This week is also Spring break for Heartbreaker... so with some good college friends, they'll get a chance to experience some Idyllic Irish Imagery...around Savannah. On Saturday, they arrived to our home and stopped to eat dinner on their way to the condo on Tybee Island. And then after spending St. Patrick's Day in Savannah on Weds, they came to the house for dinner.
(I love the last photo silhouette of the 8 boys taken on the beach at sunrise).
Here are some Celtic/Irish inspired artwork.
(Click on each to see a closer view)
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
~an Old Irish Blessing~
Blessings & Aloha!
(OOOHH! one more exciting bit of news...our daughter and Son-in-Law found out He was "Matched" for his Residency in Dermatology! We are very proud and excited for them...If you have time, take a peek at "theluckiestmrs." blog and guess where it will be...
...Hawaii...132 islands (of which 7 are inhabited).
(image found on bing.com)
Hawaii, "The Big Island", is the largest and one of the youngest with active volcanos.
(image found on bing.com)
It's the ancestral home of Hawaiian royalty....and also where my Hubby's great grandparents landed at, via ship from Portugal.
...only on this island can you go from snow skiing to water skiing in the same day.
(image found on bing.com)
...Hilo...Hubby's Hometown...the surrounding area is known as "the Orchid city of the world".
..."Ho'olaule'a' translates to "celebration"...this post is about the celebration of Waiakea Intermediate (School) Ukulele Band's 40 years. (Mr. B, his two younger sisters, one nephew were members and another nephew is a current member.)
...Handsome Hubby was a member of this school band when he was in 7th & 8th grade. (one of his sweet nieces is sending me a "flashback photo" to add here, later, of my hubby and his director/instructor,back in his "Hanabata days" (Pidgin English slang for "small kid" times.)
...Hula...both of his sisters are amazing Hula dancers. As members of this band, they had to learn to play the music on their ukes, as well as learn the Hulas for the songs. (hopefully more flashback photos to add here too). Both sisters also performed and competed in other Hula venues.
..."Hukulele"...well...ok...I stretched the whole alliteration thing a wee bit too far... :o)
The Ukulele was originally brought to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants in 1879.
"Ukulele" means "jumping flea" in the Hawaiian language. ("...reflected the way the islanders thought the fingers jumped around the fretboard". This quoted definition is from Answers.com)
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This Saturday, in my Hubby's Hometown of Hilo (pronounced like "Hee-low"), Hawaii, this school band is celebrating 40 years. His amazing sister has been keeping so busy as a very Helpful Momma/Booster Club President, organizing this event.
Here's a little more of this Ukelele Band's History:
1. Over the 40 years, about 3600 students have been members.
2. They have performed in many places, such as Disneyland, Mexico, Japan...
3. It is the largest ukelele band in the world, composed of perfoming kids (student number around 100 to 160 per year).
4. It used to be called Waiakea Ukelele Band, but then "Intermediate" was added, since it's students are in the intermediate school age grades of 7th and 8th.
And here is a "flashback" photo of my Handsome Hubby and our Handsome son Heartbreaker... with their Ukeleles...(funny thing was Heartbreaker really did use to say we lived in this state of "Hoka-moa" (where this was taken)...can you guess? )
(3 year old Heartbreaker's translation:
"Hoka-moa" translates to "Oklahoma".)
Blessings & Aloha!
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Here are someHawaiian inspired artwork. (Click on the image to see a larger view). Each drawing is made of a name.
The first one was the one of the band's logo, to be given to the current band director/instructor...the son of my Hubby's instructor, who was the original band director/instructor.
The next ones are of our three children (I realized as I am sharing these..I , of course, I drew them with their names. HaHa...I've been doing pretty good to only use their "pseudo-names" on my blog, until now.
So, I went back and made the images teeny-tiny...harder to read the names, for the purpose of trying to follow our daughter's (theluckiestmrs) choice to use nicknames for our kids. Normally, I like to show large enough images where a viewer can easily read the names I use in each drawing.
(You can go HERE to see the photos I used to draw these three.
The last one was done for a very creative quilter...It is a Hawaiian quilt pattern.
I appreciate all these wonderful ideas for posting from these lovely ladies.
...since it takes me so long to do one post, I have been combining these memes/blog hops. &
& although it may take a bit, I love to reply to your comments.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting!
Yep, the common denominator for these two different shoes is...
HEARTBREAKER!
Back in Tulsa when Heartbreaker turned 3yrs old, for some reason, he really, really, really thought Nike shoes were the greatest. He could spot that swoosh anywhere! He would let us know whenever he saw a pair of Nike. Once, at church, he must have dropped something under the church bench, found it, and also made sure to say someone was wearing Nikes in front of us.
Looking back at old photos, Heartbreaker didn't have any of those "special" Nikes. Since then, he has had many pairs of Nikes and other brands, but I wonder what it was that had Heartbreaker's interest in that particular brand, back then?
Goodness, he was just 3!
&
...fast forward (to 2006), when Girly-Whirly had been introduced to this friend of one of her dear friends. He was starting or had just started up TOMS. She told Ben about him and his idea to start this company, whose motto is:
Around the beginning of 2007, Heartbreaker was invited to a TOMS shoe decorating party at church here in Georgia, where he purchased a pair for himself and a pair for both his sisters. From that time until now, he owns 5 pairs for himself and bought about 5 pairs total for others.
Summer 2009, he decided to organize a TOMS shoe event to be held at CSF. This TOMS event was a wonderful way for excited and giving college students to serve others, by joining up with a neat company that provides shoes for children that may not otherwise have been able to have shoes.
So, during Christmas break, he started taking photos for the following.
Here is an awesome video that Heartbreaker created from scratch for the "TOMS~Style your Sole" event (I love his creativity at putting this video invite together):
Here's a slideshow of some photos from Heartbreaker, taken at the event.
& One newsclip from UK's Christian Student Fellowship about the event...
Heartbreaker has always had a special place in his heart to help others. The summer after graduating high school, he was blessed to go on a church missions trip to Nicaragua. He and some other school/church friends were able to raise money to be part of this team from church. They lived with local host families during their stay.
(I'll post another time about his trip to Nicaragua and also Girly-Twirly's 2007 Honduras Dental Missions trip and Girly-Whirly's 2009 Roatan Island Dental Missions trip.)
I was not able to get all my photos together for my post about our children's separate missions trips...so will link this post up with the Rigg's family Blog Hop... "SERVING OTHERS".
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Please come back again...I will slowly but surely have those posts of their awesome trips that truly blessed them while they were "serving others".
Heartbreaker in Nicaragua (2008)
Girly-Twirly in Honduras (2007)
Girly-Whirly on Roatan Island (2009)
********** & if you are new here, welcome! ...with most posts, I do try to include some past drawing orders. Thank you Kori for the following drawing orders.
Blessings & Aloha!
(With my work schedule, I've been working on my post a little at a time throughout the week and then trying to post them for the Friday Photo Flashback with Alicia. And also joining in with this week's
