Catina jane Arts
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mamushka marie

week 10

I present to you my first stop motion video. And yes, I know it stinks. I should’ve made the clips shorter. But I’m too lazy to re-do it.

ENJOY!

an update on Obie

Right now he’s standing here with his head in my lap, whimpering to go outside. But he doesn’t want to go outside to relieve himself. He wants to go outside because there are 3 of these in our yard.

They randomly appear every once in a while, thinking this is their home. When they do they wake me up at approximately 6am with their horrible horrible sounds.

HORRIBLE I tell you.

Right now they’re on my porch… and I think they may have evil motives in mind.

But back to Obie….

He’s already spoiled rotten. Very very rotten.

Even though he’s the size of a small horse, he thinks that the spot he belongs is in our laps, crushing us as he climbs up for some snuggles.

And his size.. it’s ridiculous. We suspect that he’s not full basset hound. Because Ree talks about her kids picking up Charlie…  and Cory can’t even pick up Obie without a lot of difficulty. And yelping.

He spends about 10 minutes out of the day playing with the kids, catching balls and rolling around on his back begging to be scratched. The rest of the day he spends snoring. Loudly.

Dude is strong. As evidenced by my nearly dislocated arm when he spotted the guineas this morning.

And he smells terrible. As evidenced by the aroma lingering all over my house. Which is the reason why I’m visiting a friend who sells scentsy next week. Yes, I will be one of those women. But I feel as though I’m left with no choice.

I’ll spare you the stories of drool, burps, and farts…
for now.

But the bottom line is that after 2 failed pet pups, I think we’ve finally found our match.

Requirements to being a Castoe: be lazy and smell bad. Check and check.

doo doo doooooo

What’s been going on here?

Just me and Obie on flickr’s explore front page, that’s all.

Insert exclamation after exclamation point.

I mean, I know my picture isn’t amazing at the super buff baby lifting beauty of last year’s explore….

Anyone who knows flickr knows this is a pretty dang big deal. Or at least it is for me.

It’s like I’ve won an Oscar.

week 9 of 52… and we got a dog

Are you nuts?!

Why yes, I am.

Meet Obie, the basset hound. Further proof that I know no boundaries when it comes to totally irresponsible decisions.

The skinny on a very chubby dog:
He’s 4 years old.
He’s house trained. (Thank you, Lord)
He’s not fixed, which means it’s a very awkward view from the back and he’ll be very angry at us in the near future.
His breath smells awful.
He drools a lot.
He snores loudly. Very loudly.
He’s really really really wonderful.
He adores the kids, especially Faith…following her around everywhere like her very own stinky shadow.
The kids adore him.

And he’s a great snuggler.

By the way, you can thank me for cropping the goods outta that last picture. Trust me, it’s not a pretty sight.

how many blog posts can I write in one night?

You underestimate the power of a bored lonely housewife on a Wednesday night.

Week 8 of my 52 self portraits is kinda weak. Actually it’s really weak. But this was me mere moments ago.

I wanted pie. Apple pie. But I’ve no vegan apple pie readily available. I actually don’t even have apples. But I did have this in my freezer, and it was the next best thing. Quiet delicious really. It has a creaminess that most vegan ice cream is missing. I still want pie.

So taking all these pictures lately and trying to build some sort of photography business (which I feel is kinda like some crazy weird facade..like that person isn’t really me) means that I regretfully spend a lot of time on the couch with my laptop while ignoring my children.

Henceforth (when I’m bored I like to use big words that I don’t really know the meaning to) (apparently I really like parenthesis as well) if Otto is sleeping and Faith and Elliott are quiet in their room, I assume all is well.

Then I discover this…

And that’s just one. There’s nearly an entire wall covered with their beautiful artwork.

Included on the wall is Faith’s self portrait, Elliott’s self portrait (pictured further above… no I don’t know why he branded “AAA” on his… ear???), their little brother, and cousin Noah. There’s also a little being up there that I was told was a “Jesus dinosaur”.

I couldn’t get a clear answer as to what that really means.
Jesus as a dinosaur? A pet dinosaur belonging to Jesus Himself?
I like to think it’s Jesus in a giant dinosaur costume.
It adds this whole touch of whimsy to the mural. Really, it does.

And no, I’m not going to be magic eraser-ing or re-painting the wall.  That, my friends, would be a sin.

I’m that mother.. the one that doesn’t really care if her kids draw on the walls or colors outside the lines. Which makes me think it’s a really good thing that we own this trailer and decided not to rent a house elsewhere. I have a feeling we’d be losing a lot of security deposits.

A message from your friendly neighborhood telemarketer

Dear General Public,

I understand that telemarketers can be really annoying. I really do.
But the person on the other end of that line is a human. A human who probably took the job because for one reason or another college just didn’t work out, and it’s the only thing they could find that would pay more than the status quo of $8.50 an hour.
They probably hate their job. The surely hate the monotony of  calling house after house, repeating the same script over and over and over again.
The least you can give them if you don’t want to talk to them is a “No thank you, I’m not interested.” Or just simply hang up on them.
It doesn’t hurt my feelings at all when people hang up on me.
What does effect me is when people call me nasty names, or tell me they’re going to report me to the authorities and make me stop calling their house.
When did we become so sensitive over picking up the phone?
Am I really interrupting your life so profoundly with my 15 second sells pitch?
And I have to think.. I don’t really believe you’d talk to me like that face to face. You couldn’t look me in the eye and say to me the things you just said through the receiver.
To all of those who have been mean to me in the last week and a half at my new place of employment..

Screw you. I won’t let you ruin my night.
Go have a beer, or get laid. It does wonders for ones personality.

Good night.

decisions stink, and some fantasies

*Warning: This will be boring.

Sometimes being an adult is incredibly difficult.

I wouldn’t give up the life I have for anything, but I do sometimes think about the life I may be living if I had chosen a different path. Mostly with the kids. If we had chosen to just live life the two of us, I don’t think Cory and I would still be in Oklahoma. Probably not even the states.

We fantasize non-stop about traveling willie nillie with no goal or destination in mind. Just going where the wind takes us. And yes, we’re hippies at heart. Or I’d like to think we are. Honestly I think we both just wish we could be Chris McCandless for a little while, before we get too old.

And just so you know, someday I will make it to the magic bus. It’s a life goal that has to be fulfilled.

I still dream of the day when the kids are grown and we can spend a summer in Spain, laying on the beach eating paella and drinking sangria.

Just look at that water….

I’ve always felt like I belonged by the ocean. Did you know I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was young? My dream was so hardcore that my mom and dad were willing to send me to the summer learning program at Sea World. Of course now I view Sea World as evil wardens of death, imprisonment and destruction…

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future. (I wonder how many times I’ve written that exact line in this blog. I think about the future quite frequently.)
My employers love me. Like really really love me. My boss is incredibly nice, although it is weird to work for someone 5 years younger than me, and his wife and I have kinda bonded.

Thing is that his wife is his main assistant, and she would like to quit some time in the near future. She has her own dreams..dreams of staying home and having babies. Something I can totally relate to.

They would like to, when the time comes, promote me making me full time and filling her position.

This is fantastic news for us financially. The idea of not having to live check to check and stress about our finances is almost too exciting to even think about. Like it’s too good to be true.

Honestly though, we’re at that point right now with me working just part time.
See, I want to move. I’d really love to move.

But when we have a trailer that’s paid off on land that could some day be ours, it wouldn’t make sense financially to do so.

So my new goal is to make this trailer something I can really fall in love with. And we will save money to some day build our dream house.

So do I really need to work full time? Is it really necessary to take that promotion if it does come available? Right now leaving my kids for 4 hours a day is really taking its toll on me. I miss them so terribly bad that it’s almost unbearable. What makes it even worse is missing my husband. I don’t see him until I get home at almost 9pm, when it’s time to go to bed.

Last night we stayed up til nearly 2am just talking, and I couldn’t help but think about how much I miss him. Things have been strained around here lately, and I feel like we’re coming out of our cloud of funk. I want nothing more than to spend time with him.

Then there’s this whole photography thing.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been booking gigs like crazy.  I’m only getting 30 bucks a pop for most of these jobs, but for right now I’m just trying to build up my portfolio and am doing it just for the fun of it, since the money isn’t really an issue right now.

But I’ve gained the experience I know I need, and people tell me I’m good at it and should pursue it full time.

So basically it boils down to two decisions:
If this job comes available as a full time position, do I take it? Or do I focus on photography? If I do, I will actually register as a legitimate business after the first of the year, and invest in more equipment with our tax return.
If I do that, then I have a whole other can of worms to deal with as far as the equipment to get.
I love my Pentax, and could invest in a wide angle lens and a second body, and be more than well equipped.
But let’s just be honest, Pentax isn’t really a well respected brand in most circles, and I’m a Canon girl at heart.
I lust after the 5d mark ii constantly. I could get the Canon and use my Pentax as a back up/second body.
But the price difference is astronomical. I could get the Pentax equipment for half the price of getting a new set up with Canon.

And do I look into renting a studio space? Or at least an office space? To gain more credibility and set myself apart from all the other “photographers” around me?

Then there’s always option 3. Work the job full time and keep building my photography business, in hopes that some day it will pay me enough that neither Cory nor I will need a full time job?

The problem there is I’m incredibly loyal when it comes to nice employers, and I wouldn’t want to take the job unless I was committed to stick it out for the long run.

These are the things that make my head spin and make me think I need to hire a professional decision maker to make all my decisions. Not just the big life changing ones, but even the simple ones like what to cook for dinner.

And now that I’ve managed to tally bore you with my dribble, you can go about your day. Me? I’m gonna keep making my brain bleed internally by worrying and fretting about the future of everything down to whether I should keep wearing my favorite pair of shoes or toss them because the bottoms are almost completely gone.

I’m gonna need more coffee.

Jay Bakker, you're a wonderful man

*I doubt anyone cares, but I deleted all comments and disabled them for this post.
I didn’t want a debate on whether homosexuality is a sin or not. That’s not up to us to decide, since we don’t happen to be God and all.
Just wanted to share what I thought was an inspiring video.
This, my friends, is a drama free zone.

A friend recently posted this to his facebook profile, and thankfully I missed the hatred that followed.

Why is it people are still so afraid of anything that’s different? I don’t want a debate. Any hateful comments, I’ll just delete because this is my blog and I don’t like mean people.

But I just found it so inspiring that he was willing to stand up for what he believes to be true. Our only duty as Christians? Love. It’s commanded of us. Love love love love love. And nothing else.

Whether we believe a homosexual lifestyle is a sin or not, which for the record I don’t, it’s not our place to judge anyone for something as trivial as who they fall in love with.

It’s no wonder so many people love God, yet hate his followers.

P.S. Whether you believe in God, who God is to you, or what you believe… everyone should watch this documentary. It’s available to watch instantly on netflix right now, and even available in parts on youtube… so you have no excuse.

1 Corinthians 16:14
“Let all that you do be done in love.”                  ’Nuff said.

week 7

uhh is it as hot where you are as it is here?

I’m a genius. See, I had to take a dreaded trip to dhs and the post office today. I figured I would reward my kids for whining and complaining the whole time by taking them to the park to eat lunch.

We were all welting in the heat after about 10 minutes and they actually asked to come back home.

Life in the single wide with one window unit? It means it runs a cool 87-89 during the day time in here. And that’s in the coolest room of the house. Our bedrooms are unbearable in the summer. Thank God for fans. Seriously. Thank you, God.

busy sick bee

First of all, I have just one question: how in the heck do people afford health insurance?

The kids are all well, but Cory and I have had the crud now. Even though he works full time it’d be $800 a month to get all of us health insurance. That’s 3/4 of his monthly salary. Are they kidding????

I’m considering trying to get on at Starbucks or something and abandoning my cushy job just so we can get some halfway decent insurance.

We had to pay $90 for Cory to go to the clinic and get antibiotics. $90! Okay..his parents fronted the bill and we’ll pay them back later. But still. And I’m pretty sure I have an ear infection, but I’ve been hoping the whole idea of them just eventually going away on their own will work in my favor this time. And by the way, working a job where you talk on the phone all day while having an ear infection is super fun. Especially when you call three numbers in a row that turn out to be fax machines.

I haven’t been focusing on the pain though. I’ve been too busy to focus on the pain. I did two photo sessions last weekend and two more over the next two weekends. Every time I do one it confirms something inside me..that it’s what I was meant to do.

I’ve put up one session on my photography blog if you wanna see. My favorite from the session by far….

I’ll be putting another entry today or tomorrow from one of my mini sessions. If you guys know anyone in the area that’s interested..nudge nudge wink wink. Times are hard for dreamers, people.

Things will get easier financially once I start getting paychecks from my job. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. Last night I wrote it all out on paper, and we’ll just say that we’ll be sittin pretty this time next year. If we can keep from spending like I’d like to spend that is. I need lots of stuff, guys.

I’m thinking about trying to talk my dear husband into the coveted 5d mark ii. I think I’ve proved that I can make enough from photography to make it worth while. Raise your hand if you’re with me…

My current job may be cushy (aside from being called a stupid bitch and being told to go to hell) but I have a feeling that it’ll turn soul crushing in a matter of months. I may have thick skin, but we all have our limits.

And now that I’ve posted the most BORING post ever, what’s new with you?