Hanging out with her son

He is very entertaining. And fairly talented with a felt tip marker.

At Christmas he asked me what I would like to have for a gift. I know that he isn't in the most flush position, and for me the joy is in giving and not receiving. So I asked him not to buy me a gift. Of course, he was insistent. At that point, reluctantly, I asked for a holiday video.

Then I told him that for my birthday all I wanted was a drawing of a dragon. The only specification I gave him was that it should be the same size as the painting he made me when he was in 5th grade because I wanted to hang them side by side.

He said, "No problem mom, six weeks is plenty of time for me to draw you a dragon." Well, five of those weeks have gone by and tonight we were talking. When there was a lull in the conversation I decided to ask how the dragon drawing was coming. He replied by telling me that first he needed to get a piece of paper. I burst out laughing and he demanded to know why.

My husband is always telling me that I have more paper that Wal-Mart, so the needing paper comment was truly funny to me as there is definitely no shortage here. I explained that when I was selecting his gifts I almost bought him an artist pad and a selection of drawing implements. He replied that I should have since I was going to be so picky about the size. Then he prattled on about how he could have drawn the dragon on a napkin or a piece of toilet paper, but no, it had to be the same size as the sunflower painting. He followed these comments up with, "That's what I should do, fold you an origami dragon from a square of toilet paper for your birthday present."

It's been an hour and I am still laughing out loud over this.

About the 5th grade painting:

It was inspired by Van Gogh's Vase with Twelve Sunflowers and was done in tempera paint on a piece of manilla paper and measures 12" by 18". It has been hanging prominently on a wall of our home since the day he brought it home - more than 10 years ago. He is a bit embarassed about this, but I truly love the painting so it is going to stay there until the end of time.

It is heart warming to me when he has a friend over who hasn't been here in a while and they see the painting and then remark that their mom still has the painting they did as well.

Wanting to start a blog

So I did.

I'm not sure I have anything to share that anyone else would be interested in, but I am going to do this anyway. If you read this and like it, great - please tell your friends. If you don't like it, sorry, but I'm sure there are many other blogs out there that would interest you. Keep looking, you'll find one.

Right now my goal is to add to this at least once a week. It could happen more often if I have something blog worthy to say.