I’m a couple weeks deep in summer break and I feel like I’ve been working 8 hour days. At least I’m having a good time doing (most of) this stuff… I’ve been working on wedding pictures from the Hoffman wedding a couple weeks ago. My wife and I have also shot a couple family portraits so I’ve been working on those pictures too. Whenever I need a break from Photoshop I open up Dreamweaver and work on my website. I want to update some of the image galleries and I have to finish a couple pages. Unfortunately the state of Indiana doesn’t think that I know enough about reading after being trained in Reading Recovery all of last year so I started earning a Reading Certificate to add to my license. I go to IUSB every Tuesday and Thursday for 3 hours to learn about tradebooks. And of course I should probably mow the grass pretty soon. Or maybe I’ll wait until August…
Summer Break at last
Technically I still have a few days to work in the computer lab. But I’m not going in this week due to some transportation issues and a wedding. My wife is using my car this week because her car’s back struts are shot. Tomorrow I will be heading to Michigan to get ready for my brother’s wedding on Friday. So the last few days have been like a preview to my summer vacation.
The school year wrapped up without too much excitement. So now I have a full year of Reading Recovery under my belt. I will probably do it again next year unless they decide we want to replace RR with a different program. Then I guess I’ll get to learn something new…. We finished the track season on a strong note, taking 2nd place at the conference meet.
After working next week I’ll get ready to shoot the wedding in Indianapolis. I hope to spend a lot of time working with clay this summer and not a lot of time mowing the grass. My wife and I might take a trip somewhere but we haven’t decided where. I also plan to update the rest of the site. I’ve been studying the art of CSS so I can eventually get rid of tables… but maybe I’ll get to that next summer….
Crunch Time
The past few weeks have kept me pretty busy. I’m at the Middle School teaching art until the end of the year, the track season just finished last week, and I’ve been trying to do some things around the house and throw some pots when I have time.
The Studio
I’m pretty excited about my “studio” …also known as “the basement”. I think I’ve got enough room to do clay on one side and paint, drawings, and whavever else on the other with a little room leftover for storage. Since we spent all our money buying the house I had to get creative when it was time to set up the studio. There was a big storage shelf already in place when we moved in so that was a good start. Then I took the entertainment center that we were using in our apartment and turned it on its side. Now it will serve as a small work bench/shelf and a place to store paintings, drawings, frames, canvases, and paper (and whatever else I can shove in there). When we moved in there were closet doors installed between the living room and the kitchen. We didn’t see any need for that so we took them down. I bought some wood from Menards and turned those doors into a nice long shelf. I get to use the kitchen table that we had at our apartment and I got another old one that I used when I lived with my mom. I’ve still got some work to do but everything is coming together nicely. I’ll probably use some plastic sheets to section off the clay area so there isn’t clay dust flying around and I could probably use another shelf or two. I’m still not sure about lighting and I’d like to have a seperate table for drawing/illustrating so I can just use my easel for paint. And of course I’m still dreaming about getting a kiln but I can wait a while for that. I’ve got enough to do already…
 
The House
My wife and I love our house. It is a quad level with plenty of space for both of us. The kitchen, dining area and living area make up the main level. There are 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs. Downstairs from the kitchen is a 2nd living area or rec room. Then down the stairs from that room is the basement also known as the laundry room/studio. My wife said that I could have that room for my clay, paints, and whatever else. I’ve been setting up and getting organized so I’m pretty excited. Now if I could only find some time to paint… There is a nice sized garage with a big work bench so it’s nice to have a place for my tools. We have a decent sized yard with 2 sheds in the back. The backyard is also fenced in so now we can have our friends bring their dogs over to run around. One of the bonus features of the house is also just outside the back door. It’s a hot tub! It took us a while to figure out how to take care of it but we are glad that we did. We’re still a little short on furniture but I’m sure we’ll take care of that as we go. My wife let me put my computer in one of the bedrooms and we turned the other one into our guest room. It’s nice having some extra space. My wife and I both have our own closet in the bedroom and we even have our own bathroom. We’re both pretty happy so I think we’re going to be here a while.
 
 