Alisha's Art (REALLY) on the Interwebs!

I'm pleased to announce (again) that Alisha's website is up and running (again). We kinda had to do it all over again (again), but live and learn, right? It should be a much better format now (again). There will still be changes for sure (again), as Alisha still hasn't seen or approved it. But I wanted to let everyone know that it's there (again), and shouldn't even cause your computer to crash or anything if you click on it. So that's nice.

www.alishabwhitman.com

Thanks for all of your support. It means a lot to us. Again.

Let's Build a Snowman!

Wahoo! It finally snowed! I've been wanting to go play with the girls in the snow (since we went and bought full snow gear from head to toe) and have been very disappointed each time the weathermen get my hopes up. So it's not like we got a big dump, but here in Oregon we make do with what we got. And Jenelle was quite insistent that we make "a big snowman!" So here we go, here is Meri's first snowman:









I love this, it looks like she's making a new friend, who by the way is not even as tall as her when she's sitting down:









And while this was her first snowman, her first snow was actually on Christmas day (although it sadly didn't stick), which I never got around to posting:








And of course, we had to play on the swing set. In the snow. "Undergoggy!"













And eventually we had had too much fun. "I so freezing!"













And yet, 20 minutes later, she wanted to go play in the snow again. We're sad daddy was at work, but hopefully these pictures will make his day.

Also, I wanted to thank all my fantastic friends for your supportive and encouraging comments about my artwork. I tend to get discouraged and stressed out about it as I paint because I really don't feel like I know what I'm doing or are prepared to put on a show but your comments help me feel a little bit more like I can do it. Thanks.

Alisha's Art on the Interwebs!

Well, it's something we've been working on for a while (my friend/computer guru Christer and I), and will continue to do so. But due to the great news Alisha shared with you last post and the countless requests to see her art, I've found I can't wait 'til it's done. So here it is: Alisha B Whitman (.com). (UPDATE: Read the post all the way through before clicking!)

Keep in mind, there are a heck of a lot of bugs, and more are sure to come as we try to fix the ones that are already there. That's how it works with these crazy internets. So don't worry about the fact that the home page doesn't really exist (and if anybody has an idea where it might be, please let me know 'cause I can't find it). You can still use the tabs at the top of the page to see Alisha's art. The slide shows aren't formatted the best but, again, they're functional enough to see the art. Enjoy! I do!

(UPDATE: Okay, so it's a lot more messed up than I thought. The home page exists even less now, so to see the art you have to go to the individual pages manually:
www.alishabwhitman.com/flowers;
www.alishabwhitman.com/cafes;
www.alishabwhitman.com/still-lifes;
www.alishabwhitman.com/water;
www.alishabwhitman.com/architecture.
Once you go to one, you can click on the tabs at the top just fine... just don't click on the "Home" tab! Then you're screwed.)

(And on more UPDATE: Because I'm still working on it a lot, it's possible that at the time that you choose to look at it that it doesn't work for you at all. Sorry. Just try again later.)

(Here's a taste:)

Some good news!

So some of you may know that about a year ago I was accepted into a really good art gallery in Oregon, called the Lawrence Gallery. Since then I've had paintings in their Salishan and Sheridan galleries, and I've actually even sold some, which was pretty exciting. I hadn't really planned on starting down this road quite yet, since I don't really have a ton of extra time on my hands these days to paint. No clue why. But I submitted a portfolio through a connection with my in-laws so that I could get some advice on what I needed to do in the meantime. And to my surprise, they accepted me. Anyway, that's old news. Here's the new news: This week they called me and asked me to be part of a two-man show that they'll have at their Salishan gallery in June! It's kind of a big deal, and really exciting! I have a crazy amount of work to do between now and then and no clue how I'll get it all done, but thanks to my incredibly supportive husband, if I don't it'll be just because of my own laziness. So I'll have to start posting my stuff as I get pieces done so I can have your opinions on how I'm doing. I'm so overwhelmed but my head is just full of ideas and plans. Hopefully I won't neglect my family too much these next few months!

Does it really show that much??

So yesterday was a Monday. Man, we miss daddy on Mondays! But all things considered, I thought I was doing alright. I mean-no shower, no makeup, but we'd swept (Jell is so helpful when I do that - she likes to push the pile into the dustpan, scatter half the contents across the floor, and miraculously miss the garbage can, dumping the rest in front of it on the floor. Don't worry, she doesn't get too choked up about it. She always says, "Oops! I made a big mess. Dat's otay, we'll clean it later.") and vacuumed, plus everybody was fed and dressed. Before 10:30 even! We were having fun. Then I went to help Jenelle in the bathroom. She looks up at me and says, "Mom, you look old." There's no way she said that. So I said, "What? What did you say?" And nonchalantly, she looked at me again and said, "You look old." "I look old?" "Yes." Okay, my question is ... who taught her that??

So I give up. It's happened. But even if I have to get old this early, it's worth it if at least I get to have this much fun, with these adorable faces that I just can't get enough of. Even when they call me old.






























And by the way, if I do look old, perhaps it is treatment like this that has done me in!

Sometimes we all need a little help!

Before I begin this post, I must warn that it is at least a PG rating, due to partial toddler nudity.

Anyway, Jenelle has lately started going to the bathroom all by herself, which is wonderful. This may have started with us leaving the potty chair in her room overnight so that she'd stop coming out of her room every five minutes claiming to need to go poopies. How do they learn how to stall so early? Anyway, we had to start locking her in and would put the potty chair in with her, just in case (The first night she used it, in the morning there was a potty chair full of poopies. Ew). Anyway, she does have a little trouble pulling her panties and pants back up though. As you can see here, from the front, it all looks good (although she was a little sad):












But the back appears to be just a bit breezy:












In all fairness, the girl has rather large cheeks. And with such short little arms, it's just tough to pull 'em up. Oh man, is she gonna kill me when she's older.

Here's a cute picture just for fun:

Obligatory Blazers Post

C'mon, you had to know it was coming. You had to know, that is, if you know me and follow sports at all. My beloved Portland Trailblazers are perhaps the best story in all of professional sports right now. The youngest team in the NBA and third-youngest team in NBA history(!!!) is playing the best basketball in franchise history. After starting the season 5-12, appearing to fulfill all of the "experts'" pre-season predictions, they are now 22-13--good enough for first place in their division and 3 games out of first place in the entire Western Conference. Even if you don't care about sports, you've got to appreciate a bunch of kiddies (with good attitudes, mind you) winning 17 of 18 games.

However, I do understand the makeup of the readership of this blog. So I will refrain from going into detail about the franchise turnaround of recent years. But seeing as we've been delinquent bloggers as of late (Alisha so rarely gets to use the internet, but when she does she'll blog like crazy--she's got lots of good stuff to share), thought I'd take this opportunity to let everyone know how happy I am about my team.

Plus, everyone should know that for my birthday, Alisha got me what is turning out to be one of my best birthday presents ever: cable. I can now watch every single Blazer game. We'll probably stop the cable once the season (and playoffs!!!) is over, but until then I'm in heaven. And the fact that this turnaround happened to begin right around the time I started being able to watch every game--coincidence? I think not!