The Art Class

 A few of the local artsy friends were happy that Ms. Helen Amos is offering art classes again after not having them for awhile.  The first painting class was last night in the John Amos field house with a pretty full class.  Class will be every other week.

Above:  Brad R. poses for me w/his traditional thumbs up pose with his paint brush in hand.  I love how he and his eldest daughter Heidi came to art class together.  Cool daddy/daughter time, and they were both really talented with painting.  Sitting right in front of them gave me a push to do better...not competition, just completion.  :-)

 Sam L. looks happy to be in class while Beulah V., Jamie H., and Anya T. are working hard on their paintings.

 Danielle L. has been taking art lessons from Ms. Amos probably the longest of everyone there.  She's pretty good w/the paintbrush and canvas.

 Tiffany W. studies the painting that she has started, and Tasha E. paints.

 Sherry was the only one at the table to use the medium of watercolor.  Tough medium.  Everyone else used acrylic.

Justin G. joined class last minute when he saw the class.  A real go-getter.

 Ms. Amos giving people tips and help when needed.

 My little 8X10 painting....the little ladybug choosing to walk the straight and narrow path instead of branching off....

$100 for anyone who wants to buy my little painting.  Just JOKING!....don't get cheated, it's so not worth $100!  :-)  ...BUT I am a entrepreneur, so I just might try to auction it off on EBAY to see if I can get at least $15 for it!  I can see this painting framed and hanging up in a little girl's room somewhere.  :-)!

Favorite Quote of the Day!

I usually don't have quotes of the day, but one of my "little brothers," Jordan Ellis, just gave me a card with the sweetest words in it.  Hopefully he won't mind me posting it, and I also tweeted it.  It touched my heart coming from a little bro.  Hopefully it doesn't sound like I'm being vain, or think I'm a great person b/c I don't....still learning and growing in wisdom and knowledge everyday, it's just really sweet words.

"I wonder how you're still single..I guess God might be doing so much more w/you that way." --Jordan Ellis #LittleBroTouchedMyHeart

The "Emergency 911 Help" Dinner

I sent an email to random ppl asking them to PLEASE come over to my home this Sat. Night and eat NTBMO leftovers that I had that were going to go bad.  I'm sure my email sounded pathetic b/c I was desperate for ppl to eat the food as I'm not a waster, but one friend said they couldn't believe my 911 email was accurate thinking it was, their words "over the top", but once they came and saw for themselves they were like..."you weren't joking, you have so much food!"  ha, ha, I guess they thought I was using food to have everyone's company. That is funny!  These leftovers were like bottomless......the food went through the NTBMO with 14 people, then the next day on the 1st day of ULB it went through a luncheon with 8 ppl, and then there were 16 over Sat.Night...yes ppl came and rescued me.....and I still have food left even with ppl getting seconds.....it's manageable now though!

ANYWAY, with that background on this dinner here goes.....Above Video.....Pete Zolla got WAY lost on his way out to my place, and when he finally arrived everyone showed their hunger pains by welcoming him! :-)

Below:  You cannot come to my house and not sing at least one Karaoke song! You can really hear Aimee's amazing voice in this little clip.

The first clue that I had a 1st world food overage problem was when I had to use a bar stool propped up under the frig handles to keep the frig shut it was so full.  It was ghetto, but it worked!

 I asked Justin and Charles to move my piano to another location in the house.  Sometime next month Steve Hercus is going to come over and tune my piano.  It's been in my great room, but there was a vent under it, and it was messing with the tuning and who knows what else with it, so thanks to the guys for being such strong men, picking up that heavy thing, and moving it into it's new room!

 Loving Deepika's smile....and happy that Dan W. made it out..first time he's been over.......

I like how relaxed ppl look in this pic, esp Jamie.

 Beautiful smiles from Monica and Chelsea

 Tiffany looks gorgeous here.

 Nice pic of Aimee and Deepika

Heritage matters:  :-)

Danielle, the Italian took tons of pasta to her plate, and Justin the Asian, took tons of rice to his.

Apparently, I'm confused with what I am....just a mix of this and that. :-)

 What's wrong with little bro Justin in this pic...did he eat too much.  :-)

 No, the curl fro is not my new hair do...it's called not having time to flat iron my hair.

 Abby and Ariel

 Even our dogs got in on the leftover action....sniffing the ground for any pieces of food it missed and then coming up my steps begging for more.

 First thing was to cut up the leftover duck and make it into an oriental stir fry.  Lots of ginger, pepper, and garlic, and rice vinegar!

 Turned the Roasted Loin of Beef into Texas Styled BBQ beef.

 Used the leftover meatball appetizer to make spicy spaghetti sauce.

 Used the leftover chocolate morsels, strawberries that were about to go overripe, and leftover peanut butter and chocolate mix I had made earlier in the week making treats for friends to make a ice cream cake.  

 Had 5 potatoes left in the pantry from NTBMO that were going to go bad, so sliced them and seasoned them baking in oven with paprika, onion, and garlic.

 Made whole wheat ULB.  Most people wouldn't want my gluten free ULB.

Kept the chicken as is...just thawed it out from the freezer.

Below:  More karaoke!....If you get knocked down, get right back up.  I love it.  :0  Danielle and Sean are karaoke king and queen.  :-)

RETRO PICS GALORE!: Favorite Coats Family Photos

 I'm hoping my parents will really enjoy this post!  Just about every year of my childhood my parents would take us to Disney World in Orlando, Florida for vacation.  We were NOT rich by any means, trust me, but God always blessed us with great vacations thanks to my hard working parents.  The above pic was in the 80's probably 1982 or 1983, and I was age 2 or 3 depending upon time of year....my bro would have been 5 or 6.

Above:   Jumping years ahead...this was our last family vacation to Disney World, Epcot Center in fall of 1992.  By this time my parents were probably like...both of our kids are teenagers...too old for this! I remember I was 13 and my bro was 16.

 Who knows what year this was

Below:  I can tell I'm older than the year above, but not sure what year it is.

 Above:  I had to go to the disney hospital clinic b/c I got into my mom's purse, and rubbed oral tooth medicine in my eyes and went temporarily blind for about an hour. ......yes, I actually remember even though I was 2 or 3!  This pic is right after I got out of the clinic with the Disney doctor.  I could see again, but eyes were still burning, so I look miserable at Disney!

 Done with Disney Pics...above is my bro crying b/c my cousin stole his riding fire truck.

 Fav Fam portrait ever!  I still had a big love for wild cats....was age 4 and the bro was 7!

Believe it or not, I was age 2 in the pic and actually remember being with my fam in that restaurant.

 My bro and I and another bro and sis had our first debut solos on stage at Ambassador in Big Sandy, Texas with the kids choir.  Never will forget!

 Never an airhead, but just a cheerleader

Below:  my fam and my Aunt and cousin...my Aunt will be here at HQ for the feast this year if everything works out.  Yeah!!!

 ....at the airport headed out of the country with the fam

Below are pics taken by the Indian Ocean once we reached our destination after a loooong flight of about 32 hours including layovers.

The pilot let my bro and I inside the cockpit of a huge two story international flight plane.  Way cool!