Following the Bus...

First let me just say here,

I miss blogging, there was a time where I blogged every morning.

Then divorce, grand girls, art business, retirement, dating

came and I got out of the habit. 

This is my attempt at trying to add that to my life once again.

With that being said, I always have something to say

so may as well share my thoughts....

Yesterday after school, I headed to spend some time

with the grand girls. I found myself following a 

big yellow school bus. 

Now for some, this would be a problem,

a hold-up. For me, I have always enjoyed

following a school bus in the afternoon.

I get pleasure from watching children get off the bus.

I like seeing how they interact with the person/people

that is awaiting their arrival home.

Yesterday I take my time.

I know when our little grand girls get off the bus,

most days there is someone out there awaiting

their arrival, awaiting running towards who ever that is

and getting hugs, smiles and kisses.

Yesterday I remembered... Not everyone gets this.

This post is sparked by one little child in particular.

I do not know her or her family but she could be

many children.

She is about 5 or 6, Looks like she is JoJo's age.

Her uniform is disheveled from having 

to be in school and then a hot bus all day.

I bet if I looked at her little uniform shirt,

I would probably see tomato sauce somewhere

depending on what what was on her lunch tray.

She has such a big smile on her face, her book sac

hanging on one shoulder.

I see two adults on the porch and my first thought is:

"Awe good, she has someone waiting for her,

to greet her home, to say they missed her"

She is running up the stairs and I see that

one of the adults is a man about my age,

perhaps a grandfather, with a brown paper bag 

around a can he is drinking from, a cigarette in his hand.

He is speaking to a woman about his age.

This imp of a child runs up the porch, faces these

two..... and....

nothing, no hugs, no kisses, no conversations

including her. They don't look at her or even acknowledge

her presence. It stays with me a long time.

It has me remembering when I would come home each day

from school, not being able to wait to see my Daddy.

He or Momma was always waiting for us, always

asking about our day. Had our favorite snacks

and whatever we wanted for supper, simmering

in our big kitchen.

In the winter, I could not wait to get into my pj's and

read, paint, make a puzzle that was always there under

our kitchen tablecloth. Daddy was there, present,

long after the bus dropped us off.

I wish for all children, that someone is always 

happy to see them after a long day at school.

I know that our grandgirls will get this for a long 

time to come. 

A FUN DAY CELEBRATING BIRTHDAYS

When your life goes a little "topsy turvy" 

and things happen out of your control,

it takes a little while to get your bearings.

Then your baby grand girl has a birthday party 

and in all her unique and beautiful ways,

she makes you realize what truly is important in this life.

"This is the best birthday ever!"

... and for our little sweet girl, it was.

For us who love her, it was.

She was so excited, so appreciative of all her friends,

family and Barbie things....lol

All kidding aside, this child is such a blessing to all

our spirits. 

Because of this party, I had the privilege of having

my niece, Tiffany and sister, C spend the night.

Tif's bday is on the 4th so we decided we needed to 

celebrate that. Without their company I would not

have gone anywhere. As social as I am, I tend to want

to stay at the Cottage when alone. I like my own

company a little too much. So back to the story...

Jemma's party ended at 2, and as the day goes

on I think I just want to stay home.

Then supper comes and with that comes hunger.

We decide on Portabello's and celebrate Tiffy's bday.

"We need to go watch LSU"

So we went to Beer Belly's and there 

we had the best time. Watching the game,

a live band to dance to.

Twas much needed for all three of us!

... and just how Jemma said Tiffany agrees:

"Twas the best birthday ever"

A GIFT WORTH GIVING

A few months ago, I was commissioned to 

paint a gift for a man who was very special to my 

neighbor and friend, Rhett.

His home was the first home portrait I painted

and although I have gotten better over time,

he and his coworkers wanted a painting of

St. John Church to give to their dear friend, Medric.

He had retired from their work facility but

has made such an impression on so many who he 

worked with, that they wanted to honor him 

with one of my portraits.....What an honor for me as well

Of course I said......YES.

.... and then I panicked!

"I can't paint that church, it's so big and beautiful"

"I am not that good, I don't even know where to start"

So many doubts in my head.

I do not know Medric except to tell you 

that he plays the piano at St. John school mass when I 

go to meet the grand girls. I see him walking around

the St. Clement school church, talking to so many,

a well known man who after retiring from the bank,

 started working at ST. John Church.

"Why did I take this one on? Out of my comfort zone"

My mind kept telling me.

So, I did what I always do when I am overwhelmed with something,

I said a rosary on the "Momma Rosary".

The next day, I picked out old music sheets that pertained

to what this church would represent to this very special man

and I began to sketch then paint.

When I tell you, I surprised myself on this one, well understatement.

This is not to brag. I have confidence in my work

but this one, by far is the one I am most proud of.

I know The Big Man led my hand.

I would paint a little bit, walk away, come back to it

a few hours later or the next day and think

"Did I do that?"

It was surreal and when it was all finished, I was so 

very proud to put my name on this one, my logo

MUMSIE'S COTTAGE.

My dear friend and neighbor, Mrs. Shirley, came

over and saw it on my counter, she exclaimed just how beautiful it was

and when I told her the story as to who it was for 

she replied,

"You know he has a collection of Nuns?"

NOOOOO I did not, but I did then so, just like I add

special things to each home portrait, I added

a nun under glass to his piece.

Rhett picked it up and brought it to their work place and

he and his work friends loved it.

Then I waited, they had ordered it for Medric's birthday 

and I finished it in May and his bday was in August.

I knew I could not post it until after he received the gift.

Often I thought of this painting, I showed it privately to many

just waiting for the gift to be given.

Yesterday was that day, and the response, the 

writing on Facebook from Mr. Medric,

the outpouring of positive support on my own Facebook post

has been overwhelming. 

I say today, this piece will always be one of my favorites.

This piece, if asked to paint it again through orders,

I wonder if I would be able to do it again.

Thank you Rhett and Co Workers for having the confidence

in me to think I could do this beautiful church, a landmark 

in Plaquemine, justice.

For challenging me and to the Big Man for giving me

enough confidence to give it a try.

Forever grateful for this talent I have once again found! 

Although my list of orders for home portraits keeps growing,

I am hoping to get the chance to do this one again!

When God throws you a rope.....

There is that old joke.....

I think it goes something like this....

THERE WAS A GREAT FLOOD AND BOUDREAUX

FOUND HIMSELF ON HIS ROOF, SURROUNDED

BY WATER, NO LAND IN SIGHT.

HE HEARS A HELICOPTER IN THE SKY 

AND RESCUE HELP ASKS IF HE NEEDS HELP

"NO, IT'S OK, GOD IS GOING TO SAVE ME"

NEXT BOUDREAUX HEARS A BOAT,

STILL NO LAND IN SIGHT.

"GET IN, WE ARE HERE TO RESCUE YOU"

BOUDREAUX REFUSES,

"GOD WILL SAVE ME"

FINALLY BOUDREAUX SUCCUMBS TO THE RAPIDS

AND DROWNS. AS HE MEETS WITH GOD

HE IS DISTRAUGHT,

"GOD I SO BELIEVED IN YOU, BELIEVED YOU WOULD 

SAVE ME AND HERE I AM AT THE PEARLY GATES.

GOD, IN ALL HIS WISDOM ANSWERS,

"BOUDREAUX I SENT A BOAT AND A HELICOPTER,

WHAT MORE DID YOU WANT?"

Yeah something like that.

This has been a difficult few days for me.

Randy and I have decided it is time for us to go our separate ways.

I had been struggling with decisions about this.

My health had not been the greatest,

his health at a dangerous place,

I was confused as to where to go with the relationship

and feeling quilty as even though I was helping him as much 

as I could but worrying about my business, family.

I had been praying for help, "God let me know what I 

should be doing here" As we all do, I was worried what

other people would think if I took a break from the

relationship when he needed the help the most.

I won't go into detail as to what went down, that is

not important or the reason for the post.

I will just say, I prayed, and the answer was thrown in my lap.

To not listen to that sign would be like 

being Boudreaux and ignoring what is right there in plain view.

It has been a hard few days for the both of us.

Then this morning a dear friend of ours posts these two 

quotes and I am in awe, I know this is right for the both of us,

as hard as it is....

Wow! things I needed to be reminded of this AM as

I forge ahead. Please keep Randy and his health 

in your prayers.

It is hard to break up yet, I still care about how this all

turns out for him.

We will find friendship after we work out the details.

Thanks for reading.

A year today....

One year today we said goodbye to this wonderful woman,

the boo, Stephanie and Royce's Mom.

The grandmother of Carl Jr. Beth and Olivia

Mother in law to Carl Sr. and Amie.

Yet even with all of this, she was so much more.

For me, for about a year i had a Mother figure in my life again.

Loosing my own Mom a long way before burying her, my family

and I had lost our Mom to dementia.

Meeting Mrs. Babara was like having the Mom before dementia

again. It was not a long time, but it was frequent visits as

for months she lived with the boo.

She loved to cook for him and felt it was her duty even though

he rarely ate it. Once she got healed from her knee surgery,

she was itching for her own place and had just found 

a very small house to make her own and that she did.

Last year, when she left for vacation in Florida, to watch

her grandgirl, Olivia dance competition, we just never thought

that would be the last time we would have her at her home.

After a month of questions, hospital stays, illness she succumbed

to her illness and left us all for the next realm of this game

we call life. 

I did not expect to fall in love with her so soon.

I guess I really wanted a Mother figure in my life at the time.

She had a life, she had great friends, loved Scrabble and 

the casino. She love cooking for us, she loved her cat,

Bonnie and she loved us, all of us, her family, her friends,

and the girlfriend of her oldest son.

I miss her, I know we all do, she lets us know sometimes she is still

around. Just like this morning. 

I am now the proud owner of her cat, Bonnie.

I love this weird cat, she is a private one but likes me 

and will run for the shake of the treat box or to sleep on

my overnight bag I use at the Boo's. I often wonder

if she can smell something of the family lineage of the woman

who took care for her as a little baby.

But this morning, it was different. On my coffee table where I sit

each morning, lies a glass resin heart with a swirl of a few

ashes from The Boo's mom, Mrs. Barbara.

He honored me with this gift as he knows I loved her

full heartedly. This morning, this heavy piece is still on its table,

but bonnie is laying on the coffee table wrapped around this resin heat.

It is the first time she does that and it reminded me that today

is the anniversary of Mrs. Barbara's death.

No matter what the cause was, it caught me for a loop.

It's like I said, she is always make us be known.

It is not the same, as she gave great hugs, cooked

awesome foods, gave to so many.

A year ago, I said,

"She will be missed"

This year I say,

We feel that lost more severely than we thought possible.

Keep us straight, Mrs. Barb, Randy and I speak to you often

but we say, IF you answer, we will freak.

Love you dear one, and thanks to your family for accepting me

with no questions asked. I am fortunate for the year I had

with a Mother figure at a time, I really needed it.

Love to you.

STORY OF THE HOME PORTRAITS

Whenever I finish a home portrait piece,

I am compelled to tell the story of how they became.

Although I can drag a story out, I am told I am 

a good story teller. However, I want to post the story

to be here after I am gone, It is, to me, such a beautiful story.

I am a childhood cancer survivor when childhood cancer,

called Wilms' Tumor was incurable. 

My parents were asked to sign my medical care over to the physician

who had my care in his hand. 

Long story short, after 12 weeks in a hospital, my parents

were told,

"take her home and if she is still alive in 3 months, bring her back."

This statement still gives me chills as for my book research,

I have been watching many youtube videos of childhood cancer

victims, and lets just say, many cases are not pretty.

I kept living and kept going back for more treatment, more 

radiation. Finally after a few years, it is joked about in 

my big family, my Daddy said,

"What if she does live? We have to do something or she

will be stupid"

With that I was enrolled in school and because my Dad

was an artist/photographer and because I could do nothing

contact as I now had only one kidney, he put me

in private art lessons with Mrs. Godlyn Serigny.

How I loved these lessons, Mrs, Godlyn's home had the

smell on Linseed oil, turpentine, when I smell these things to this

day it is she and her home I am brought back to.

I did these lessons for 8 years.
I have always been an artsy person but as I grew up,
had children that were not supposed to be, I picked up painting.
Of course, I would help with the occasional poster contests,
but to say I picked up a paint brush and did art, no I did not.
Fast forward to grown children and three little grandgirls.
I was teaching art in my cottage, doing lots of scrapbooking
and repurposing old things as myself and the Boo called
"reclamation art" reclaiming old and making it beautiful again.
Even with this, I was not painting, had this block, thinking
I could not do it.
Then one night I decided to pray on my Momma rosary.
Before my Mom died she gave myself and each of my siblings
a handmade rosary, all the same. We often pray on these beads
at the same time when wishing for special things.
On the night I speak of, I prayed that if I should be painting
let me have the courage to put brush in hand.
The very next day I awakened and painted an angel.
I thought it was pretty good and I probably painted and sold
15 angels. I knew I wanted more. I was never good with
faces or people portraits so once again, I pulled out
the Momma Beads and prayed for leadership with this gift
I presumed I had. That very next day I felt called to
paint my neighbor, Rhett Vaughn's home.
Why his and not my own cottage, I do not know but I
wanted to paint his. I texted him to see if it was okay.
He gave me permission, I found a ceramic floor tile
and an old newspaper from the 1900's, combined them
and not knowing exactly what I was doing,
Painted Rhett's home. When I showed it to him,
he was in awe and asked to buy it.
We posted it to Facebook and the rest is history.
Boo found me old roofing slate, straight off a home
in the NOLA garden district, and I began
painting on slate.
I am happy to say that since that day, I have not stopped painting
home portraits.
I have painted approximately 55 and have over 60 orders.
I do something a little different than others,
adding old music or newspaper to the slate in titles
that I feel match the home I am painting.
I try and get to know as much as I can about the owners
and I pray about that too.
I have yet to have anyone unhappy with my work.
I have definitely gotten better since the first work I did
for Rhett.
I truly believe I am meant to be doing these.
Monetarily it is helpful but it is more for my artsy self
that I gain such satisfaction from each piece.
For all those who have already gotten a home portrait, I thank you.
For all those with your name on my list,
I appreciate your patience as although I try and paint
daily I also have a big family, three little grand girls and
a boo that I share my life with.
Not one of these are ever rushed or not done to the
best of my ability.
The best part of each of them is meeting so many new friends,
sharing life stories with each delivery I make,
knowing these portraits are sitting in so many homes,
signed by me, each with a note of love and thanks written on the back,
makes me happy.
I thank my Dad for looking forward into my life,
"In case I lived"
as I am so living and profiting from his gift to me.
And there is the story of the
Home Portraits.

"THERE IS UGLY EVERYWHERE BUT I STILL BELIEVE BEAUTY EXISTS

I awakened this morning to find that my Godchild posted

about a shooting in Virginia Beachwhere he and the Boo's nephew

are stationed in the Navy.

I awaken to funeral arrangements of a dear friend, Jody 

who as my brother in law reminded me,

"...always happy, it was contagious..."

and I remember his laugh, you just had to laugh 

when you heard it.

Then I see the title of this post,

THERE IS UGLY EVERYWHERE BUT I STILL BELIEVE BEAUTY EXISTS

and it is how I choose to live my life,

not focusing on the negative things but 

trying to see the beauty in every day.

It is not always easy, I remain naive on many topics

such as Planned Parenthood Assc.

I didn't even know there was such an organization until

the Boo asked me how I felt about it.

Being a Catholic girl I thought he was talking about 

"the rhythm method" which the Catholic Church taught.

He informs me there is a group called this that supports

abortion. Maybe it would help the world if I did know

of such animals, but I choose not to.

Because I want to focus on the beauty.

Like a summer soft ball game for grand girl

where the little ones have fun with their friends in the park.

That is my beauty, things I concentrate on.

An afternoon where both Gypsy baby and Boo 

are here, conversation with the two of them.

This is my beauty.

When I sit at my studio desk with a home portrait there

for me to paint as I loose the time of day listening to

audio book, this is my beauty.

So I say this AM, prayers for all those suffering on Virginia Beach,

prayers for Jody and all those who loved him.

As for me, reapplying my "rose colored glasses” I leave you with this:

THERE IS UGLY EVERYWHERE BUT I STILL BELIEVE BEAUTY EXISTS.