Yes, well, no good excuse!

That's right, I certainly have no good excuse for not blogging lately. I got out of the habit during the tail end of vacation, and then never got back to it here. My apologies to my loyal (do I have any of those) readers!

The end of vacation was more great times. The weather was beautiful, we had a number of outings to the beach, the park, restaurants, trick or treating*, the hospital.

*Okay, trick or treating in downtown Punta Gorda was CRAZY. There had to have been more than 1000 people (possibly much more) in about a one by four block area. The sidewalks were crammed! Interesting times. I'm not sure I'd go back there!

Yes, you read that correctly, the hospital. Literally five minutes before we were going to pack up and leave, Cyndie got stung by a sting ray. It was very painful. She and Cathy ended up going to the ER to get it treated. According to Cyndie ... make sure you do the sting ray shuffle, the alternative is not fun!

We spent a bit more time with Grandma Weaver too. Please pray for her ... she had her surgery and it went okay, but she's still having lots of pain. For a few days she was really confused and the medical team discovered that her kidneys had at least partially shut down, but they have fixed that now and are detoxing her body from the corresponding ammonia build up, but she's still experiencing a lot of pain.

So now were back in the swing of things. We have hundreds of boxes of girl scout cookies on our deck right now, though they are slowly being picked up by the troop members. Emma will probably spend much of the next week delivering hers. The kids' tree house is nearing completion thanks, in large part, to Grandpa D spending a lot of time on it. Cyndie and I's art class is nearing completion for this year. Here are the latest paintings:

Cyndie's painting "Beach Umbrella"

My painting "Keith Exploded"

So there you have it. I hope you feel as if you have caught up with things with the Wildwood DeVries.

Getting there ...

Yes, it's almost vacation time. We're progressing in that direction at least. The house is starting to empty out after all the clothes, toys, shoes, etc of the clothing exchange. This morning Cyndie and I helped a neighbor load a good portion of the clothes in to his truck to take to a local homeless shelter. Cyndie is returning 10 borrowed folding tables this morning. The house is getting a little less overwhelmed! Laundry is being done (so we'll have clean clothes to take with us on vacation). Arrangements for pets are being made. We're almost there! We're looking forward to some warm weather ... it was very cool this morning here!

Tuesday night Cyndie picked the Woods girls up from girl scouts and returned them home. Then She and Emma met Timmy, Sally, Daisy, and I at Culvers for dollar butter burger night ... $12 for the six of us to eat (including a family size order of french fries). Grandpa and Grandma D joined us. Yesterday was a field trip for Tim that Cyndie chaperoned ... they went to a local hospital. I had art class (Cyndie is going this morning instead due to the field trip) and finished my painting of Emma in a beanie ... it turned out fairly well. I forgot to take a picture though!.

So now we're left with cleaning up the house, packing, and generally getting ready. I can tell you that I'm already ready!

Fall, yeah it's beautiful!

We've been driving around a bit on different errands, etc. Man, is it a great time of year to be driving the back roads of southern Wisconsin. It is beautiful. There are several roads that we travel quite a bit which have just wonderful displays of color these days. There's a stretch of McDonald Road (the bigger, back road we take toward town) which has a bunch of really bright orange maples on it. It's also really cool to drive by the lake and see the trees against the blue of the lake and then see all the small patches of color across the lake on the far shore. Really fun.

Cyndie and I had art class this morning ... we're working on portraits for this project. I'm doing one of Emma, and Cyndie is doing one of cousin Kristi. We both agreed today when we left that we wish we could have stayed and finished our paintings today, we were having such a good time with them. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to delay that gratification! Here are the paintings we just finished (taken with my cell phone camera, so my painting is really blurry) ...

My painting of a country schoolhouse ...

Cyndie's painting of the barn at the fa

Midweek Bullets ...

How about some midweek bullets (for lack of any "big" things to write about) ...

• Some sports stuff ... the Vikings have re-acquired star receiver (and sometime pain in the butt) Randy Moss. Exciting times for the Vikes who need to get their season rolling.
• Liverpool has been bought (pending approval from the league and some legal details). This is very good. Their current owners are, to put it succinctly, lame.
• The kids had soccer last night and had a great time there.
• We babysat the local cousins last night while Laura and Gow had a date ... both girls were really interested in the gerbils, but didn't quite know what to do with them. Sally wanted to hold them, but everytime one touched here, she'd jump back and be pretty timid. Daisy was very excited by the gerbils, but lacked any finesse, so was restricted to just looking!
• The Excursion is still on hold while we get the DVD situation straightened out. The seller is getting it repaired, and then we'll (I think) go through with the sale.
• Cyndie and I had art class this morning and really enjoyed that. We were both very happy with the paintings that we came up with.
• Tonight is Cyndie's last sailing event of the year. She's really enjoyed that.
• We worked on our budget last night. We're going to try very hard over the winter to really curtail our expenses so that we can pay cash for the new truck (assuming that happens) and still do some of the projects around the house that we want to do.
• The jacuzzi has sprung another leak. We're really getting tired of that. We'll see where we decide to go with that little gem.
  
• It's a beautiful fall day ... I think the temperature readout in the car on the way home from art class said 73. Awesome!
  

So there you have it, some midweek fun.

Art Class!

Well, we've started art class again. Fun times! We're working on a fall painting. To me, fall is about football, so mine is composed of a football theme. Cyndie is working on a still life of leaves. Should be fun! It's nice to be back in there and being creative in a different way.

Yesterday was soccer for the kids. It was a warm afternoon. Timmy was sweating up a storm! Grandma and Grandpa D came to watch the games and then we went over there for dinner.

This morning I got up early to run over to Home Depot to get the materials for starting a tree house in the newly cleared area of the yard (past the mound). I'm looking forward to getting started on that, and the kids are anxious to have a new toy!

Pix from the art show ...

Okay, here's the pictures that Cyndie and I painted from this spring's art class.

I'll start with mine that I absolutely hated ... this was a mono print ... where you actually paint on glass, and then press the canvas to the glass. It make paintings very impressionistic ... not my style at all!

I decided that during this class I was going to paint all buildings/structures ... which meant lots of barns.
And now one of my favorites ... the bridge. I think I'm getting a reputation at the class (there are three parallel classes) as "the bridge guy". This is an ink & water color painting.

This was a "wet on wet" assignment where you wet the canvas with water first, and then paint into it.

I liked how the branches in this picture framed the image ...

Another ink and watercolor painting.


Now here are some of Cyndie's ... this painting had to be of a building in landscape, so she painted our house.

This was Cyndie's ink and water color painting ... a really cool one of Timmer.

For an extra project, Cyndie went in and added some detail to this painting she'd done before.

This was Cyndie's mono print ... it came out really nice.

I really like this one of Cyndie's ... she had done this in a previous class. It was an assignment where you could only use one color of paint ... the red/pink. So she went in and added some other colors and some ink and it came out really nice.

I think this was Cyndie's wet on wet assignment (If I remember correctly).

So there you have it! We have a lot of fun doing these!

Spring Break is HERE!

Well, kind of at least. Frankly, I'm not exactly sure why I'M so excited ... it's not like I get to take time off!

Emma has a half day of school today. Timmy is done (since it's a half day, and his usual school time is in the afternoon). After that, they are headed to a friend's birthday party, and their break has officially started. We've done the now traditional Spring Break thing for the Wildwood DeVries ... each of us picked from a group of half day or less activities, and we'll kind of do one each day. I'll try to keep the readership in the loop on those as they happen. The first one is a kid's movie tomorrow afternoon in the basement with the projector. The kids are each inviting several friends from the neighborhood/school, so that should be fun.

For Cyndie and I, the art show for our our latest class session is starting today, so we'll spend some time over at my Aunt's helping a bit with that. If you want to come, it is noon to 4, Friday through Sunday, at Havenwood!

Water Color and Ink in Progress ...

Here's Cyndie and I's paintings from this latest water color and ink project. They're at various stages, so it's kind of fun to show what they look like. You might want to click on them to get a better view, they're kind of small ...


This is my ink drawing of a country church. I still need to fill in the foreground which is grass/prairie. Then the sky is going to be full of big billowy clouds.

This is my drawing of a bridge. The ink part is done, and I'm just going to do a light blue sky and add some color touches to the plants and horizon.

This is Cyndie's painting of Timmy. It's nearly complete. I think she just has his face and hair left to color with water colors.

The latest from Art Class

So now we're working with a slightly different twist on the art class theme. Where as the class has been almost entirely watercolors with a little multi-media twist occasionally thrown in, the latest project is an ink drawing that we will color with water colors. A whole different picture. So far, Cyndie and I are both really enjoying it. I like it because it's a lot easier to do details, something that I really like. I can't speak for sure what about it is clicking for Cyndie, but the bottom line is we're both getting a kick out of it. Cyndie is working on a picture of Timmy, and I'm doing two pictures ... one of a bridge, and one of a church. Fun stuff! I'll post some pix of them as the paintings are completed.

Yes, a third post today ...

I figured that some of you are having Wildwood DeVries withdrawal after two weeks without any posts. So here it is, a multi-topic-ed third post for this, the second day of March.

Topic 1 - Art Class
Cyndie and I are having a great time in art class. It continues to be a really fun release/hobby/diversion that we both look forward to every week. It's a fun time to connect with my Auntie Karen. It's fun to have my little sis in there too. It's also a fun creative activity. The current paintings we're working on are multi-media: water color and ink. We're basically doing an ink drawing (in black and white) and then we'll color it with water color. It's a lot of fun!

Topic 2 - Rental House
We have an accepted offer on the duplex. It's two, two bedroom one bath units with full (unfinished) basement, laundry, and single car garage. We're working on the money stuff now, and we'll also have to do the inspection thing, etc. Fun stuff. We've talked a lot over the last several years about wanting to get a rental property, and this one popped up at the right time and really seems like a good deal. Time will tell I suppose!

How about some paintings?

So I was finishing a painting last night and thought I should snap some pictures of some of the paintings laying around the craft room. So I did, and here they are!

Cyndie and I are in the art class with my Aunt again this winter/spring (and this time my sister, Laura, has joined the class too). Most of these paintings are from last fall's class, however.

Cyndie - "Joy of Sailing".

We had to do a painting of a sailboat, and this was Cyndie's:

Cyndie - (don't remember the name).

Neal - "When I Get Big" (the one of the sailboat)

This one had to be of a person in landscape:

Neal - "Autumn Walk"

Neal - "Cross at Dusk"

Neal - "Clock Tower"

The kids got in on the action yesterday with a couple of paintings of their own:

Timmy - "Self Portrait"

Emma - "Lollipop"

So there you have it, a series of paintings by the DeVries family painters!

Friday in southern Wisconsin

Friday is here ... yea! Recent and coming things in bullet form:

• We went to the Pilgrim meal for lunch at Woods School yesterday ... my dad and I went with Timmy and his class, and Cyndie and my mom went with Emma. Good stuff.
• We're working to get the boat all ready in all ways ... some things that we're still working on: boat registration (we needed an affidavit of repossession from the bank we bought the boat from ... that's now in the mail), trailer registration, winterization of the engine/outdrive (done now), prep the interior for winter (we'll likely take the cushions out, and put some mothballs in the boat to help keep mice away), plus all the prep for next summer (lines, buoys, toys, etc).
• We're ready for a "cousin weekend". The cousins from Crystal Lake are coming up to spend the night tonight ... should be fun!
• Helped a bit with setting up for the art show for our art class that will be this weekend. We continue to have a really fun time with that!
  

Thursday

The weather's been nice the last several days ... up into the 20s which, relative to a week ago, feels extremely warm. It's also been very sunny, which is great. It's amazing what a little bit of sunshine does to brighten your day!

Yesterday at art class, we finished the first painting (all of us did paintings of birds) that we're doing in our monoprint series (1 of 2). A monoprint is when you pour, drip, spread, whatever paint on a piece of glass, and then press your paper on that, making a print. Then you paint into the print in traditional ways. It's really interesting to work from a background like that instead of the more normal way of working on the subject matter first and then filling in a background. I ended up with a bird in the jungle. Cyndie's was of a bird in a branch looking at a sunset. I think they both came out very well.

We had Bible study (Cyndie) and bowling (me) last night. The big excitement in bowling is that (I think) we pulled ourselves out of the cellar in the league standings. Go Ham Fighters.

Today is the normal work for me, a PJ day at school for Timmy, and Cyndie has several different meetings to go to. Tonight we'll probably try to go to the movie at the library, though I'll likely stay home since I have worship team practice.

Moving along

It's Wednesday, it's still very cold, good stuff.

A few tidbits:

• Cyndie and I had our date yesterday ... went to a breakfast and lunch place on Main Street and had some yummy food.
• We had our first art class today ... fun stuff doing mono prints and starting some new paintings.
• Emma and Timmy had swim lessons yesterday ... Cyndie's comment "I think every time we start a new session, Timmy takes one step back in his progression." Hopefully he'll take two or three steps forward in the class so progress is made. Her comment was in reference to his willingness to jump off the starters blocks in the big pool last session, but not wanting to get his head wet again yesterday.

So there you have it. Life.

Odds and Ends

A few random thoughts regarding the weekend:

• Emma (and Cyndie) had a great time at the girl scout Sup and Sing on Friday night. Emma can home with a patch and singing all the different songs that she learned. I think girl scouts (actually Emma's age group is Daisies) will be right down Emma's lane. She loves the acheivement that goes along with earning patches, so I think she'll really excel. Cyndie and another mom from Emma's class are trying to round up enough girls from Emma's class at Woods to start a troop. So we'll see.
• I split quite a bit of wood over the weekend ... and I was pretty sore! I think I'm getting old. Mostly my hands hurt and my lower back is pretty sore. I think I'll wait a couple of days before I attack the "to be split" pile again.
• More fall yard cleanup was accomplished on Saturday. I think we're pretty much ready for snow, which is good considering the whiteness which is blanketing us this morning!
• We're all excited for a short week of school and work this week. Auntie Jane arrives on Wednesday late. Her arrival will officially mark the start of the holiday season.
• We had a fun time on Friday and Saturday spending an hour or two each day over at the art show for our art class. It was fun to talk to different people about both the paintings, and life in general.
  

Art Pix

Here's the latest paintings that Cyndie and I finished today ... just in time for the coming art show.

This one is Cyndie's Christmas themed painting ... I'm calling it "Winter Door" for now ... she'll have to add her own title later!
This is mine ... we'll call it "Shared Malt"

Here's Timmy hanging out with me while I paint!

Artists!

So here are Cyndie and I's pictures ... check them out now, because when we're famous artists, you're going to have to pay big bucks to see work like this!!!

Here's Cyndie's of Jackie Kennedy ...
And this is mine of George Brett (a baseball player on the Royals when I was a kid).