A Cure for the Gaper.

Tomorrow I'm going to the demolition derby at the Sandwich fair. My parents are coming with us. I have to say, this is an event that we all like but almost feel guilty liking it. Do you know what a Demo derby is? In case you don't, put 15 junker cars in a small dirt area (sometimes muddy) that has huge logs on the sides and they just drive around a crash into each other until they are the last car still running. Smashing up the cars is the point and many will run for a while after they are quite banged up. It is really cool.. see... there is the guilt again.
We feel weird that we like it. maybe we're ... sick.
I guess I know deep down that people can't get hurt easily, but the possibility of a fire is quite exciting and there is usually one or two per derby. Just the crashes are cool too. THIS is why people stop and gape. They don't attend enough demolition derbys. If you do, you get your fill of "oooo.. a banged up car" and you don't need to gape. I personally make a point of NOT gaping on a highway crash. Just out of principle.
ok.. that's my thought.
How to cure gaping. You read it here first.
Cassie

JUST JACK!

I have recently gotten hooked on "Will and Grace" and went out and bought 2 seasons. Wow. It is great fun and I can watch many of them with the teenagers (it isn't really appropriate for the 10 yr old).

I'm also franticly studying and preparing for my written test for RID certification (being a certified interpreter). This is quite stressful but I'm happy to be working on it. I often do cold voicing on youtube.com to work on voicing and that is interesting. Kirk has said to the kids, "Dont' bug mom, she's on the phone" because he hears me talking and thinks that is what I'm doing. It's pretty funny.

I am wearing many hats these days: instructor of 4 classes, counselor, freelance interpreter, educational interpreter and still making jewelry.

Also, i'm working on a video for my dad. My brother Kevin has organized a golf outing in his honor and I'm doing a video of "Wonderful Life Moments" for during dinner. I have a few other jobs as well, but I'm quite excited about this one because it involves creativity. Soon I'll post a link, but i have to wait until the dinner happens on the 14th so others don't see it. I know noone reads this, but just in case :)

Created By Cassie

I decided to vamp up my jewelry business. Right now I make all sorts of beaded jewelry pieces and now I'm going to add fused glass and more lampwork. Kirk got me a kiln for my birthday today (happy birthday to me) and I am looking into classes to take so I know how to use it!!!
I'm very excited. I have a new website. It is the same name that's been on my business card for over a year, but the site actually has jewelry on it :) It is CreatedByCassie.com and I like it.

I know the 3 people who read this already probably know about it, but I hope to soon have some dichroic pendants up there that *I* have made. soon.

the fake bake

My daughter calls it a "fake bake" - using a tanning cream to get brown instead of laying out. I did it for the first time when pregnant with Matthew and I was orange. I won't say the brand I use, but some of you know what I used to sell :)

Now I use all Loreal "Go Bronze" products. They work VERY well. I like to use the medium or deep because it is faster, but you do have to keep up with it every other day or you look splochy & dry. I HIGHLY recommend these products.

Since my mom got skin cancer 17 years ago, I never did the tanning thing again. I do lay out in the sun at a pool, but I wear sunscreen after a 1/2 hour or so. THis works just fine for me.

I just figure I can't subject the world to my white (and fat) legs. Tan is better, believe me- no matter what your size. Also, I'm pretty sure its slimming :)
Happy summer!

How's your hair?

I think I figured out why I haven't blogged in forever.
I dont know what to say.
I love to express myself. I'm used to doing that one on one. But what do you say when ANYONE could be listening? There's a lot of uneasiness.
I was gonna talk about my hair. It's a big deal to me. It is my best feature and I am a closet hair-sytlist. I used to imagine cutting people's hair when I was sitting in church. I'd arrange this one like this, comb that one's hair that way. Dye this, cut that... I still hate wearing the same hairstyle day after day with my own hair.Needless to say I'm INTO hair. I notice it. I dont notice teeth or skin or clothes but I notice hair. I probably have an opinion and I dont even know it. Test me. Ask me what I think you should do with your hair. I probably have a thought I could just blert out. I have the same thoughts for my own. Usually I just go ahead and cut/dye/fix my own. But I always think of new stuff I wanna do with mine.I am not happy with mine right now. the cut leaves me few choices and I dont like them. I also have it cut so complicated right now I'm not sure I can fix it myself and I dont want to go back and have it done. I've been cutting my hair since I was 13 and rarely go to a hairstylist until the last 2 years. I've been burnt too many times. And when it is your best feature, you are slow to trust. If my hair doesn't look good, it's not like I can fall back on a great figure or something. it just HAS to look good. see?
but see? some of you (of the 3 who read my blog) have got to be bored stiff with this line of writing. I guess i have the need to entertain and share and I doubt I can do it here.
so... I'll keep trying. more often I promise.
Cassie

Language Police

If you ever had a 6 year old.. you know that they are rule-followers. They love to tell you when you are breaking the rules (like going through a yellow light if they understand that concept) and they usually don't like to be late. Well, later on, these rule-followers become the Language Police for awhile. I have one such person in my home. His name is Andrew and he evaluates my language constantly and I just got my first report card.

Let me back up. When my kids were BORN I stopped swearing completely and for a few years, it became habit to not let those words into my vocabulary. When I started going out with friends again, I may let a word go here and there just for fun :). Well my oldest probably never heard me swear in front of her until she was 12 or older (she is 16 now). But that makes my youngest the most vulnerable to hearing a word or two. This is especially because raising teenagers seems to bring it out in me [smile.. I love being a mom].

So.. I have received a D for "around the house" and a B+ for "outside the house" and my overall grade is a C-. I actually got a written report card on this. There were some interesting comments that I won't go into, but I'm glad it was just my Language Report Card and not my "Mommy Report card". My self-esteem probably couldn't take that!

Just had to share. THis is the little guy who is yawning in the hardware store video. That was 3 years ago, though.
Have a great day.. Be grateful for everything!
Cassie

Underwater charades

Here I am in Bonaire with the Reef behind me. The "ok" sign is the sign in scuba for "all is well" meaning "I landed in the water ok" to "I saw that fish you just pointed at". Its really fun to scuba with deaf people because you can say so much more. A few years ago I met a deaf diver and we got to talk a lot. It was great. With hearing people it is just "point" and then "french angel" and then the other person says "okay". I still LOVE to scuba, tho. I can communicate quite a bit under water if I need to. I once said"Hey, quit swimming away. You need to stay here and be my buddy!" Just ask Kirk. I practically yelled at him underwater :)

the road.. and Eddie

Ever feel like you can't see the road ahead of you? I can see about 5 feet and the rest is like a fog. And yet I'm not usually worried by it because I'm so fascinated and distracted by the pebbles in the road, the scenery to the side, and focused on myself what I am thinking and feeling on the trip.

I'm totally into analogies and this one I'm sure fits many people. I feel like I've spent most of my life not planning on what is coming or could be coming. I sorta care what is coming, but I have too much to do in the moment to really bother to plan it. Luckily, I'm surrounded by people who don't care that much either so they aren't asking me the "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" questions very often. If they start, I'll probably start wondering about it or feeling lost, but it will pass because soon I'll notice that craft class I can go to or my child will present me with a problem or a discipline challenge. So much to do.. who wants to think about all that is ahead?

Yet.. I have this great trust that it will be okay. I feel like God knows what is in the fog and is preparing me for it. I'm rather positive in that way.

I got Kirk to digitize a video I made that was for my dad for christmas in 2003. (I so sound like Eddie Izzard switching topics there - have you heard of him? he is a great comedian who is now in the show 'the riches'. He also played the guy who made the 'egg' in Ocean's 12. he is a clean comedian who swears. I can't explain that except to say that his topics are clean, but his language isn't. He just has one favorite word really. But he is hilarious. When he switches topics he just says "so.. yes. ... Wizards.. now they have all the luck." I just love him. ) The link for the video is here http://www.moredomainsforless.com/video/hardwarestoredslnewaudio.wmv
Hope you enjoy it. Those are my kids as "the band".
That's all for now.
Cassie

some stuff

Yikes I'm behind here. There is the comfort of knowing that almost no one reads these. :)

We finally made the transition from St. Matthew to Union. wow. that was hard. I dreaded telling people and the last day was very hard. I am comforted knowing that many people will still be in my circle (or I'll bring them in) and I'll see them every month or two when the kids perform in bells at st. matthew. For now, I'm working on connecting to the new church and getting used to things. I remember this takes awhile so I'm trying to be patient with myself.

I had a proud week this week. Matthew ( my middle son) was the lead in a musical at school (high school musical) and did a great job. It is much better than doing it myself.

OH! I discovered a new artist: Backhouse Mike. He has a myspace at www.myspace.com/backshousemusic and the first song "okay" is my current fav song. He is also an ELO fan so it is no wonder I like him. He is quite talented, but yet unsigned.
I've only listened to the song about, oh. 100 times.

Can't think of anything else now. I think I'm not really meant to be a blogger, but I'm working on it.
Cassie

Mollys Rhinoscopy was a success. They found a 1/2 inch of Q-tip way up in the back of her nasal cavity. She likes to eat those, so I wasn't shocked at what the item was and I was VERY relieved that they found something. She is doing sooo much better now and started barking and playing again. She also runs around the house like a normal dog. We now keep the bathroom garbage under the sink so she can't get at it. yuck.

Also, thank you God for our passports arriving!! Yet again, we had to wait until 4 days before we left for them to arrive. We allowed 9 or 10 weeks this time but still it was stressful. We're all set to leave for Bonaire on Saturday now.

Beyond all that, things are clicking away as usual around here. It seems all of us are never home at the same time. I think a week in Bonaire will cure that. Its all about togetherness there. I can't wait!

ok, one or two...

Happy New year! Mine was rather subdued spent with Kirk at a neighbors playing a game, eating appetizers and laughing like crazy. At midnight we were on the road (no one else was) going to pick up our son at a party. That was a first for us wishing happy new year while driving!

So... resolutions came to my head. I'm not really big on these, but Kirk was telling me how he achieved all of his from last year because he made them achievable and he made resolutions that he planned on achieving anyway. Well, here goes: I will blog more this year. Hey, I plan on doing it anyway. I'll also keep renovating my house. The cabinets, bathroom and front door come immediately to mind as needing attention.

I could look at difficult areas of my life and try to pick those apart and solve all my problems, but I will or won't look at those issues regardless of whether I made a resolution to do it, so I'm not going to.

One thing I never planned on doing nor could I have predicted: I stopped biting my nails. After years of acrylics or biting, I finally removed my silk nails in september or so and just stopped biting them. I have a manicurist who told me about some products to strengthen them (they are like tissue paper after you remove fakes) and now they are actually NICE. The two products that works so great are Peak by Pinnacle and Onymyrrhe. You can get Onymyrrhe at www.onymyrrhe.com . You can get the Peak through amazon. I like to try to get everything possible through eBay, but these are harder to find there.

Okay, I think that's all the products I'll try to sell you on for today.