Here are a few beads that popped out of the kiln, i love the size and i am going to make a bunch more of the same and also different colors and different summer variations!!  enjoy

Wow, it was sure noisy, windy and rainy last night!  I was up a lot just uneasy about Amanda being over the ocean somewhere and i could not believe the weather, it sounded like things were just being thrown around outside.  I expected to go out this morning and see a lot of stuff but it was not the case.  Amanda texted me around 2:45 am saying that she made it in one piece!  I was happy and then able to sleep more soundly!  Here is a big bead i made last night

I guess it has been a while and so much has changed.  My dad had a stroke on fathers day but he is on the road to recovery and he is a fighter and not one to sit around and milk things.  He says he has a salmon fishing trip in august and must be ready, you gotta love him.  It was scary but he is now on blood pressure medicine and he has stopped smoking cold turkey.  I tell you, my dad is the most determined man i have ever known in my life and i look up to him so much.  When he puts his mind to something, he will not fail, no he won’t!!! 

Amanda left this morning for europe for 9 weeks.  i have been crying all morning but now i have composed myself.  she is the light of my life and i cannot imagine not having her to talk to all summer but just knowing that she will be having the time of her life makes a difference.  She is going to keep me posted on facebook, her flicker page for pictures and will text me all the time.  mark worked it out so that she can do that with the same no charge texting package all the way over there, yay!!!!  Say a prayer for her trip to ireland today.  she leaves from chicago (there now) and it will be an 8 hour flight (not happy about the ocean, no i am not).  she will get in at 1:30 our time which is 6:30 dublin.  I most likely will be up and texting to know tha she got there, i am a freak but those long trips really worry me.

Ok, so look me up on facebook as Shandermann okay and i will add you as a friend!!

Summer is upon me and i am trying to get used to my daughter anna around the house every day again.  Not so bad except that she is full of attitude and she is very busy in two high school sport conditioning programs as well as a evening game summer program, ugh.  We are also still going to club training on saturdays as well.  In addition to this, Amanda moved back in although hers will be short lived, she leaves next week for the whole summer abroad.  We also decided to take a friend in who is struggling, as we all have in the past, or present for that matter.  He might be here for around 6 months so it will take some getting used to on both parts.  He has a six year old son, so it will be nice having a child around every now and then.  Mark just returned as well from being gone for two weeks, so i am kinda bombarded and it has made me very weepy lately.  I don’t know, maybe hormones or maybe just life!!  I am going to be heading down to the torch tomorrow and now it seems that yelton’s wants me to wait till the end of june for beads so that gives me time to settle things down in my life.  Take care and give someone you love a hug!!

On Sunday I woke up around 9 am and strolled into my living room to get to my kitchen to make coffee.  Something caught my eye and i turned to look by the couch, and there lying on its back spread eagle was a bird!!!  Yes, a bird, a very “exhausted, desperate taking my last breath” bird!  I ran over and realized that it was breathing heavy so i picked it up (come on, you know i love animals and would not have thought about the bugs or germs from the bird) and it opened its little eyes.  It was a fledgling cardinal (little crest and all)!!!  I took it outside and placed it under a bush in the shade and ran behind my house where i keep the rubbermaid container that holds my cushions for the table.  I tilted the thing up because normally there are worms under there.  I found a worm, took it inside and preceded to mush it up into what i thought regurgitated worm would look like.  I then put the whole thing in a syringe and went outside looking for the little guy.  He (i would rather assume it was a male since he was so helpless, ha)  was still standing where i put him and he looked stunned.  I picked him up and held him in my lap while i literally pryed his mouth open and shot the wonderful mush down his throat.  when i did this he swallowed and then let out a huge peep and flew right off my lap into the bush in the woods.  I was so happy that he flew and i hope that he is ok today!  I looked on the internet and it said that the moms and dads take care of them 6 months after they leave the nest and feed them.  I prefer to think that i gave him enough energy to start yelling for his mom.  “Hey, i am here and I am ok, i avoided being eaten by these hairy white things (max and toby)”!!  Speaking of that, boy are they dumb!  He was in the house overnight for sure and i do not know when he found his way in the day before i found him.  i think he must have been under the couch!!  They did not even smell him!!  That is not like toby at all, not much gets by him, but Max, if it does not have a tail and look like a squirrel or chipmunk he does not even bother!  ok, beads this week at yelton’s, most likely the end of the week.  i will post so do not bother calling them, i will let you all know!!!

I hope this is what it is like when he finds his parents!!! i loved the music!!!

Here is a picture of the black and white today that is going to yelton’s this afternoon!!  there will be plenty of black and white in the next week so no worries.  i am going to personally go on a black and white rampage and give you all what you want, ha ha!!  It will be good for me to concentrate on two colors, even if they are colors that do not like each other in the glass world, ie.  bleeding white/black = purple!!!  You all remember that black glass is really a dark purple transparent glass that bleeds with white so it is luck of the draw on which beads survive the purple bead eater!!!! 

The girls last day of eighth grade was on monday so everyone stayed at our house sunday night to have a party because the last day was a field trip to lazer tag and it really did not matter how tired they were!!!  I am always up for some fun and so we set up the tarp and did the slip and slide.  One of the girls who has been with these girls for so long was moving to Texas two days after school let out and so it was nice to let off some steam before the big alligator tears set in (trust me, it was awful, these girls cried for two days saying goodbye to Jodi)!!!  I felt so bad for them, they have such a strong bond these girls!!!  ok, so here are the fun pictures.  The adults said they want to have an adult slip and slide party and I am definately up for that!!!!

Anna is the girl in front here is this last picture, my baby!!!  Jodi the girl leaving is the girl in the third picture third from the right in the grey shirt.  I will miss her!!!

Peace

So i am still loving this wonderglass (really “striking color” but it is a wonder) and i have a few more testers to show!!

first one i could not get off the mandrel so i broke it off, but at least i have a picture of it, second one will be at Yelton’s when i go, and third one (bigger) will be there as well.  Along with a couple others from previous posts.  the last bead in the upper part of my hand i kept, i loved the webbing effect i got with it and decided to keep it for myself, hee hee!!!  Hey, you all get everything, i must keep something right???  Oh, also i will be taking black and whites next week to the store.  Do not worry, i will let you all know with a post when they will be there!!!!!

 So, my friend and bead lover Ellen Walsh came over to my house to see me and i had to take a snapshot of her because she always is so impeccably dressed with a perfect bead to match.  Here she has on a Troll bead with one of my beads on the bottom.  I loved it!!!  You rock Ellen!!!

Have a great day!!!!!